1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,279 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:17,599 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy. This 4 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: is one of those episodes that occurred to me via 5 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:23,760 Speaker 1: what I will forever call the Ralph mcquarie method going forward, 6 00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:28,960 Speaker 1: meaning that I had started and sputtered out on several 7 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:31,480 Speaker 1: other topics. This is not uncommon. We're I'll start four 8 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: different episodes in a given week and they'll be like no. Uh. 9 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:37,319 Speaker 1: And after wrestling with it and trying to figure out 10 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: what was wrong with me and what I actually wanted 11 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:40,560 Speaker 1: to do for a while, I just went to bed 12 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:42,519 Speaker 1: and then I literally woke up in the middle of 13 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: the night, no joke, thinking vacuum cleaners. And then I 14 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: fell back asleep, and then I was still thinking it 15 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:51,400 Speaker 1: when I woke up to my alarm clock several hours later. Uh, 16 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: And I was like, well, I got to look up 17 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,200 Speaker 1: vacuum cleaner history and see if that's interesting, And it 18 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: turned out that it is to me very fascinating. Hooray. 19 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: Um track in human history how we clean and why 20 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: are cleaning needs have shifted kind of tells the story 21 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,319 Speaker 1: of human progress in a wider sense. So this becomes 22 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,880 Speaker 1: a really interesting way to look at human history. Plus 23 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,040 Speaker 1: we get to see the appearance of one of those 24 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: topics that just pops up repeatedly on the show over 25 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:22,360 Speaker 1: and over, and that is Paxton's Crystal palace. Uh. And 26 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: also my personal and sincere hope is that I will 27 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,679 Speaker 1: maybe finally be able to spell the word vacuum after 28 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: this without looking it up every time. Yeah, we we 29 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 1: just in this recording session recorded the podcast on the 30 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,120 Speaker 1: Dreyfast Affair, and I was having the same experience with 31 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,000 Speaker 1: the word alsace. Yeah, there are just some words that 32 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:42,839 Speaker 1: everyone struggles with the spelling on, and vacuum has always 33 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,880 Speaker 1: been mine. So before there were vacuums, getting floors and 34 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: draper reason things clean was of course a lot more 35 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: difficult and also a lot less effective. But people have 36 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: been trying to keep their living areas tidy for millennia, 37 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: and all of this effort is for good reason side 38 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:04,840 Speaker 1: for just looking neater. You've probably heard that household dust 39 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:09,640 Speaker 1: is composed of a lot of gunk. An estimated of 40 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: it is sloughed off human cells. Not all that pleasant 41 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,000 Speaker 1: to think about. About twenty percent that's left can have 42 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:19,359 Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff in it that's not exactly great 43 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: for your general health and well being, like pollen and 44 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:28,080 Speaker 1: bacteria and animal dander and lent insect particles. I'm gonna 45 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,959 Speaker 1: say dust mites that can be in there. You get 46 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,920 Speaker 1: the idea. Yeah. I also wonder if you have a 47 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: house like ours where there are many cats, how those 48 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:44,560 Speaker 1: proportions change. We have evidence of rudimentary brooms going all 49 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: the way back to in Egypt in India, so a 50 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:50,959 Speaker 1: long time ago people figured out that they didn't want 51 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: all of this dust and gunk around, even if they 52 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:57,079 Speaker 1: didn't know how it was composed. The ancient Romans were 53 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: known to use brooms as well, and sometimes an early 54 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: sort of mop that kind of had a sponge on 55 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: the end of a stick instead of the plant material 56 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: that was usually used for brooms. Brooms would continue to 57 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: be used, of course, throughout human history, although it is 58 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 1: not until the eighteenth century that brooms used in the 59 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:19,000 Speaker 1: US got a pretty significant upgrade. Before that, brooms were 60 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: made by tying materials like hay or corn husks to 61 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: a larger stick that served as a handle. This was functional, 62 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:31,519 Speaker 1: was not really amazing in terms of the cleaning ability 63 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,640 Speaker 1: the hay or straw or whatever that was used to 64 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,720 Speaker 1: make the bristles that would eventually fall out and need 65 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:44,120 Speaker 1: to be retied. The story goes that in a Hadley, Massachusetts, 66 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: farmer named Levi Dickinson got the idea to upgrade the 67 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 1: household brooms by using tassel like sorghum, which is a 68 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: cereal crop that he had growing on his farm, to 69 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,480 Speaker 1: make the brooms, and this offered such enhanced performance other 70 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: households started asking him to make them for him as well, 71 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: and those became so popular that this grew into a business, 72 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 1: so soon Dickinson was growing more sorghum to meet demand. 73 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: By eighteen ten, a machine called a foot treadle broom 74 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: machine had been developed to make better brooms that lasted 75 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,560 Speaker 1: longer than hand tied ones, and by the eighteen thirties, 76 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:25,040 Speaker 1: Levi's company, the CD, Dickinson and Sun Company, was supplying 77 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: other manufacturers with the equipment to make brooms. He had 78 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:32,360 Speaker 1: really like had a whole career trajectory over this, and 79 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: so clearly the cleaning industry had taken off. I really 80 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: feel like I was in a museum somewhere in New 81 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,479 Speaker 1: England that had one of these foot treadle machines. Probably 82 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,200 Speaker 1: I remember the docents talking to me about it and 83 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,159 Speaker 1: then trying to figure out which museum that was um 84 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:52,279 Speaker 1: I could not. I ran into just roadblocks. Throughout the 85 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, not only did broom manufacturer increase, but thanks 86 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 1: to the Industrial Revolution, textiles for the home became more 87 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:05,680 Speaker 1: available and more financially accessible to a wider range of households, 88 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 1: and that meant there were more surfaces to clean. They 89 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,360 Speaker 1: were surfaces that could easily absorb all of that dust 90 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 1: and then would that would get recirculated into the air 91 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: through the motion of sweeping. You've probably seen photos or movies, 92 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,359 Speaker 1: maybe you've done this yourself, people beating the rugs or 93 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:28,480 Speaker 1: the draperies with paddles as they hang them outdoors, and 94 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 1: that was really the only way to loosen up the 95 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:34,720 Speaker 1: dirt and the dust from the fibers. Unfortunately, doing that 96 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 1: also caused wear and tear on whatever was being beaten, 97 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:43,840 Speaker 1: so you've got a cleanliness at the expense of damage. 98 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: To be clear, these kinds of textiles and their cleaning 99 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: needs have been around for a lot longer than this, 100 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:53,159 Speaker 1: but before the Industrial Revolution, they tended to be owned 101 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 1: by the sort of people who also had a staff 102 00:05:55,640 --> 00:06:01,440 Speaker 1: to take care of the cleaning. Yeah, the the luxurious 103 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 1: and sumptuous textiles that were found in fancy homes up 104 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,119 Speaker 1: to that point, those owners didn't really understand the level 105 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:13,960 Speaker 1: of elbow grease that went into keeping them clean and beautiful. Uh. 106 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: In The first British patent for a mechanical sweeper was 107 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: issued to Edmund Hemming of London. This was not a 108 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,200 Speaker 1: home sweeper, to be clear. It was a street sweeper, 109 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: but its design was similar to the carpet sweepers that 110 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:30,600 Speaker 1: would follow. It had a circular brush that was basically 111 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:33,839 Speaker 1: a cylinder with broom bristles on it and that rotated 112 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,719 Speaker 1: as the wheels of the horse drawn cart rolled forward, 113 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:41,560 Speaker 1: displacing the swept debris behind into the sides of the mechanism. 114 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 1: That's basically how a lot of floor sweepers work, but 115 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,120 Speaker 1: it wasn't until eighteen eleven that a home use product 116 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:51,839 Speaker 1: with a similar design was first patented in Britain. That 117 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:56,039 Speaker 1: was James Hume's sweeping machine, which required the user to 118 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 1: place the rolling box in position and then turn a 119 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:02,720 Speaker 1: hand and crank to rotate the wheels and then they 120 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,400 Speaker 1: would move it the next position. This just sounds very 121 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: fitly to me. It sounds arduous, like you put it down, 122 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 1: you crank the wheel to get the brush to do 123 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 1: the thing. You pick it up, you do the same thing. 124 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: I would give up and just be like, well, I 125 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: live with a dirty floor, that's what's up um. In 126 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: eight three, another English inventor named James Hadn't Young patented 127 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: his hand sweeping apparatus. This integrated the handle, the brush roller, 128 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: and the dustpan into one simple machine, and it had 129 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:35,160 Speaker 1: a fabric cover. This one is interesting because it lists carpets, floors, 130 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:38,920 Speaker 1: and pavements as the surfaces it could sweep in the patent, 131 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:41,880 Speaker 1: and that makes it the first home you sweeper that 132 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: mentioned a carpet. Young invented a sweeper that had a 133 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 1: lot of features you would find on a carpet sweeper today, 134 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:50,960 Speaker 1: and he really solidified the design with his follow up 135 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 1: a year later. In that second iteration, the dustpan was 136 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:58,040 Speaker 1: hinged for easy access and the fabric cover was omitted 137 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 1: in favor of a box cover made of would. So 138 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:02,680 Speaker 1: it probably is starting to sound like something you have 139 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:07,000 Speaker 1: seen or used before. Lucius Bigelow got a British patent 140 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:11,680 Speaker 1: for his carpet sweeper several years later on Juty eight. 141 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:17,000 Speaker 1: This one is almost identical to a modern model, had 142 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:22,000 Speaker 1: large wheels at the sides that also drove the rolling brush. 143 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: The first time I ever saw one of these was 144 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:29,440 Speaker 1: in the library at my high school or my middle school, 145 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:31,920 Speaker 1: i think, And it was really good for like getting 146 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:35,000 Speaker 1: the little paper bits from our three from our like 147 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: spiral notebooks up off of the library floor. Like that 148 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: was really the scope of its ability to lift things 149 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: it's primary function. Also in eighteen fifty eight, Boston resident 150 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,640 Speaker 1: Hiram Herrick got a patent for a carpet sweeper, and 151 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 1: this one looked an awful lot like the British patent 152 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:01,000 Speaker 1: for the same device. It is basically identical to bigelow sweeper, 153 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: and it was almost certainly copied since British copyright law 154 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:08,000 Speaker 1: did not apply in the US. There were several similar 155 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:11,480 Speaker 1: patent applications filed in late eighteen fifty eight that also 156 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:16,080 Speaker 1: almost certainly copied Bigelow's design. One of those, designed by 157 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 1: Reuben Shailer of Connecticut, had actually refined the box that 158 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:23,720 Speaker 1: contained all of the components into a lower profile form. 159 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:27,560 Speaker 1: More than two hundred fifty patents for variations on carpet 160 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: sweepers were issued in the US in the last four 161 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: decades of the nineteenth century, although only about one fifth 162 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 1: of them were ever actually made, and most of those 163 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,760 Speaker 1: pretty quickly fell by the wayside. They didn't stay in production. 164 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:42,520 Speaker 1: Even Herrick, who had managed to get his into production 165 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: and seemed to be doing pretty well for himself, found 166 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: a lot of his high volume orders were canceled as 167 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:52,080 Speaker 1: this U S Civil War began. In eighteen sixty a 168 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:56,120 Speaker 1: man named Daniel Hess in West Union, Iowa, was granted 169 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:59,160 Speaker 1: a patent for a carpet sweeper that introduced the use 170 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: of air. Quote. The nature of my invention consists in 171 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:06,840 Speaker 1: drawing fine dust and dirt through the machine by means 172 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: of a draft of air, forcing the same into water 173 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: or its equivalent, for the purpose of destroying it substantially. 174 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: This machine needed a bellows to operate. He probably never 175 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: actually built one. Yeah, he may have built a prototype, 176 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:26,079 Speaker 1: He certainly never went into production on it. On June 177 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,880 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine, Ives W. McGaffey of Chicago got a 178 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: patent for his sweeper design that used a fan in 179 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 1: an upright machine called the whirlwind. It required a hand 180 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,440 Speaker 1: cranking to operate that fan. McGaffey was clear in his 181 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:44,200 Speaker 1: goal in his patent quote, the accumulation of dust and 182 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,400 Speaker 1: dirt in dwelling houses is a source of great annoyance 183 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:51,280 Speaker 1: to all good housekeepers. To obviate these difficulties is the 184 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:57,760 Speaker 1: object of my invention. The whirlwind was expensive twenty five dollars. 185 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,480 Speaker 1: This is at the end of the nineteenth century, and 186 00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:04,000 Speaker 1: while it was teetering on the brink of creating the 187 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: kind of suction that could effectively lift the dirt out 188 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:10,720 Speaker 1: of carpets, the fact that it was hand cranked meant 189 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:12,200 Speaker 1: that it was a lot of work to get the 190 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,840 Speaker 1: fan going fast enough to pull the dust and the 191 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:19,120 Speaker 1: dirt into the receptacle bag. So this whirlwind did not 192 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 1: really take off. He's so close, though. He has the 193 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:26,679 Speaker 1: idea of trying to hand crank a thing or use 194 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:29,840 Speaker 1: a bellows while also trying to sweep the sweeper like 195 00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:33,120 Speaker 1: that just seems like way too much effort. Yeah, you 196 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:36,920 Speaker 1: have to be um Like I I envisioned something like 197 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,800 Speaker 1: those one man band contraptions where somebody is just super 198 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:42,920 Speaker 1: dexterous and can do many things at once. In eight 199 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:46,079 Speaker 1: seventy six, two carpet sweepers were brought to the US 200 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:50,320 Speaker 1: market that proved very, very popular. The first was manufactured 201 00:11:50,360 --> 00:11:53,840 Speaker 1: by the Gore and Edgecomb Company of Indiana, and that sweeper, 202 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:57,080 Speaker 1: which was called the Lady's Friend, became a very big seller. 203 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:00,400 Speaker 1: It was a very simple sweeper, but it had rubber 204 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:02,920 Speaker 1: friction drive that helped the brushes pick up a lot 205 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:06,200 Speaker 1: more dirt and dust from carpets. Yea, As I was 206 00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:10,120 Speaker 1: looking for a picture to accompany this episode, it became 207 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:15,160 Speaker 1: clear that the idea that sweepers and vacuums and things 208 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:19,680 Speaker 1: might make a good gift for a woman that goes 209 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:24,439 Speaker 1: back to the very beginning of their existence. Unsurprisingly, we 210 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: are about to talk about another sweeper, and one that 211 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 1: has a name that you'll probably recognize. But before we 212 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:32,439 Speaker 1: get to that and how it was innovative, we will 213 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:43,880 Speaker 1: take a quick sponsor break. The other popular sweeper of 214 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,840 Speaker 1: eight seventy six came from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and it 215 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: was patented by Melville R. Bistle. Bissell and his wife 216 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,680 Speaker 1: Anna were in the crockery business when they started tweaking 217 00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:55,640 Speaker 1: the design of a sweeper that they used in the 218 00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,760 Speaker 1: shop to make it more effective at managing the dust, 219 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:03,400 Speaker 1: and soon they were manufacturing their own sweepers. The Bustles 220 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: sweeper moved the reduction gears that moved the brush to 221 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,280 Speaker 1: the center of the brush so it was away from 222 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:13,640 Speaker 1: the ends where the cogs were on other sweepers, and 223 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:16,560 Speaker 1: that meant this Bustle sweeper could get right up to 224 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: the baseboards and sweep up as much debris as possible. 225 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: They upgraded that center positioned gear drive to a belt 226 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:28,280 Speaker 1: friction drive and they named that the Bustles center bearing sweeper, 227 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: and the Bustles had Hustle like. They sold their sweeper 228 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:34,680 Speaker 1: from their wagon. They would take it out in the 229 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:36,679 Speaker 1: streets and they would be on either side of it 230 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:39,720 Speaker 1: kind of talking to potential customers, and they would demonstrate 231 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,240 Speaker 1: its effectiveness by using dirt that they picked up from 232 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:45,200 Speaker 1: the road to toss onto a rug that they traveled 233 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:47,559 Speaker 1: with in the wagon, and then they would show how 234 00:13:47,600 --> 00:13:51,720 Speaker 1: effective their design was it managing that dirt, and this worked. 235 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:55,280 Speaker 1: People were convinced, so the Bustles quickly built up not 236 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:59,680 Speaker 1: only direct to consumer sales but also shipping contracts with retailers, 237 00:14:00,080 --> 00:14:03,360 Speaker 1: and they had to pretty rapidly expand their manufacturing facilities 238 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:06,840 Speaker 1: just to keep up with demand. They also started building 239 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 1: luxury models made with beautiful wood finishes and marketing them 240 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:14,160 Speaker 1: as holiday gifts like Tracy reference right before the break 241 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:16,520 Speaker 1: it was like, this is a beautiful gift to give 242 00:14:16,559 --> 00:14:21,840 Speaker 1: your wife. No thank you. Uh. Thirteen years into the 243 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,640 Speaker 1: life of the Bistles carpet Sweeper company, Melville died of pneumonia, 244 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 1: and at that point Anna became one of the first 245 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:31,120 Speaker 1: women executives in the US because she took control of 246 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:34,720 Speaker 1: the company. She grew the company substantially, and she rolled 247 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: out one of the first employee health benefit packages in 248 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:42,080 Speaker 1: the country. And even Queen Victoria approved of Bustles sweepers 249 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:45,320 Speaker 1: being used in her residence. That's a pretty big endorsement 250 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:48,680 Speaker 1: and it was a huge boon to expanding their international sales. 251 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 1: In A gasoline powered carpet sweeper device was invented by 252 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:58,040 Speaker 1: John S. Thurman of St. Louis, Missouri. His patent for 253 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,920 Speaker 1: it includes the inventor's own and endorsement of its efficacy quote, 254 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 1: I have found, by observation of a machine with which 255 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:09,440 Speaker 1: I have conducted experiments that the renovator relieves and collects 256 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: nearly all, if not all, the dust and dirt from 257 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: the carpet over which it has traveled. So this still 258 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:18,720 Speaker 1: did not have vacuum power the way we would think 259 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: of it today, but it did use what Theurman referred 260 00:15:21,400 --> 00:15:24,440 Speaker 1: to as an air blast to do the work. This 261 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,080 Speaker 1: was a shot of highly compressed air that both served 262 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:28,880 Speaker 1: as a force to beat the dust out of the 263 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:32,200 Speaker 1: surface and as a blowing mechanism to send the resulting 264 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: uplifted dirt and dust into a waiting container. And his 265 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: patent paperwork for the Pneumatic Carpet Renovator, Thurman described it 266 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 1: this way quote The invention may be said to consist, briefly, 267 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 1: and a pneumatic dust extractor designed to be placed over 268 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,400 Speaker 1: or in close proximity to the carpet, whereby an air 269 00:15:51,480 --> 00:15:55,360 Speaker 1: blast is projected into and through the carpet, forcing the 270 00:15:55,480 --> 00:16:00,280 Speaker 1: dust out and into the collector where it's accumulated is 271 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:05,760 Speaker 1: subsequently removed. But while Thurman's invention was pretty effective, it 272 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 1: also was not something that the average person could purchase, 273 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:11,240 Speaker 1: and it wasn't really intended for that. It was intended 274 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: to be a service vehicle. And we say vehicle because 275 00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:16,600 Speaker 1: it was the size of a carriage and you absolutely 276 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:18,680 Speaker 1: had to have a horse to pull it. And for 277 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:22,400 Speaker 1: four dollars you could have Thurman's Pneumatic carpet Renovator visit 278 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: your home to give it a deep clean. Yeah. Also 279 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 1: on my list of no thank you is like anything 280 00:16:27,680 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: with an internal combustion engine to be used in my 281 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:36,200 Speaker 1: house powered by gasoline. Well it's outside, but the and 282 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,800 Speaker 1: then the hoses ran in. Yes, um. But the description 283 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,240 Speaker 1: of it as as gas powered it first made me 284 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 1: be like, sounds terrifying. It does. So this is where 285 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:51,840 Speaker 1: we get to Hubert cecil Booth. Booth saw all the 286 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:55,960 Speaker 1: efforts to improve on Thurman's pneumatic cleaner, but also felt 287 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:59,400 Speaker 1: like they were missing something and he believed correctly that 288 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:04,080 Speaker 1: suck shin was the key element that every effort was missing. 289 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: Bellows had been used on some versions of sweepers over 290 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:10,679 Speaker 1: the years. We talked about a couple earlier and that 291 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,920 Speaker 1: that sort of pulled in the dirt a little bit, 292 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,359 Speaker 1: but that was not a very effective method. So a 293 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,639 Speaker 1: brief and very oversimplified explainer on suction. It is all 294 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 1: about air pressure. So usually this is explained when most 295 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:27,639 Speaker 1: people are saying here's how this works. Uh, it's in 296 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:30,040 Speaker 1: terms of drinking through a straw. Right when you suck 297 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 1: on a straw, you're creating a pressure differential between the 298 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:35,639 Speaker 1: top of the straw and the bottom, and your beverage 299 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: travels from the area of higher pressure at the bottom 300 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: to the area of lower pressure at the top. In 301 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:45,199 Speaker 1: a vacuum cleaner, it's the same basic idea. Air in 302 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 1: a chamber is blown out of the chamber by a 303 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:51,120 Speaker 1: fan upward, creating a drop in pressure that creates suction 304 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,480 Speaker 1: at the air inlet. So if a machine has such 305 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:57,400 Speaker 1: a chamber and a fan blowing air out quickly, as 306 00:17:57,440 --> 00:17:59,959 Speaker 1: you run that inlet hole over a surface with particle 307 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,040 Speaker 1: is on it, those particles are sucked up into the chamber, 308 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:06,119 Speaker 1: and a filter keeps those particles from flying out the 309 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,320 Speaker 1: exhaust hole. And we should note that there is not 310 00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:12,120 Speaker 1: actually a vacuum and a vacuum cleaner, if you want 311 00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:17,440 Speaker 1: to be really scientifically um specific about it. This isn't 312 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:20,320 Speaker 1: an absence of air which would define a vacuum. But 313 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:23,359 Speaker 1: Booth claimed to have coined the term vacuum cleaner when 314 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:26,640 Speaker 1: he was working on his problem. Other people have said 315 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,080 Speaker 1: he was not the one, but regardless of whether it 316 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,040 Speaker 1: was him or someone else who first called it a 317 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 1: vacuum cleaner, that is the name that stuck. According to Booth, 318 00:18:35,119 --> 00:18:37,560 Speaker 1: he once had a conversation with an inventor of a 319 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 1: motor driven cleaning rig at an expo at London's Empire 320 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 1: Music Hall, and he said quote the machine consisted of 321 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 1: a box about a foot square, having a bag on 322 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,600 Speaker 1: top to which compressed air at ninety pounds pressure was supplot. 323 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:55,800 Speaker 1: The air was blown down in the carpet from two 324 00:18:55,800 --> 00:19:00,159 Speaker 1: opposite directions, as inventor trusted to the reflection for the 325 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: surface underneath the carpet to drive the dust and air 326 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:07,600 Speaker 1: into the box. Booth didn't see how this would really 327 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:10,119 Speaker 1: clean properly, since he suspected that a lot of the 328 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:13,080 Speaker 1: dust would get blown out to the sides as those 329 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:16,240 Speaker 1: two streams of compressed air met, and he asked the 330 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:18,360 Speaker 1: inventor if the man had tried to find a way 331 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:20,520 Speaker 1: to suck out dust rather than beat it out of 332 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:23,879 Speaker 1: the fabric with air blasts. And apparently this query was 333 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:26,720 Speaker 1: met with some bristle, Although we only have booth side 334 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,199 Speaker 1: of the story, but according to his account quote, he 335 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,719 Speaker 1: became heated remarking that sucking out dust was impossible, as 336 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:35,399 Speaker 1: it had been tried over and over without success. He 337 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:39,240 Speaker 1: then walked away. That quote and the one describing the 338 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,560 Speaker 1: mechanism are from an article that Booth wrote in the 339 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, and he doesn't name John Thurman specifically in 340 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,200 Speaker 1: that writing, but based on records, it appears that that 341 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:51,520 Speaker 1: was who he was speaking with and who he consequently irritated. 342 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,480 Speaker 1: Booth out a background and engineering, and it was a 343 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:57,879 Speaker 1: pretty impressive one. At the time, he was working for 344 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:01,760 Speaker 1: the firm Modsley, Sons and Field, which designed things like 345 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:05,840 Speaker 1: ferris wheels and suspension bridges all over Europe. So Booth 346 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: put his engineering know how to work and he set 347 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:13,200 Speaker 1: out to tackle this suction problem himself. Okay, uh, this 348 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:17,800 Speaker 1: is gross. So just know if you are really picked out, 349 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:21,480 Speaker 1: which specifically having lived through the last year and a half, 350 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,560 Speaker 1: this might really really horrify you. Just know, maybe hop 351 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:27,399 Speaker 1: ahead a little bit. Uh. In that same article from 352 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:32,960 Speaker 1: Booth described a really unhygienic thing that he did to 353 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:37,240 Speaker 1: test whether suction worked and how much suction was really 354 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:39,960 Speaker 1: going to achieve cleanliness in the way that he thought 355 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:43,439 Speaker 1: it could. So he wrote quote I thought over the 356 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:46,640 Speaker 1: matter for a few days and tried to experiment by 357 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,919 Speaker 1: sucking with my mouth against the back of a plush 358 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,760 Speaker 1: seat in a restaurant in Victoria Street, with the result 359 00:20:53,800 --> 00:20:56,959 Speaker 1: that I was almost choked. I came to the conclusion 360 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:01,160 Speaker 1: that I could construct a machine to work by suction. This, 361 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: to me, is so contrary to all of his smartness 362 00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:06,600 Speaker 1: in engineering. I'm like, wait, you just put your mouth 363 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,119 Speaker 1: on public stuff. Yeah. I'm also like, did you not 364 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:11,919 Speaker 1: have a plush surface in your own house? So at 365 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,919 Speaker 1: least it would be your own dirt at that point. Anyway, 366 00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:20,920 Speaker 1: the result of his efforts was a contraption he dubbed 367 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,440 Speaker 1: Puffing Billy, for which he received a patent in August 368 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:28,119 Speaker 1: of nineteen o one. It was large, like Thurman's machine, 369 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:31,439 Speaker 1: and it was pulled by horses. This trolley vacuum was 370 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,200 Speaker 1: a bright red box that looked almost like a shed 371 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:37,480 Speaker 1: on wheels, and the first iteration of puffing Billy had 372 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,560 Speaker 1: a piston suction pump, but he later switched that to 373 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,600 Speaker 1: a turbine fan, and Puffing Billy, which had been named 374 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:48,160 Speaker 1: after a locomotive, apparently, quickly became a popular site around London. 375 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,119 Speaker 1: It was colorful, and it was large, and for Booth 376 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: it was quite lucrative. Like Thurmon, he charged a fee 377 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,080 Speaker 1: to visit customers homes and he had a team of 378 00:21:57,119 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 1: operators employed by his company, Boost British vacuum cleaner company, 379 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:04,120 Speaker 1: and those operators would arrive on site, they would run 380 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,600 Speaker 1: hoses into the windows for the customer, and then they 381 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:09,320 Speaker 1: would start up the gasoline motor on the cart and 382 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 1: air was drawn through the hoses and filtered as it 383 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,960 Speaker 1: reached that red cart. There was also a showmanship aspect 384 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,120 Speaker 1: to all of this work, because the dirt that accumulated 385 00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:21,960 Speaker 1: was held in a glass walled receptacle that both the 386 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: client and passers by could see to know how effective 387 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,400 Speaker 1: the process was. A little bit of advertising while you're 388 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:32,119 Speaker 1: doing your job. This was a huge success, but Booth 389 00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:36,439 Speaker 1: was dogged by legal problems early on. Other inventors claimed 390 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,200 Speaker 1: that Booth had taken their idea and he was able 391 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:42,480 Speaker 1: to prove he had not, And some people also lodged 392 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 1: formal complaints about the trolleys themselves, saying that they were 393 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:50,679 Speaker 1: a nuisance that clogged streets and scared the horses. I 394 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:54,199 Speaker 1: mean it seems like it could, yeah, for sure. Uh 395 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 1: you know it's It was not a small contraption by anything, 396 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:00,280 Speaker 1: like I said, a shed on wheels. But Boo was 397 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: able to weather those early problems and soon his customer 398 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,880 Speaker 1: base actually included some very prestigious contracts. He was asked 399 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:09,919 Speaker 1: to clean Westminster Abbey in nineteen o two in preparation 400 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,879 Speaker 1: for the coronation of King Edward the seventh, and after 401 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,440 Speaker 1: that he kind of became a favorite of the royal family. 402 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:19,800 Speaker 1: Edward and his wife, Queen Alexandra actually purchased two puffing 403 00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: billies for the two major homes of the royals, Windsor 404 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:26,480 Speaker 1: Castle and Buckingham Palace. Hubert Booth was also able to 405 00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:29,879 Speaker 1: file a U S patents, and his brother Stone Booth 406 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:33,080 Speaker 1: ran a second office of their business in Boston, Massachusetts. 407 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,720 Speaker 1: During World War One, multiple puffing billies were used to 408 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,080 Speaker 1: clean the Crystal Palace. We have talked about Paxton's Crystal 409 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:43,040 Speaker 1: Palace on the show before. It was an immense structure 410 00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,040 Speaker 1: and during the war that fame structure was used as 411 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: a training facility for the Royal Navy, and when there 412 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:52,240 Speaker 1: was a spotted fever outbreak, Booth and his billies were 413 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,760 Speaker 1: called in and they cleaned a reported twenty six tons 414 00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:58,960 Speaker 1: of dust and debris from the building in a rafters 415 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,640 Speaker 1: down full suite. Even though Booth had cracked the problem 416 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:07,840 Speaker 1: of section this machine was enormous. There were buildings outfitted 417 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:10,439 Speaker 1: with their own setups based on Booth's design in the 418 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:15,280 Speaker 1: early twentieth century to create central vacuum systems, but those buildings, 419 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:18,280 Speaker 1: whether they were homes or hotels, needed to have a 420 00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,080 Speaker 1: spare room that they could dedicate to housing the main 421 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:25,000 Speaker 1: gasoline powered engine. And again this means there's a gas 422 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,840 Speaker 1: powered engine inside your home, which is not great for 423 00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:32,159 Speaker 1: various reasons. Obviously, it was not something the average family 424 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:34,760 Speaker 1: could really manage, even if they did have the money 425 00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:38,160 Speaker 1: for such a thing. In an advertising poster from about 426 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:42,080 Speaker 1: nineteen o six, the British vacuum cleaner company was obviously 427 00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:45,560 Speaker 1: appealing to very wealthy clientele with an image of a 428 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:50,400 Speaker 1: woman in a maid's uniform hugging and anthropomorphized vacuum sweeper 429 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 1: and with the caption friends. Ultimately, though puffing Billy was 430 00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:00,560 Speaker 1: outpaced by much smaller models. Your maids will love it 431 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:06,639 Speaker 1: very clear message. As electricity became more ubiquitous in the 432 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: early twentieth century, electric vacuums were developed no longer gas powered, 433 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:13,880 Speaker 1: thank goodness. And this is a period when a lot 434 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,919 Speaker 1: of names that we associate with vacuum cleaners still today 435 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:22,280 Speaker 1: started manufacturing vacuum cleaners, such as Electrolux and Kirby. Eventually, 436 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,280 Speaker 1: of course, the vacuum cleaner became compact enough that it 437 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: could be put into a form that you could push 438 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:31,440 Speaker 1: along the floor while standing upright, the way most folks 439 00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:33,960 Speaker 1: use them today. And we will tell you how we 440 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:36,919 Speaker 1: got to that after we hear from some sponsors that 441 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:46,919 Speaker 1: keep stuff you miss in history class going. In nineteen 442 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:50,080 Speaker 1: o seven, the idea of a personal vacuum cleaning device 443 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,840 Speaker 1: took a huge step forward. That was thanks to a 444 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,480 Speaker 1: man who had both asthma and a job that involved 445 00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,679 Speaker 1: heavy duty cleaning, which is obviously not a great combination. 446 00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:03,439 Speaker 1: That man was James Murray Spangler. Spangler was sixty and 447 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,360 Speaker 1: was working as a night janitor in a Canton, Ohio 448 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:10,440 Speaker 1: department store. He got the idea to start tinkering around 449 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:15,240 Speaker 1: with existing technologies for vacuum cleaners. He's famously said to 450 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:19,879 Speaker 1: have combined a setine pillowcase, a broom, and an electric motor. 451 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,480 Speaker 1: The way this story is often relayed. It kind of 452 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,720 Speaker 1: sounds like he was just a random guy he was 453 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:28,320 Speaker 1: trying to solve a personal problem. But really Spangler was 454 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:32,919 Speaker 1: an inventor. He had invented a velocipede wagon, a hay tedder, 455 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,640 Speaker 1: and a rake, as well as a grain harvester, and 456 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,240 Speaker 1: he took the cleaning job to make ends meet and 457 00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:42,240 Speaker 1: put together the funds so that he could just keep 458 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,439 Speaker 1: inventing things. He was supporting his invention habit with this 459 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:50,360 Speaker 1: cleaning job. Yeah, and he was initially actually modifying abistle 460 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,000 Speaker 1: carpet sweeper. He only attached a motor to it initially, 461 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,400 Speaker 1: which made the work go faster, but he still had 462 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:58,880 Speaker 1: problems with his asthma from the dust that it kicked up, 463 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,919 Speaker 1: and after that he decided he needed a receptacle for 464 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,199 Speaker 1: the dust. So then he built a machine from scratch 465 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,160 Speaker 1: using a wooden soapbox, a motor from an electric fan, 466 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: and a section of broom handle that he had cut 467 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:13,640 Speaker 1: down to size and made into a circular brush by 468 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:17,200 Speaker 1: stapling goat hair onto it. And he used the aforementioned 469 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,119 Speaker 1: pillowcase as the dust bag and attached a broom handle 470 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:23,480 Speaker 1: to push it around. And proof of concept was established 471 00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 1: at this point, so he soon made a second version 472 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:27,960 Speaker 1: that had a metal drum instead of a wooden box, 473 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:31,840 Speaker 1: and he refined the movement of the brush. Spangler's device 474 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,399 Speaker 1: sucked up dirt and then it blew it into the 475 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,760 Speaker 1: attached pillow case. And just in case you're wondering, satine 476 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: is a very tightly woven fabric, so it would have 477 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:45,919 Speaker 1: pretty effectively contained most of the particles while also allowing 478 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:50,000 Speaker 1: the air to slowly pass through it. This worked really well, 479 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,959 Speaker 1: and it was compact enough and upright so that a 480 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,480 Speaker 1: single person could manage it. You didn't need a whole 481 00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:57,960 Speaker 1: crew of people to come with a cart outside your house. 482 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:01,600 Speaker 1: Now I'm kind of like, I don't know that sounds 483 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:04,760 Speaker 1: fun too. You still can do that in some ways. Uh. Spangler, 484 00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,640 Speaker 1: buoyed by how well his project had turned out, applied 485 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,439 Speaker 1: for a patent in the autumn of nine seven, and 486 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:12,840 Speaker 1: then once he had that patent in hand, he quit 487 00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 1: his janitor job and he opened his own company, Electric 488 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:20,840 Speaker 1: Suction Sweeper. But while Spangler was clever and inventing things, 489 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,080 Speaker 1: he did not have a head for business. He had 490 00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:27,800 Speaker 1: investors and ordered motors and set up a production space, 491 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:31,159 Speaker 1: but he spent a lot more than his investors had committed, 492 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:33,720 Speaker 1: so he took out a loan and then he used 493 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:37,680 Speaker 1: his house as collateral. Yeah, these are basically like any 494 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:40,719 Speaker 1: rules of business. He was like doing the opposite of 495 00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:44,320 Speaker 1: This was obviously not the wisest move, and Spangler was 496 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:46,080 Speaker 1: soon in a position where he was not only going 497 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:48,960 Speaker 1: to lose his business, he was going to lose his house. 498 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,160 Speaker 1: But the day of sex Makina in this story came 499 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,200 Speaker 1: in the form of his cousin who had one of 500 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: his early vacuum cleaners and loved it, and whose last 501 00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,480 Speaker 1: name you will recognize in relation to vacuum clean That 502 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:05,239 Speaker 1: cousin was Susan Hoover. William Hoover was Susan's husband, and 503 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:08,280 Speaker 1: when his story meets up with Spanglers, the Hoover company 504 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 1: was focused on leather goods, specifically horse accessories. It was 505 00:29:13,080 --> 00:29:17,000 Speaker 1: not exactly a booming business as automobiles were coming into 506 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,640 Speaker 1: the picture, but William Hoover, unlike his wife's relative, did 507 00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:25,040 Speaker 1: actually have a head for business, so he bailed Spangler 508 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,560 Speaker 1: out by purchasing the patent from him, and then Hoover 509 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:31,000 Speaker 1: took a very methodical approach to developing a business model 510 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:36,240 Speaker 1: around this invention, He and his son's reorganized Spangler's company 511 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:39,600 Speaker 1: and assumed both its assets and its debts, and Spangler 512 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,160 Speaker 1: remained with the company as a salaried employee, and he 513 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,880 Speaker 1: also got royalties from sales, with Hoover helming a more 514 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:50,040 Speaker 1: structured rollout. Under this new setup, the vacuum cleaner went 515 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 1: to market with an army of door to door salesman 516 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,960 Speaker 1: ready to demonstrate the machines cleaning power and ease of use. 517 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,520 Speaker 1: The Hoover Model OH went to market at a price 518 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:06,920 Speaker 1: of sixty dollars. Attachment accessories were an extra package. An 519 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:10,200 Speaker 1: ad was placed in the Saturday Evening Post offering free 520 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:14,920 Speaker 1: and home demonstrations, and requests for home trials quickly outpaced 521 00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:19,320 Speaker 1: their production numbers. The Hoover Vacuum division stepped up to 522 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:22,720 Speaker 1: the challenge. Engineers were hired to improve and refine the 523 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:26,280 Speaker 1: design for better function, and after having to throttle their 524 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,160 Speaker 1: advertising and pull it back a little bit to catch 525 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,320 Speaker 1: up to interest, ads came back touting the long life 526 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:35,600 Speaker 1: of the motors that they had developed and reminding consumers 527 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,960 Speaker 1: that quote dust is full of disease. From there, the 528 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,320 Speaker 1: home consumer market for vacuum cleaners was established, and soon 529 00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:46,480 Speaker 1: manufacturers were springing up everywhere, either attempting to patent their 530 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,760 Speaker 1: own models or licensing the rights to manufacture other people 531 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,680 Speaker 1: and companies designs. Here's perhaps the most surprising part of 532 00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,680 Speaker 1: the vacuum cleaner's life SPAM as a home use product, 533 00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,200 Speaker 1: it has not really changed very much in century. Uh. 534 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,760 Speaker 1: They still all work and basically the same section principle. 535 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:07,800 Speaker 1: But there have of course been some innovations, and we'll 536 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,160 Speaker 1: talk about those, and one of the biggest was the 537 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,360 Speaker 1: introduction of a vacuum that you could pick up in 538 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:16,120 Speaker 1: one hand to deal with small messes. In seventy five, 539 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:20,360 Speaker 1: Black and Decker applied for a patent for a cordless vacuum, 540 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:22,560 Speaker 1: and this was a development that was many years in 541 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,920 Speaker 1: the making. While Black and Decker had a reputation as 542 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 1: an innovator in the nineties and fifties, over time their 543 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 1: mass market appeal had led to a perception that they 544 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: were making things that were kind of like a budget 545 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:38,560 Speaker 1: brand for the home user, only they got fewer and 546 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:43,120 Speaker 1: fewer high end contracts. This then impacted their products for 547 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:47,400 Speaker 1: the home market, though, because the innovation from those professional 548 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:51,280 Speaker 1: contracts was driving the technology that would eventually end up 549 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:55,600 Speaker 1: in consumer products. Yeah, that's still in most fields today. 550 00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:57,360 Speaker 1: Like how a lot of it works. It's kind of 551 00:31:57,400 --> 00:31:59,479 Speaker 1: like how people are like, why do we need oat couture, 552 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,240 Speaker 1: and it's like those are developing designs that you'll see 553 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:04,400 Speaker 1: on on racks in your local store in a couple 554 00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:09,720 Speaker 1: of years. Similarly, electronics and technology things are often developing 555 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,080 Speaker 1: high end contracts for things that they will figure out 556 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:16,440 Speaker 1: how to make at a more cost effective level for 557 00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 1: a home consumer. And that's exactly what happened here because 558 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:22,480 Speaker 1: in the early nineteen sixties, Black and Decker gained a 559 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:26,520 Speaker 1: contract with NASA to develop cordless no torque tools that 560 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,040 Speaker 1: would be safe for astronauts to use on missions. You 561 00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:33,080 Speaker 1: have probably seen photos from the Apollo fifteen mission of 562 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:36,200 Speaker 1: David Scott drilling on the lunar surface, and that tool 563 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,360 Speaker 1: that he's using was a drill specifically designed for the 564 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,280 Speaker 1: mission by Black and Decker. A tool was also used 565 00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,880 Speaker 1: on the Apollo sixteen and Apollo seventeen missions. Through the 566 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,640 Speaker 1: company's work with NASA, Black and Decker was able to 567 00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:52,640 Speaker 1: do enough research and development to start designing cordless products 568 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:55,920 Speaker 1: for the consumer market that led to the company's cordless 569 00:32:55,960 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: vacuum patent. After the dust Buster was launched in nineteen eight, 570 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,320 Speaker 1: and in a home appliance market that was being flooded 571 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:08,479 Speaker 1: with competition, that handheld vacuum for dry messes just clicked 572 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:13,080 Speaker 1: with consumers that outperformed all the projected sales numbers. We 573 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,320 Speaker 1: had one at my house growing up. Because it did 574 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,560 Speaker 1: so well, another pattern was quickly filed to protect the 575 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,080 Speaker 1: product's design form. Now, of course, there are vacuums that 576 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:26,120 Speaker 1: are much smaller for all kinds of specialized tasks like 577 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 1: cleaning keyboards and sewing machines. At the time, this was 578 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:35,600 Speaker 1: pretty revolutionary. Oh. I remember literally this being like discussed 579 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:39,560 Speaker 1: in my school and people being like, my mom is 580 00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:44,040 Speaker 1: getting a Dustbuster and it being this huge thing. Uh. 581 00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,959 Speaker 1: It was. It was the the acid washed genes of 582 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:54,280 Speaker 1: the cleaning world at the time. In famously, James Dyson 583 00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:57,640 Speaker 1: introduced a bagless vacuum cleaner, one that pivoted on a 584 00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:00,760 Speaker 1: ball rather than having two small wheels on the back end. 585 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,440 Speaker 1: He had already used the ball as pivot concept on 586 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,680 Speaker 1: another invention, which he called the ball barrow. Yes, that 587 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:08,919 Speaker 1: is a wheelbarrow with a ball where the wheel would 588 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,160 Speaker 1: normally go, and it was while solving a problem with 589 00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,120 Speaker 1: the painting of his ball barrows that he got the 590 00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:16,840 Speaker 1: idea for the cyclonic separation that would be central to 591 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,520 Speaker 1: the design of his new vacuum cleaner. The air filter 592 00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:23,680 Speaker 1: in his factory was getting clogged with powder particulate from 593 00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: the finishing spray that was used on the ball barrows, 594 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:29,239 Speaker 1: so he used a cyclone tower to separate out the 595 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,440 Speaker 1: powder particles from the air and prevent that build up 596 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:36,200 Speaker 1: on the filters. Cyclotic separation works like this. The air 597 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: is pumped through the top of a cylinder. It's conical 598 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,359 Speaker 1: at the base, and as the air, which is moving 599 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:46,000 Speaker 1: really quickly rotates through the cylinder, the particles in the 600 00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:48,640 Speaker 1: air are flung out to the outer wall of the 601 00:34:48,640 --> 00:34:52,719 Speaker 1: cylinder because they're heavier than the air is. As a consequence, 602 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:54,839 Speaker 1: the air down at the base of the cylinder has 603 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:58,399 Speaker 1: less particulate in it, so in a vacuum cleaner, when 604 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: it passes up through a central tube to the exhaust, 605 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:04,799 Speaker 1: it can be filtered. That leaves less debris build up 606 00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,480 Speaker 1: on the filter than if you had just sucked up 607 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,759 Speaker 1: the dust and dirt through a typical vacuum cleaner. The 608 00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:12,920 Speaker 1: build up around the sides of the cylinder can then 609 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:16,160 Speaker 1: just be dumped into the trash. Yeah, this was huge 610 00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,440 Speaker 1: at the time. When James Dyson developed his vacuum cleaner 611 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:21,680 Speaker 1: based on this idea, he actually had a really hard 612 00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: time getting it to market. That gets into a whole 613 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:28,239 Speaker 1: discussion of like why people did not want to adopt this, 614 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:32,919 Speaker 1: that we're already making vacuum cleaners. The prevailing discussion being 615 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:37,080 Speaker 1: around how that selling of vacuum bags was his own 616 00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:40,360 Speaker 1: whole moneymaker and nobody wanted to sidestep that. Uh. He 617 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:43,439 Speaker 1: had patented it in ninety nine, but it actually took 618 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:46,239 Speaker 1: more than a decade to get it perfected, and even 619 00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:49,200 Speaker 1: then no one in the industry was interested. Eventually he 620 00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:53,080 Speaker 1: had to introduce his g Force model through the Japanese market. 621 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,240 Speaker 1: At that point it was a whopping eighteen hundred dollars. 622 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:59,160 Speaker 1: But from that bumpy start, the Dyson vacuum cleaner line 623 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,879 Speaker 1: has can tinued and flourished still without bags to present day, 624 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,600 Speaker 1: with a range of models available. They're still kind of 625 00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: expensive for a lot of folks. So the low end 626 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,480 Speaker 1: is around three fifty dollars depending on where you shop, 627 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:13,440 Speaker 1: but certainly far less than that initial price tag. I'm 628 00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:16,360 Speaker 1: just gonna say, credit card reward points is how I 629 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:23,719 Speaker 1: bought myself. In two thousand two, the Roomba debut, and 630 00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:26,680 Speaker 1: that ushered in an era of vacuums that will bounce 631 00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:29,840 Speaker 1: around at home doing the little maintenance cleaning without a 632 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,800 Speaker 1: lot of human involvement. The first room bo was a 633 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:36,239 Speaker 1: thirteen point four inch diameter disc that was three and 634 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:40,520 Speaker 1: a half inches high. Others almost immediately were on the 635 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,560 Speaker 1: market by the end of two thousand three, and estimated 636 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:47,440 Speaker 1: five hundred thousand robotic vacuum cleaners were sold worldwide. And 637 00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,640 Speaker 1: in the Friday episode, Holly is going to talk about 638 00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:55,239 Speaker 1: how their room but died in Neto Robotics created a 639 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: robotic vacuum cleaner that uses light our technology to scan 640 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:00,920 Speaker 1: a room and then map out the most deficient pattern 641 00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:04,479 Speaker 1: for cleaning. And who knows what comes next, something else 642 00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:08,759 Speaker 1: very magical that we'll talk to you, We don't know. 643 00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,920 Speaker 1: This made me shockingly eager to vacuum because now I'm like, oh, 644 00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:17,920 Speaker 1: now I understand how this works, which is a miracle 645 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,920 Speaker 1: in and of itself. Yeah, I it is really interesting 646 00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:22,839 Speaker 1: to me. I had not. I mean, it's obvious in 647 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,960 Speaker 1: some ways, but I hadn't really thought about how much. Um, 648 00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:29,719 Speaker 1: you know, that availability of textiles really drove this, like 649 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,920 Speaker 1: we gotta figure out to clean it's better. There was 650 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,040 Speaker 1: one book that I read that said carpets are either 651 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:37,279 Speaker 1: the hero of the story or the villain, depending on 652 00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,080 Speaker 1: your point of view. Because that's what made everybody suddenly 653 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,520 Speaker 1: be like, how do we clean these? Yeah? I don't 654 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:45,919 Speaker 1: want to pick it up and take it outside every time. 655 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:51,040 Speaker 1: It just needs a little maintenance. Uh. And now almost never. 656 00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:55,919 Speaker 1: My first apartment was all hardwood floors and had I think, 657 00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:58,920 Speaker 1: like one small area rug next to the bed so 658 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:00,279 Speaker 1: that when I got out of the bed at my 659 00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:03,919 Speaker 1: feet did not hit cold wooden floor. And I did 660 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:06,040 Speaker 1: not have a vacuum of any sort the whole time 661 00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,560 Speaker 1: I was living there. I think I had like one 662 00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:12,879 Speaker 1: tiny handheld thing that I used for that little little 663 00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:17,160 Speaker 1: area rug. It was your inherited dustbuster. Probably it was not. 664 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,880 Speaker 1: It was I got it for Christmas. I think it 665 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,480 Speaker 1: had a cord, uh, and it had a little it 666 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:24,359 Speaker 1: had a revolving brush that it was a little more 667 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:28,600 Speaker 1: involved than a dustbuster was. And now there are rugs 668 00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,280 Speaker 1: that you could just throw in the wash and side 669 00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 1: step needing to vacuum clean them. Have one of those 670 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:37,560 Speaker 1: two us too, um, which is a whole other thing 671 00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:41,920 Speaker 1: that I can also talk about on the On Friday show. 672 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:46,400 Speaker 1: Because I don't like carpeting in rugs, um. But I 673 00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:50,439 Speaker 1: do like this listener mail because it's about cooking. Uh. 674 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 1: This is from our listener Greg who writes, Hi, Tracy 675 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:54,920 Speaker 1: and Holley. I enjoyed listening to your recent discussion of 676 00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:57,919 Speaker 1: ancient cookbooks. It reminded me of learning how to cook 677 00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,640 Speaker 1: from my grandmother. Seems there are things that transcend the 678 00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:03,600 Speaker 1: centuries when it comes to lack of detail in the instructions. 679 00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,480 Speaker 1: Before going off to college many years ago, I sat 680 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:09,600 Speaker 1: down with my grandmother to document some old family recipes. 681 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 1: She is from the Old Country, having been born in Greece. 682 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,160 Speaker 1: One of these recipes was for petstizzo, a Greek dish 683 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:19,400 Speaker 1: similar to lasagna, which by the way, delicious. Among the 684 00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:22,560 Speaker 1: ingredients was a quart of milk, with her instructions to 685 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:25,560 Speaker 1: take a quart of milk and pour it over the mixture, 686 00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,879 Speaker 1: followed by the baking. Making the dish for the first time, 687 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,239 Speaker 1: it was a disaster. The taste was roughly correct, but 688 00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:35,320 Speaker 1: the consistency was more like a noodle soup. My roommates 689 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:38,640 Speaker 1: were not impressed. It turns out quart of milk was 690 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,480 Speaker 1: just a description of the container and was not intended 691 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,279 Speaker 1: to convey any sort of measure of how much to 692 00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:47,600 Speaker 1: actually use. So grab the carton of milk and pour 693 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,319 Speaker 1: in just enough to saturate the mixture is what she 694 00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:54,399 Speaker 1: actually intended. That corrected. The next attempt came out much better. 695 00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,400 Speaker 1: Future recipes were documented by me watching her actually making 696 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:00,719 Speaker 1: the dish, stopping her as needed to measure what she 697 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:04,520 Speaker 1: actually used. Keep up the great work, Greg, Boy, do 698 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:09,080 Speaker 1: I know this story and grandmother's And it's funny because 699 00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:12,560 Speaker 1: I um I mentioned before, like my mom was not 700 00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:14,200 Speaker 1: into me being in the kitchen or any of us 701 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,440 Speaker 1: kids because that was like her domain. But like you know, 702 00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:20,319 Speaker 1: in talking to her or my grandmother, there were never 703 00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:22,160 Speaker 1: any measures discussed. It was like, oh, you want to 704 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 1: put in some cheese there, and you'll do a little 705 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:26,000 Speaker 1: bit of this, and it frustrated me to no end. 706 00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:28,640 Speaker 1: I'm like, we need accuracy and numbers or I'm never 707 00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:31,239 Speaker 1: going to figure this out. And now I do the 708 00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,160 Speaker 1: same horrible thing when people asked me how to make stuff, 709 00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:36,400 Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know. I just I threw in 710 00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,680 Speaker 1: a little bit. I don't know it came out okay. Um, 711 00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:45,960 Speaker 1: I'm just trying to be better about it. Um. But 712 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,239 Speaker 1: that's sometimes the fun, as you figured out. Also, you know, 713 00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:52,319 Speaker 1: sometimes those accidents can lead you to realizations that help 714 00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,600 Speaker 1: you develop new dishes. So it's all in good fun. Plus, 715 00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,359 Speaker 1: as I always say, which I learned from my father 716 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:00,359 Speaker 1: in law. When he retired, he started cooking a lot, 717 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,040 Speaker 1: and he said, sometimes I mess up, but I can 718 00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:04,759 Speaker 1: always eat the evidence, which is a great approach to 719 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:09,520 Speaker 1: cooking unless it's abysmal. If you would like to share 720 00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,200 Speaker 1: your cook ae, disasters or triumphs with us, you can 721 00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,200 Speaker 1: do that by writing us at History podcast at iHeart 722 00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:17,480 Speaker 1: radio dot com. You can also find us on social 723 00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:19,960 Speaker 1: media as Missed in History And if you would like 724 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:22,279 Speaker 1: to subscribe to the podcast and just haven't gotten to 725 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:24,200 Speaker 1: that yet, it's super easy. You can do that on 726 00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:26,799 Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app for pretty much anywhere else you 727 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:34,560 Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is 728 00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:37,759 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from 729 00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:41,160 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the iHeart radio, app, Apple podcasts, 730 00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:43,280 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.