Useless, yet curiously compelling

Some inventions fill a gap in our lives so snugly it is hard to imagine life before them. How did we empty our homes of dirt and dust before we could suck them clean? So rapid was the spread of the vacuum cleaner that the most famous early brand, Hoover, became synonymous with the act itself: a lot of people still "hoover" their carpets, much as we now "google" for information. But Mr Hoover was not responsible for inventing the vacuum cleaner. The credit for that goes to a Gloucester-born engineer called Hubert

Cecil Booth (1871-1955), who in 1901 created a huge, horse-drawn device driven by a petrol engine. Although expensive and ungainly, it worked a treat and soon afterwards an asthmatic department-store janitor in Ohio called James Spangler improvised a portable version. Spangler's wife's cousin decided there was a business in these new machines. Having worked as a leather merchant for almost 40 years, he bought the rights from Spangler in 1908 and set up a network of door-to-door salesmen offering a 10-day home trial. His name was, of course, William Hoover.

Which of the following fails to suck you in?

a Booth first demonstrated "vacuuming" by using his mouth to suck the dust from furniture through his handkerchief.

b In the early 1900s, society ladies hosted "vacuum parties" to show off Booth's miracle machine.

c An early analysis of the dust extracted demonstrated 350 million living organisms in just one gram.

d Hoover is still the UKs number one vacuum cleaner brand.

e Other genericised trademarks include Xerox, Sellotape, Thermos and Velcro.

QUIZ ANSWER (D) DYSON OVERTOOK HOOVER IN 2001. ONE IN THREE UK HOUSEHOLDS NOW HAS A DYSON VACUUM CLEANER.

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