|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After the electric iron, the vacuum cleaner was the most popular electric appliance in the home from 1920 to 1960. By 1937, there were some 2.3 million cleaners in use, despite the high cost of purchase at that time: (a cleaner could cost up to £20, more than a month's wages for the average middle-class family). Out of all the homes with electricity, 27% owned a vacuum cleaner in 1938, rising to 40% in 1948.
The electric vacuum cleaner embodied three popular obsessions: the desire for household cleanliness (a reaction to the phobia about the bacteria in dust), the concept of 'labour saving' and domestic efficiency (in the light of the reduced availability of servants after 1918) and the status symbol of owning a 'new-fangled' electric machine.
Just as the electric iron set a new standard in pressing laundry, so the electric vacuum cleaner became a desirable item simply because no other method was as efficient. Before the age of electricity, the average home would have had large areas of exposed hard floor, either wooden floorboards or quarry-tiles, and sometimes covered in linoleum. The only concessions to luxury were rugs or carpets small enough to be taken outside and beaten over the washing line with a cane carpet beater. An alternative method was to sprinkle a carpet with tea-leaves which, in theory, attracted dust and grit to the surface ready to be swept up. Carpet sweepers were the first mechanised cleaning machine in the home and, although a vast improvement for collecting surface dust from carpets, were useless on hard floors and unable to clean a carpet properly, not to mention above-floor surfaces. Hand-operated pump cleaners provided an alternative, although their success was attributed more to the increasingly gadget-conscious public, rather than any real improvement in efficiency. Despite this, some hand-operated suction cleaners were still available in the late-1930s.
The vacuum cleaner was invented in 1901 by H. C. Booth and took the form of a large, horse-drawn, petrol-driven unit which was parked outside the building to be cleaned with long hoses being fed through the windows. Booth went on to refine his invention and produced more portable models. An amazing variety of other cleaning machines appeared and there seemed to be no limit to the ingenuity shown in creating the necessary suction. It was not until the refinement of the fractional horse-power electric motor, however, that a powered domestic cleaner could be considered. By the 1930s, the recognisable formats of upright, cylinder, canister and hand-held domestic vacuum cleaner had been established.
Although the electric floor polisher was definitely a luxury item in the 1920s and 1930s, upright cleaners such as the Hotpoint and Columbus had motor-driven polishing attachments for hard floor areas.By the 1950s, all the major vacuum cleaner manufacturers were selling floor polishers. These had a limited lifespan, however, as wall-to-wall carpeting became a reality in more ordinary homes during the 1960s - a luxury due to popularity of the vacuum cleaner.
Check some of the vacuum cleaner links from the links page to find out more from other collections.
