When was the vacuum cleaner invented?

Answer 1

Daniel Hess invented a machine with a bellows for suction and a rotating brush in 1860, but it was largely impractical. A hand-pumped vacuum cleaner invented by Ives McGaffey appeared and was patented in 1869. In 1901, Cecil Booth, a British engineer, invented a large contraption built on a wagon that was set up outside buildings and had hoses running through windows to service multiple rooms. Booth had seen a machine originated by an American, and this was a springboard to his device. The Chapman and Skinner machine from San Francisco (1905) worked, but at nearly 100 pounds, did not sell. James M. Spangler's idea was purchased by William Henry Hoover, who built and marketed a unit with a bag attached to a long handle beginning in 1907.

As is so often the case with inventions, a "standard" device doesn't appear out of the blue. Rather, a good working design is developed from different ideas that appeared over time before a breakthrough of sorts incorporates those older designs and a bit of new thinking.