On June 8, 1869, a Chicago inventor named Ives W. McGaffey walked into the U.S. Patent Office with sketches for a strange new machine. He called it the "Whirlwind." It had a wooden handle, a leather belt, and a hand crank you turned while you pushed it along the carpet. Turning the crank spun a fan inside, and the fan sucked up dust through a cloth bag. It was the very first vacuum cleaner ever patented in the United States.
The Whirlwind worked - sort of. The problem was that one person had to push the machine and crank the handle at the same time, which was about as easy as patting your head and rubbing your tummy while jogging. McGaffey sold his Whirlwinds for $25 each, a small fortune at the time, and only a handful were bought. Real change came later. In 1901, British engineer Hubert Booth built a giant horse-drawn vacuum that parked outside houses and snaked long hoses through the windows. Then in 1907, a Ohio janitor named James Spangler stuck a pillow case, a broomstick, and an electric motor together to make the first portable electric vacuum. He sold his idea to his cousin's husband - a man named William Hoover.
Within twenty years, electric vacuums were buzzing across living rooms in Europe and America. Today there are robot vacuums that roll under your couch by themselves and map your floors with lasers. None of it would exist without a sweaty Chicago man cranking his Whirlwind across a dusty rug.
