Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum…

Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner, one of the first powered vacuum cleaners, in the United Kingdom on August 30, 1901.

Before Booth introduced his version of the vacuum cleaner, cleaning machines blew or brushed dirt away, instead of sucking it up.

As Booth will recall decades later, in 1901 he had attended "a demonstration of an American machine by its inventor" at the Empire Music Hall in London.

The inventor is not named, but Booth's description of the machine conforms fairly closely to American inventor John S. Thurman’s blown air design.

Booth had watched a demonstration of the device, which blew dust off the chairs, and thought that "...if the system could be reversed, and a filter inserted between the suction apparatus and the outside air, whereby the dust would be retained in a receptacle, the real solution of the hygienic removal of dust would be obtained."

He tested the idea by laying a handkerchief on the seat of a restaurant chair, putting his mouth to the handkerchief, and then trying to suck up as much dust as he could onto the handkerchief. Upon seeing the dust and dirt collected on the underside of the handkerchief, he realized the idea could work.

Booth has created a large device, driven by an internal combustion engine.

Nicknamed the "Puffing Billy", Booth's first petrol-powered, horse-drawn vacuum cleaner relies upon air drawn by a piston pump through a cloth filter.

It does not contain any brushes; all the cleaning is done by suction through long tubes with nozzles on the ends.

Although the machine is too bulky to be brought into the building, its principles of operation ire essentially the same as the vacuum cleaners of today.

He follows this up with an electric-powered model, but both designs are extremely bulky, and have to be transported by horse and carriage.

The term "vacuum cleaner" is first used by the company set up to market Booth's invention, in its first issued prospectus of 1901.

Booth initially does not attempt to sell his machine, but rather sells cleaning services.

The vans of the British Vacuum Cleaner Company (BVCC) are bright red; uniformed operators haul hose off the van and route it through the windows of a building to reach all the rooms inside.

Gaining the royal seal of approval, Booth's motorized vacuum cleaner is used to clean the carpets of Westminster Abbey prior to Edward VII's coronation in 1901.

The device is used by the Royal Navy to improve the level of sanitation in the naval barracks.

It is also used in businesses such as theaters and shops, although the device is too large to be feasibly used as a domestic appliance.

Booth receives his first patents on February 18 and August 30, 1901.

Booth founds Goblin, his company to sell vacuum cleaning services, and will refine his invention over the next several decades.

Though Goblin will lose out to competition from Hoover in the household vacuum market, his company will successfully turn its focus to the industrial market, building ever-larger models for factories and warehouses.

Booth's company, now BVC, lives on today as a unit of pneumatic tube system maker Quirepace Ltd.