Download Carpet cleaner

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Carpet cleaner
A man's house is his castle - and keeping it clean is a continual chore. Imagine life
without the hi-tech cleaning tools available today to ease this task. Before the invention
of the vacuum cleaner, rugs had to be removed from the home for thorough cleaning.
They were hung over a wall or line and hit repeatedly with a carpet beater to pound out as
much dirt as possible. Most carpet beaters had wooden or wicker handles with woven
cane, wire, willow or metal beating extensions. Other hand-cleaning methods included
placing carpet on the snow and walking or jumping over it repeatedly, scattering grated
raw potatoes over the carpet and brushing it vigorously with a new broom, or sprinkling
water on the carpet before sweeping with a broom. Following the invention of the steamoperated loom, carpets became more affordable and a variety of mechanical cleaning
devices began to appear. In 1860, Iowa resident Daniel Hess produced a machine with
rotating brushes that he called a carpet sweeper. In 1869, Ives McGaffey patented the
whirlwind - a non-electric "sweeping machine" made out of wood and canvas. In 1901,
H. Cecil Booth built a large engine-powered vacuum cleaner that was pulled on a cart
through London streets. The operator would drag a 100-foot hose into buildings with
carpets in need of cleaning. In 1907, Ohio janitor Murray Spangler created a smaller
electric version of Booth's machine using a wooden crate, fan motor, broom handle and
pillow case. The next year, William H. Hoover purchased the patent rights for his
vacuum. This Model O set the standard for all upright cleaners that followed, and thus the
Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Company was born. The picture above was taken around 1907
by Solomon D. Butcher in Kearney, Nebraska. Although little is known about
development of this elaborate carpet cleaning machine run by a gasoline engine, it is a
wonderful illustration of the inventive process at work.
Photo Credits:
Title: Carpet cleaner run by a gasoline engine in Kearney, Nebraska
Photographer:
Solomon D. Butcher
DATE
ca. 1907
REPOSITORY
Nebraska State Historical Society, P.O. Box 82554, 1500 R Street, Lincoln, NE 68501
SOURCE COLLECTION
Butcher, Solomon D. (Solomon Devore), 1856-1927
DIGITAL ID
nbhips 13006
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/psbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(p13006))
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Weaving Straw With Silk (Hat Making)
Have you ever invented something? If you have, you may want to do what Mary Kies
did: patent it. The Patent Act of 1790 opened the door for anyone, male or female, to
protect his or her invention with a patent. However, because in many states women could
not legally own property independent of their husbands, many women inventors didn't
bother to patent their new inventions. Mary Kies broke that pattern on May 5, 1809. She
became the first woman to receive a U.S. patent for her method of weaving straw with
silk. With her new method, Kies could make and sell beautiful hats such as this one, and,
by law, no one else could sell hats just like hers. That's how a patent works.
What if you come up with a great idea for a new invention? The Good-Hair-Day
Hairspray, the perfect spiral football, a backpack that flies you to school. To protect your
new invention, you would get a patent. A patent is a government grant that gives the
inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention, usually for a limited
period. Nowadays it's 16 to 20 years in most countries. Patents are granted to new and
useful machines, manufactured products, industrial processes--such as Kies's method of
weaving--and significant improvements of existing processes. Patents encourage
entrepreneurs, like weaver and hat maker Mary Kies, to create new and better products all
the time.
Mary Kies was not the first American woman to improve hat making. In 1798, New
Englander Betsy Metcalf invented a method of braiding straw. Her method became very
popular, and she employed many women to make her hats, but she didn't patent her
process. When asked why, Metcalf said she didn't want her name being sent to Congress.
Kies had a different perspective, and she couldn't have picked a better time to secure her
new product, because the U.S. government had stopped importing European goods.
(Napolean was at war with many nations of Europe at the time, and one way he tried to
win the war was to block trade and hurt his enemies economically. The U.S. did not want
to be drawn into this conflict.) President Madison was looking for American industries to
replace the lost European goods. First lady Dolley Madison said hats off to Mary Kies for
providing just such an opportunity.
Photo Credits:
TITLE: [Head-and-shoulders image of brunette woman, facing right, wearing large
blue hat]
CREATED/PUBLISHED: Detroit, Mich. : Calvert Litho. Co., c1892.
CREATOR:
Calvert Litho. Co.
PART OF: Theatrical Poster Collection (Library of Congress)
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID: (intermediary roll film) var 1575
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/var:@field(NUMBER+@band(var+1575))
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Sewing Machine
At 250 stitches a minute, Elias Howe's machine patented in 1846 could out sew the
fastest of hand sewers. Despite its speed, though, Howe's invention did not sell very well.
It wasn't until Isaac Singer (1811-1875) and Allen Wilson (1824-1888) each added their
own new features to the machine that it became more popular. Singer invented the upand-down motion mechanism, and Wilson created a rotary hook shuttle. (A sewing
machine uses two spools of thread. The shuttle holds the lower thread and carries this
thread through a loop of the upper thread, resulting in a stitch.) Howe, Singer, and Wilson
put their inventions together, and soon sewing machines were built and sold to garment
factories all over the United States.
In 1889, an electric sewing machine for use in the home was designed and marketed by
Singer. By 1905, Americans all over the country were beginning to sew with electrically
powered machines. Today sewing machines in manufacturing plants use computer
technology to create customized clothing with little human intervention. Have you ever
used a sewing machine?
Photo Credits:
TITLE: [Occupational portrait of a woman working at a sewing machine]
CREATED/PUBLISHED: [ca. 1853]
NOTES:
Photographer unidentified.
Published under the title: "Seamstress."
Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress).
Published under title "Seamstress" in: Eyes of the Nation : a visual history of the United
States / Vincent Virga and the curators of the Library of Congress ; historical
commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.
PART OF: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress)
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID: (color film copy transparency post-1992) cph 3g03598
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g03598
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Washing Machine
Ancient peoples cleaned their clothes by pounding them on rocks or rubbing them with
abrasive sands; and washing the dirt away in local streams. Evidence of ancient washing
soap was found at Sapo Hill in Rome, where the ashes containing the fat of sacrificial
animals was used as a soap.
The earliest washing "machine" was the scrub board invented in 1797. American, James
King patented the first washing machine to use a drum in 1851, the drum made King's
machine resemble a modern machine, however it was still hand powered.
In 1858, Hamilton Smith patented the rotary washing machine.
In 1874, William Blackstone of Indiana built a birthday present for his wife. It was a
machine which removed and washed away dirt from clothes. The first washing machines
designed for use in the home.
Photo Credits:
TITLE: Home washing machine & wringer
SUMMARY: Interior view of a kitchen showing woman using a washing machine as
her employer watches. In background another woman washes clothes in a wash tub.
CREATED/PUBLISHED: New York : [1869?]
NOTES:
Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and
curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York
: Knopf, 1997.
Published in: American women : a Library of Congress guide for the study of women's
history and culture in the United States / edited by Sheridan Harvey ... [et al.].
Washington : Library of Congress, 2001, p. xxii.
Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress, 2002.
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID: (color film copy transparency LC-USZC4-4590) cph 3g04590
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g04590
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