I am still stuck inside because of the snow and icy streets, so cannot walk. Grateful to have power and water. My next-door neighbor did not drip her faucets, so she has no water. Some people are using melted snow as water to flush their toilets, etc. I look around my townhouse and land on probably my least favorite and least used household appliance — the vacuum cleaner. Before the pandemic, my motivation to clean house was to have a party or have overnight guests. So, you can guess what kind of filth I have been living in. I don’t know why I have such an objection to using the vacuum cleaner. It does a good job of sucking up all the dust and extraneous matter that one person can create. But it’s a pain to carry up and down the stairs; it doesn’t have a retractable cord, so I am always tripping over it or moving it over to reach a spot. I know those are lame excuses; I just need to make vacuuming regularly a habit like brushing my teeth. Maybe if I understand more about vacuum cleaners, my house will sparkle. Let’s learn, shall we?
According to Wikipedia, a vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum, is a device that causes suction in order to remove debris from floors, upholstery, draperies and other surfaces. It is generally electrically driven.
The debris is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal. Vacuum cleaners, which are used in homes as well as in industry, exist in a variety of sizes and models — small battery-powered hand-held devices, wheeled canister models for home use, domestic central vacuum cleaners, huge stationary industrial appliances that can handle several hundred pounds of dust before being emptied and self-propelled vacuum trucks for recovery of large spills or removal of contaminated soil. Specialized shop vacuums can be used to suck up both dust and liquids.
Name
Although vacuum cleaner and the short form vacuum are neutral names, in some countries — UK, Ireland, U.S. — hoover is used instead as a genericized trademark and as a verb. The name comes from the Hoover Co., one of the first and more influential companies in the development of the device. In New Zealand, particularly the Southland region, it is sometimes called a lux, likewise a genericized trademark and used as a verb. The device is also sometimes called a sweeper although the same term also refers to a carpet sweeper. It is a similar invention except it does not require electricity to operate; it is a mechanical device for the cleaning of carpets.
History
The vacuum cleaner evolved from the carpet sweeper via manual vacuum cleaners. The first manual models, using bellows, were developed in the 1860s, and the first motorized designs appeared at the turn of the 20th century, with the first decade being the boom decade.
Manual vacuums
In 1860 a manual vacuum cleaner was invented by Daniel Hess of West Union, Iowa. Called a ”'carpet sweeper,” It gathered dust with a rotating brush and had a bellows for generating suction. Another early model in 1869 was the "Whirlwind," invented in Chicago in 1868 by Ives W. McGaffey. The bulky device worked with a belt driven fan cranked by hand that made it awkward to operate, although it was commercially marketed with mixed success. A similar model was constructed by Melville R. Bissell of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1876, who also manufactured carpet sweepers. The company later added portable vacuum cleaners to its line of cleaning tools.
Powered vacuum cleaners
The end of the 19th century saw the introduction of powered cleaners, although early types used some variation of blowing air to clean instead of suction. One appeared in 1898 when John S. Thurman of St. Louis, Missouri submitted a patent for a "pneumatic carpet renovator" which blew dust into a receptacle. Thurman's system, powered by an internal combustion engine, traveled to the customer’s residence on a horse-drawn wagon as part of a door to door cleaning service. Corrine Dufour of Savannah, Georgia received two patents in 1899 and 1900 for another blown air system that seems to have featured the first use of an electric motor.
In 1901 powered vacuum cleaners using suction were invented independently by British engineer Hubert Cecil Booth and American inventor David T. Kenney. Booth also may have coined the word "vacuum cleaner." Booth's horse-drawn combustion engine-powered "Puffing Billy" may be derived from Thurman's blown air design. It relied upon just suction with air pumped through a cloth filter and was offered as part of his cleaning services. Kenney's was a stationary 4,000-lb. steam engine powered system with pipes and hoses reaching into all parts of the building.
Domestic vacuum cleaner
The first vacuum-cleaning device to be portable and marketed at the domestic market was built in 1905 by Walter Griffiths, a manufacturer in Birmingham, England. His “Griffith’s Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets” resembled modern-day cleaners. It was portable, easy to store and powered by "any one person — such as the ordinary domestic servant" — who would have the task of compressing a bellows-like contraption to suck up dust through a removable, flexible pipe, to which a variety of shaped nozzles could be attached.
In 1906 James B. Kirby developed his first of many vacuums called the "Domestic Cyclone." It used water for dirt separation. Later revisions came to be known as the Kirby vacuum cleaner. In 1907 department store janitor James Murray Spangler (1848–1915) of Canton, Ohio invented the first portable electric vacuum cleaner, obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper on June 2, 1908. Crucially, in addition to suction from an electric fan that blew the dirt and dust into a soap box and one of his wife's pillow cases, Spangler's design utilized a rotating brush to loosen debris. Unable to produce the design himself due to lack of funding, he sold the patent in 1908 to local leather goods manufacturer William Henry Hoover (1849–1932), who had Spangler's machine redesigned with a steel casing, casters and attachments, founding the company that in 1922 was renamed the Hoover Co. Their first vacuum was the 1908 Model O, which sold for $60. Subsequent innovations included the beater bar in 1919 — "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans," disposal filter bags in the 1920s and an upright vacuum cleaner in 1926.
In continental Europe, the Fisker and Nielson Co. — now called Nilfisk — in Denmark was the first to sell vacuum cleaners in 1910. The design weighed just 39 lbs and could be operated by a single person. The Swedish company Electrolux launched their Model V in 1921 with the innovation of being able to lie on the floor on two thin metal runners. In the 1930s the Germany company Vorwerk started marketing vacuum cleaners of their own design which they sold through direct sales.
Post-Second World War
For many years after their introduction, vacuum cleaners remained a luxury item, but after the Second World War, they became common among the middle class. Vacuums tend to be more common in Western countries because in most other parts of the world wall-to-wall carpeting is uncommon, and homes have tile or hardwood floors, which are easily swept, wiped or mopped manually without power assist.
The last decades of the 20th century saw the more widespread use of technologies developed earlier, including filterless cyclonic dirt separation, central vacuum systems and rechargeable hand-held vacuums. In addition, miniaturized computer technology and improved batteries allowed the development of a new type of machine — the autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner. In 1997 Electrolux of Sweden demonstrated the Electrolux Trilobite, the first autonomous cordless robotic vacuum cleaner on the BBC-TV program “Tomorrow’s World,” introducing it to the consumer market in 2001.
Recent developments
In 2004 a British company released Airider, a hovering vacuum cleaner that floats on a cushion of air, similar to a hovercraft. It has claimed to be lightweight and easier to maneuver — compared to using wheels, although it is not the first vacuum cleaner to do this; the Hoover Constellation predated it by at least 35 years.
A British inventor has developed a new cleaning technology known as Air Recycling Technology, which instead of using a vacuum, uses an air stream to collect dust from the carpet. This technology was tested by the Market Transformation Programme and shown to be more energy-efficient than the vacuum method. Although working prototypes exist, Air Recycling Technology is not currently used in any production cleaner.
Upright
Upright vacuum cleaners are popular in the United States, Britain and numerous Commonwealth countries, but unusual in some continental European countries. They take the form of a cleaning head, onto which a handle and bag are attached. Upright designs generally employ a rotating brush-roll or beater bar, which removes dirt through a combination of sweeping and vibration. There are two types of upright vacuums; dirty-air/direct fan (found mostly on commercial vacuums) or clean-air/fan-bypass (found on most of today's domestic vacuums).
The older of the two designs, direct-fan cleaners have a large impeller fan mounted close to the suction opening, through which the dirt passes directly, before being blown into a bag. The motor is often cooled by a separate cooling fan. Because of their large-bladed fans and comparatively short airpaths, direct-fan cleaners create a very efficient airflow from a low amount of power and make effective carpet cleaners. Their "above-floor" cleaning power is less efficient, since the airflow is lost when it passes through a long hose, and the fan has been optimized for airflow volume and not suction.
Fan-bypass uprights have their motor mounted after the filter bag. Dust is removed from the airstream by the bag — and usually a filter — before it passes through the fan. The fans are smaller and are usually a combination of several moving and stationary turbines working in sequence to boost power. The motor is cooled by the airstream passing through it. Fan-bypass vacuums are good for both carpet and above-floor cleaning, since their suction does not significantly diminish over the distance of a hose, as it does in direct-fan cleaners. However, their air-paths are much less efficient and can require more than twice as much power as direct-fan cleaners to achieve the same results.
The most common upright vacuum cleaners use a drive-belt powered by the suction motor to rotate the brush-roll. However, a more common design of dual motor upright is available. In these cleaners, the suction is provided via a large motor, while the brushroll is powered by a separate, smaller motor, which does not create any suction. The brush-roll motor can sometimes be switched off, so hard floors can be cleaned without the brush-roll scattering the dirt. It may also have an automatic cut-off feature which shuts the motor off if the brush-roll becomes jammed, protecting it from damage.
Canister
Canister models — in the UK also often called cylinder models — dominate the European market. They have the motor and dust collector — using a bag or bagless — in a separate unit, usually mounted on wheels, which is connected to the vacuum head by a flexible hose. Their main advantage is flexibility — as the user can attach different heads for different tasks — and maneuverability, the head can reach under furniture and makes it very easy to vacuum stairs and vertical surfaces. Many cylinder models have power heads as standard or add-on equipment containing the same sort of mechanical beaters as in upright units, making them as efficient on carpets as upright models. Such beaters are driven by a separate electric motor or a turbine which uses the suction power to spin the brush-roll via a drive belt.
Drum
Drum or shop vac models are essentially heavy-duty industrial versions of cylinder vacuum cleaners, where the canister consists of a large vertically positioned drum which can be stationary or on wheels. Smaller versions, for use in garages or small workshops, are usually electrically powered. Larger models, which can store over 53 gallons, are often hooked up to compressed air, utilizing the Venturi effect to produce a partial vacuum. Built-in dust collection systems are also used in many workshops.
Wet/dry
Wet or wet/dry vacuum cleaners are a specialized form of the cylinder/drum models that can be used to clean up wet or liquid spills. They are generally designed to be used both indoors and outdoors and to accommodate both wet and dry debris; some are also equipped with an exhaust port or detachable blower for reversing the airflow, a useful function for everything from clearing a clogged hose to blowing dust into a corner for easy collection.
Backpack
Backpack vacuum cleaners are commonly used for commercial cleaning: they allow the user to move rapidly about a large area. They are essentially small canister vacuums strapped onto the user's back.
Hand-held
Lightweight hand-held vacuum cleaners, either powered from rechargeable batteries or main power, are also popular for cleaning up smaller spills. Frequently seen examples include the Black & Decker DustBuster, which was introduced in 1979, and numerous handheld models by Dirt Devil, which were first introduced in 1984. Some battery-powered handheld vacuums are wet/dry rated; the appliance must be partially disassembled and cleaned after picking up wet materials to avoid developing unpleasant odors.
Robotic
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, several companies developed robotic vacuum cleaners, a form of carpet sweeper usually equipped with limited suction power. Some prominent brands are Roomba, Neato and bObsweep. These machines move autonomously while collecting surface dust and debris into a dustbin. They can usually navigate around furniture and come back to a docking station to charge their batteries, and a few are able to empty their dust containers into the dock as well. Most models are equipped with motorized brushes and a vacuum motor to collect dust and debris. While most robotic vacuum cleaners are designed for home use, some models are appropriate for operation in offices, hotels, hospitals, etc.
In December 2009, Neato Robotics launched the world's first robotic vacuum cleaner which uses a rotating, laser-based range-finder — a form of lidar, a method for measuring distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the time the reflection of the light takes to return to the sensor — to scan and map its surroundings. It uses this map to clean the floor methodically, even if it requires the robot to return to its base multiple times to recharge itself. In many cases it will notice when an area of the floor that was previously inaccessible becomes reachable, such as when a dog wakes up from a nap and return to vacuum that area. It also has the strongest impeller among robotic vacuum cleaners, pulling in 35 cubic feet per minute of air.
Cyclonic
Portable vacuum cleaners working on the cyclonic separation principle became popular in the 1990s. This dirt separation principle was well-known and often used in central vacuum systems. Cleveland's P.A. Geier Co. had obtained a patent on a cyclonic vacuum cleaner as early as 1928, which was later sold to Health-Mor in 1939, introducing the Filter Queen cyclonic canister vacuum cleaner.
In 1979, James Dyson introduced a portable unit with cyclonic separation, adapting this design from industrial sawmills. He launched his cyclone cleaner first in Japan in the 1980s at a cost of about $1,800, and in 1993 released the Dyson DC01 upright in the UK for £200. Critics expected that people would not buy a vacuum cleaner at twice the price of a conventional unit, but the Dyson design later became the most popular cleaner in the UK.
Cyclonic cleaners do not use filtration bags. Instead, the dust is separated in a detachable cylindrical collection vessel or bin. Air and dust are sucked at high speed into the collection vessel at a direction tangential to the vessel wall, creating a fast-spinning vortex. The dust particles and other debris move to the outside of the vessel by centrifugal force, where they fall due to gravity.
In fixed-installation central vacuum cleaners, the cleaned air may be exhausted directly outside without need for further filtration. A well-designed cyclonic filtration system loses suction power due to airflow restriction only when the collection vessel is almost full. This is in marked contrast to filter bag systems, which lose suction when pores in the filter become clogged as dirt and dust are collected.
In portable cyclonic models, the cleaned air from the center of the vortex is expelled from the machine after passing through many successively finer filters at the top of the container. The first filter is intended to trap particles which could damage the subsequent filters that remove fine dust particles. The filters must regularly be cleaned or replaced to ensure that the machine continues to perform efficiently.
Since Dyson's success in raising public awareness of cyclonic separation, several other companies have introduced cyclone models. Competing manufacturers include Hoover, Bissell, Shark, Eureka, Electrolux, Filter Queen, etc., and the cheapest models are no more expensive than a conventional cleaner.
Central
Central vacuum cleaners, also known as built-in or ducted, are a type of canister/cylinder model which has the motor and dirt filtration unit located in a central location in a building and connected by pipes to fixed vacuum inlets installed throughout the building. Only the hose and cleaning head need be carried from room to room, and the hose is commonly 8 m (25 ft) long, allowing a large range of movement without changing vacuum inlets. Plastic or metal piping connects the inlets to the central unit. The vacuum head may be unpowered or have beaters operated by an electric motor or air-driven turbine.
The dirt bag or collection bin in a central vacuum system is usually so large that emptying or changing needs to be done less often, perhaps a few times per year for an ordinary household. The central unit usually stays in standby and is turned on by a switch on the handle of the hose. Alternately, the unit powers up when the hose is plugged into the wall inlet, when the metal hose connector makes contact with two prongs in the wall inlet and control current is transmitted through low voltage wires to the main unit.
A central vacuum typically produces greater suction than common portable vacuum cleaners because a larger fan and more powerful motor can be used when they are not required to be portable.
A benefit to allergy sufferers is that unlike a standard vacuum cleaner, which must blow some of the dirt collected back into the room being cleaned — no matter how efficient its filtration, a central vacuum removes all the dirt collected to the central unit. Since this central unit is usually located outside the living area, no dust is recirculated back into the room being cleaned. Also, it is possible on most newer models to vent the exhaust entirely outside, even with the unit inside the living quarters.
Constellation
The Hoover Co. marketed an unusual vacuum cleaner, called the Constellation, in the 1960s. The cylinder type lacked wheels and instead the vacuum cleaner floated on its exhaust, operating as a hovercraft, although this is not true of the earliest models. They had a rotating hose with the intention being that the user would place the unit in the center of the room, and work around the cleaner. Introduced in 1954, they are collectible, and are easily identified by their spherical shape. But they remain an interesting machine; restored, they work well in homes with many hardwood floors.
The Constellations were changed and updated over the years until discontinued in 1975. These Constellations route all the exhaust under the vacuum using a different airfoil. The updated design is quiet even by modern standards, particularly on carpet as it muffles the sound. These models float on carpet or bare floor — although on hard flooring, the exhaust air tends to scatter any fluff or debris around.
Hoover re-released an updated version of this later model Constellation in the U.S. — model # S3341 in Pearl White and # S3345 in stainless steel. Changes include a high-efficiency particulate air or HEPA filtration bag, a 12-amp motor, a turbine-powered brush roll and a redesigned version of the handle. This same model was marketed in the UK under the Maytag brand as the Satellite because of licensing restrictions. It was sold from 2006 to 2009.
Vacuum truck
A vacuum truck or vacuum tanker is a tank truck that has a pump and a tank. The pump is designed to pneumatically suck liquids, sludges, slurries or the like from a location — often underground — into the tank of the truck. The objective is to enable transport of the liquid material via road to another location. Vacuum trucks transport the collected material to a treatment or disposal site, for example a sewage treatment plant.
A common material to be transported is septage or more broadly fecal sludge which is human excreta mixed with water, e.g. from septic tanks and pit latrines. They also transport sewage sludge, industrial liquids or slurries from animal waste from livestock facilities with pens.
Vacuum trucks can be equipped with a high-pressure pump if they are used to clean out sewers from sand.
Fleas
Tests have shown that vacuuming can kill 100% of young fleas and 96% of adult fleas.
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