Manual vacuum cleaners
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Efforts to use suction to remove dirt from carpets began in the second half of the 19th century, when patents were granted to inventors in the United States, England, France, and elsewhere. In the United States several dozen firms produced non-electric vacuum cleaners in the early 1900s, 1914 being the peak year. Three different models were sold by Sears, Roebuck between 1909 and 1917. Their primary market was in rural areas, where as late as the mid-1930s 90% of American farms - over 5 million - were without electricity. These household appliances created suction by either pumping action, bellows, or a piston being pushed down and up a tube. Most required the efforts of two people. The ones capable of operation by a single person were less efficient, but none were truly labor-saving devices or delivered the efficient cleaning they promised. Besides hand-operated models, some foot-operated ones were on the market, and a Swiss source even tells of one where the operator rocked back and forth in a rocking chair to create the needed vacuum.
[edit] Sources
Giedion, S. Mechanization Takes Command. New York: Oxford University Press, 1948 Collectors News, October 2006, p. 31 Hoover Historical Center, 1875 East Maple Street, North Canton, OH 44720-3331 Die Geschichte des Staubsaugers. Zurich: Orell-Fussli Vrlang, 2001
