science · 03 October 1899 · 126 years ago
In 1899, the motor-driven vacuum cleaner was patented (U.S. No. 634,042) as a "pneumatic carpet renovator" by John S. Thurman of St. Louis, Mo. Thurman developed a gasoline powered vacuum cleaner and the General Compressed Air Company. In a newspaper advertisement from the St. Louis Dispatch Thurman offered his invention of the horse drawn (which went door to door) vacuum system there in St. Louis. He offered vacuuming services at $4 per visit - a significant amount in that era. By 1906, Thurman was offering built-in central vacuum systems. They actually used compress air, though, and featured no dust collection.
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