Daniel Hess of West Union, Iowa invented a vacuum cleaner in 1860, calling it a carpet sweeper instead of a vacuum cleaner. His machine did, in fact, have a rotating brush like a traditional carpet sweeper, and also possessed an elaborate bellows mechanism on top of the body to generate suction of dust and dirt. Hess received a patent (US No. 29.077) for his invention of the vacuum cleaner on July 10, 1860 British engineer, Hubert Cecil Booth patented a motorized vacuum cleaner on August 30, 1901. Booth's machine took the form of a large, horse-drawn, petrol-driven unit, which was parked outside the building to be cleaned with long hoses being fed through the windows. Booth first demonstrated his vacuuming device in a restaurant that same year and successfully sucked dirt. More Americans inventors introduced variations of the same cleaning-by-suction type contraptions. For example, Corinne Dufour invented a device that sucked dust into a wet sponge; and, David Kenney designed a huge machine that was installed in a cellar and connected to a network of pipes leading to each room of a house. Of course, these early versions of vacuum cleaners were bulky, noisy, smelly, and unsuccessful.
