Did You Know....? - Inventive Minds

The first commercial vacuum cleaner was the brainchild of Hubert Cecil Booth. It was extremely noisy and frightened passing horses, which led to Booth being sued by cab proprietors. It was also so big that it had to be mounted on a wagon. The making of Booth's invention was the 1902 coronation of Edward VII at which the vacuum cleaned the blue carpets of Westminster Abbey. The king and queen were sufficiently impressed to order two cleaners - one for Buckingham Palace, the other for Windsor Castle. The vacuum cleaner quickly became a novelty. Society hostesses threw parties in their homes so that guests could watch it in action.