History shows that rug production created the bigger need for dusting services in the United States.

The American carpet and rug manufacturing industry did not get under way until protective tariffs were imposed on foreign imports in the 1820s.

These laws increased the tax per yard on British textiles, making American manufacturing economically possible.

Soon after, the invention of the steam-operated loom in 1839 revolutionized the carpet and rug industry, making domestic carpet easily affordable.

With that, there was a growing trend to furnish homes and places of business with carpet and/or rugs. It would not be long before the dusting method would be automated.

Service companies were created to handle the need. Wall-to-wall tacked-down carpet went through an in-plant service provider for such a process. All kinds of inventions were appearing.

On June 5, 1869, Ives W. McGaffey obtained a patent on the first hand-pumped vacuum in the United States.

At the beginning of the 20th century, devices were made using fan motors that led to the portable electric vacuum cleaner. The Electric Suction Sweeper Co. emerged with a patented device in 1908.

The founder’s cousin, William Hoover, was one of the first buyers. He went on to become the president of the Hoover Company.

Melville and Anna Bissell did not like the dust in their crockery shop in Grand Rapids, MI, so they created what evolved into the Bissell Carpet Sweeper.

Even before the foregoing, a wood and canvas contraption, known as the Whirlwind, came to birth in Chicago.

The foregoing in no way is a comprehensive history on rug care, but shows that dusting rugs or carpet took various paths to today’s modern technology.
 

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