Vacuum cleaner

A powered cleaning device that draws dust and debris from surfaces into a container using airflow and suction. Its designs range from portable hand units to large central systems.

Fan: A rotating device that moves air by imparting momentum to it. The motor-driven fan creates the pressure difference that draws air through the cleaner.
Vacuum pump: A device that removes gas molecules from a volume, lowering its pressure. The cleaner does not create suction directly; moving air lowers pressure near its intake.
Upright vacuum cleaner: A floor-cleaning vacuum cleaner with its motor, collection system, and handle arranged in an upright body. This common design combines a floor head and main unit for carpet and floor cleaning.
Daniel Hess: An American inventor credited with an 1860 patent for a carpet-sweeping machine that used bellows and water to trap dust. His patented design anticipated suction cleaning, although it was not an electric vacuum cleaner.
Broom: A cleaning tool with bundled bristles used to sweep dirt and debris across a surface. A broom moves debris without drawing it into an enclosed airflow and collection system.
Electric motor: A machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical motion. It powers the fan that produces the cleaner’s airflow.
Airflow: The movement of air from one place to another. Air carries loosened dust from the surface through the cleaner and into its collection system.
Canister vacuum cleaner: A vacuum cleaner with a wheeled motor-and-collection body connected to a separate cleaning head by a hose. Separating the body from the head makes this design adaptable to floors, stairs, and furnishings.
Hubert Cecil Booth: An English engineer who developed a powered vacuum-cleaning system and founded the British Vacuum Cleaner Company. His large, horse-drawn machines demonstrated powered suction cleaning in the early twentieth century.
Carpet sweeper: A manually operated device that uses rotating brushes to collect debris from floors. It cleans without a powered suction fan, offering a quieter, simpler alternative.

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