Hungerford Arcade’s great friend and author, Stuart Miller-Osborne has written another wonderful article which is a fascinating insight into an everyday necessity which we all take for granted – until it breaks down!
What is over six feet long when fully extended and tends to be found in the smallest cupboard in the house? It is known to be rather noisy and is quite often to be seen creating havoc when an important football match is in progress on the television.
Even the biggest and most grumblesome of men are afraid of it and are quite often seen to raise both their legs as part of this appliance passes underneath them. To make matters worse, they are so terrified of the beast and rarely venture anywhere near its habitat. If their partner leaves their shared house for a matter of days these men are often seen bravely wrestling this dragon a few hours before their partner returns.
Usually with disastrous consequences.
What am I talking about you may ask?
I wish I knew as they come in all shapes and sizes and often have more attachments than fleas on a domestic cat. They have eyes and are known by a variety of names and quite often can be seen late in offices during the suicide watch. You most probably would have guessed that I am not discussing a pleasurable trip to Ikea but have ventured into the dark world of vacuum cleaners, or Henry’s or Dyson’s or whatsoever they are
called at present. Sadly Orpheus has left me here in the underworld to write this article whilst he pursues his musical journeys. So with a little fear, I will go forward and discuss why the humble vacuum cleaner has such an interesting history and can on occasions be found in antique establishments around the country.
My journey will also take me to Perivale in West London where one of the most beautiful buildings in the country still sits proudly in its restored splendour. Rather like the television, I was of the generation which accepted that there would be a vacuum cleaner in the house and that my mother or one of my sisters would use it during the day just to upset the equilibrium of my life. I cared little for the vacuum cleaner and was even less interested in its history.
Here is a question
When to you think the first vacuum cleaner made an appearance?
1912, 1860 or 1932
I was shocked to find out that the answer was 1860. It appears that a carpet sweeper was invented by a Daniel Hess who was from a town called West Union in Iowa. The device gathered dust and other minute debris by the means of a rotating brush that generated suction. Three years later another model called the Whirlwind made an appearance. This was invented in Chicago by the magnificently named Ives.W.McGaffey.
My understanding of how the device worked was that a belt driven fan which was driven by hand allowed it to operate. Improvements on the process occurred almost yearly and the next real event of note occurred in 1901 when the motorised vacuum cleaner was invented by a certain Hubert Cecil Booth.
Hubert had attended an exhibition at the Empire Music Hall in London where an unnamed American inventor demonstrated his invention. In a few words I will try to explain the process. It seems that the machine blew dust off of chairs for some reason (do not ask me why). Well Hubert being a bright chap thought that if the system could be reversed and a filter added between the suction apparatus and the air outside then the dust could be retained in a receptacle (I trust you are still with me). This would be a hygienic way of collecting dust. Hubert (according to Wiki) tested the idea by laying a handkerchief on the seat of a restaurant chair and then putting his mouth to the handkerchief. He tried to suck as much on to the handkerchief as possible. On examining the underside of the handkerchief he knew that his idea would work. He created a device driven by an internal combustion engine which he called Puffing Billy. As you can imagine, his model was rather large and could not be easily used in homes.
This said, the principles were essentially the same as the vacuum cleaners of today.
Later Hubert used electricity as a source although this did not reduce the size of the device (it had to be transported by horse and carriage). The company that was set up to market Booth’s invention actually came up with the term vacuum cleaner in 1901.
Poor Hubert however ran into problems as instead of marketing his product he actually offered cleaning services.
The next description is so Heath Robinson I am sure that it will make you smile. It appears that as the device was so bulky, the bright red vans of the British Vacuum Cleaner Company would park outside of a house and the uniformed operators would pass the hose in through a window to reach the rooms inside (quite how this worked with the upper floors is not really explained). There were many complaints mostly about the noise created and poor Hubert was even fined for frightening horses. But he did not give up and further refined his invention during the following years. He was also given the royal seal of approval when his device was used to clean the carpets in Westminster Abbey prior to the coronation of Edward the Seventh. His invention was also used by the Royal Navy to help improve sanitation. As you can see Hubert’s invention was in no way the type of cleaner that one could have in the average house as it was half the size of the house itself and this is where the domestic vacuum cleaner came in.
In 1905 a Walter Griffith of Birmingham marketed a much smaller device which could be stored easily and was portable and could be used by one person. Two years later a departmental store janitor named James Murray Spangler of Canton Ohio invented the first portable electric vacuum cleaner. Sadly, he did not really have the funds to follow this up and he sold the patent to a man whose name has become a byword for vacuum cleaners. The name of this man was William Henry Hoover (1849-1932).
Hoover had Spangler’s machine redesigned with
a steel casting, casters and other attachments. He founded the famous company which was eventually renamed as the Hoover Company in 1922. Prior to this innovations such as 1908 Model O (which cost sixty dollars) and the cleaner with the beater bar (it beats as it sweeps as it cleans) of 1919 were memorable. The upright vacuum cleaner made its first appearance in 1926.
Other famous and remembered names were the Swedish Electrolux company which marketed its famous Model V in 1921. There is a lovely comment on Wiki noting that an Electrolux cleaner purchased in the 1930s survived in use until 2007 when it finally gave up the ghost. But whilst this is admirable, you do not Electrolux the house but you quite often Hoover the house.
The Hoover is in the cupboard is a phrase uttered in many households even if the model was not created by the Hoover Company. It was one of the most successful brand applications in history. Do not forget to Hoover under the stairs before you leave. The Hoover bags are underneath the sink.
But what has this to do with the world of antiques?
Customers would only expect to find a vacuum cleaner in the broom cupboard with other related appliances and not for sale in any establishment. But this is where they might be wrong as vacuum cleaners do show up from time to time in antiques shops and arcades.
Unlike the space-age models of today, they are usually cumbersome and appear to require a lot of effort even to move them. This said, I doubt if we will ever see the likes of Hubert’s model in Hungerford High Street and the traffic jams it would cause.
Which is probably a good thing.
Aldous Huxley once said that triviality and make-believe are easily turned into economic advantage. This was a thought which although interesting, I never really considered until I passed a hardware shop recently. In the window were a number of red vacuum cleaners with eyes staring at me. My wife informed me that these appliances were all called Henry although other models were called Henrietta (and were available in pink and other colours) and just to ensure that I would be turning to drink, there were also smaller models called Henry Junior. Over a stiff gin she explained to me that even vacuum cleaners had now become personified and hoovering was now fun and chic.
Knowing that I had recently recovered from the trauma of trying to understand how a Dyson worked she left the subject alone and suggested that we catch the tube to Perivale to visit one of the best Art Deco buildings in the country.
This was the Hoover Building which can be seen from the Western Avenue (A40) in Perivale, West London. The building is a visual treat and is well worth visiting. It was designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners in 1933 for the Hoover Company and is everything that Art Deco represents. From its amazing windows to its use of primary colours which likened it to the Aztec and Mayan fashions which were seen and admired at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts exhibition in Paris in 1925. It is an incredible building.
My wife comes from the Perivale area and I can remember this building being in a very poor state in the 1980s and for a while it was threatened with demolition which was unthinkable. But then the demolition of Euston Railway Station and the Euston Arch was just as unthinkable. St Pancras was also under threat which was pure madness. It was the unauthorised demolition of the Firestone Building on the Great West Road that really saved the Hoover Building.
Art Deco although quite recent, was not there to be destroyed; it was there to be preserved for future generations. It was a much maligned name that finally saved the Hoover Building and it was not Dyson or Electrolux or even Hubert who saved this magnificent building but just plain old Tesco’s. In 1989 they purchased the building and built a supermarket on the rear of the site (this is not as bad as it sounds).
Restoration of the main building took place at the time and the Hoover Building was returned to its former inter-war glory.
The main building and the canteen block (built in 1938) are Grade Two Listed.
If you are interested in vacuum cleaners or just love Art Deco then do visit the building and maybe buy a couple of buns from Tesco’s just to say thank you. When you drive past at night the Hoover Building is spectacularly lit up by green arc lights and the effect is startling. It certainly brightens up the Western Avenue.
We all accept vacuum cleaners as part of the furniture, hidden away in cupboards for most of the day. But they do as you have read, have an interesting history and because of them we have a wonderful building waiting for us on the outskirts on London. The next time you are in the Arcade and spot a lonely old Hoover sitting in a corner stop for a moment and think of its origins.
Whichever way you look at it, the vacuum cleaner is an ingenious invention which pulls its weight each day and every day. Just think of a world without vacuum cleaners and you will get my drift.
What am I talking about you may ask?
My journey will also take me to Perivale in West London where one of the most beautiful buildings in the country still sits proudly in its restored splendour. Rather like the television, I was of the generation which accepted that there would be a vacuum cleaner in the house and that my mother or one of my sisters would use it during the day just to upset the equilibrium of my life. I cared little for the vacuum cleaner and was even less interested in its history.
I was shocked to find out that the answer was 1860. It appears that a carpet sweeper was invented by a Daniel Hess who was from a town called West Union in Iowa. The device gathered dust and other minute debris by the means of a rotating brush that generated suction. Three years later another model called the Whirlwind made an appearance. This was invented in Chicago by the magnificently named Ives.W.McGaffey.
The next description is so Heath Robinson I am sure that it will make you smile. It appears that as the device was so bulky, the bright red vans of the British Vacuum Cleaner Company would park outside of a house and the uniformed operators would pass the hose in through a window to reach the rooms inside (quite how this worked with the upper floors is not really explained). There were many complaints mostly about the noise created and poor Hubert was even fined for frightening horses. But he did not give up and further refined his invention during the following years. He was also given the royal seal of approval when his device was used to clean the carpets in Westminster Abbey prior to the coronation of Edward the Seventh. His invention was also used by the Royal Navy to help improve sanitation. As you can see Hubert’s invention was in no way the type of cleaner that one could have in the average house as it was half the size of the house itself and this is where the domestic vacuum cleaner came in.
In 1905 a Walter Griffith of Birmingham marketed a much smaller device which could be stored easily and was portable and could be used by one person. Two years later a departmental store janitor named James Murray Spangler of Canton Ohio invented the first portable electric vacuum cleaner. Sadly, he did not really have the funds to follow this up and he sold the patent to a man whose name has become a byword for vacuum cleaners. The name of this man was William Henry Hoover (1849-1932).
ver had Spangler’s machine redesigned with
The Hoover is in the cupboard is a phrase uttered in many households even if the model was not created by the Hoover Company. It was one of the most successful brand applications in history. Do not forget to Hoover under the stairs before you leave. The Hoover bags are underneath the sink.
Customers would only expect to find a vacuum cleaner in the broom cupboard with other related appliances and not for sale in any establishment. But this is where they might be wrong as vacuum cleaners do show up from time to time in antiques shops and arcades.
Aldous Huxley once said that triviality and make-believe are easily turned into economic advantage. This was a thought which although interesting, I never really considered until I passed a hardware shop recently. In the window were a number of red vacuum cleaners with eyes staring at me. My wife informed me that these appliances were all called Henry although other models were called Henrietta (and were available in pink and other colours) and just to ensure that I would be turning to drink, there were also smaller models called 
Henry Junior. Over a stiff gin she explained to me that even vacuum cleaners had now become personified and hoovering was now fun and chic.
This was the Hoover Building which can be seen from the Western Avenue (A40) in Perivale, West London. The building is a visual treat and is well worth visiting. It was designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners in 1933 for the Hoover Company and is everything that Art Deco represents. From its amazing windows to its use of primary colours which likened it to the Aztec and Mayan fashions which were seen and admired at the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts exhibition in Paris in 1925. It is an incredible building.
he main building and the canteen block (built in 1938) are Grade Two Listed.
Whichever way you look at it, the vacuum cleaner is an ingenious invention which pulls its weight each day and every day. Just think of a world without vacuum cleaners and you will get my drift.