Did you know.... History First Vacuum Cleaner was patented as a "suction cleaning devise" in 1901 by Hubert Cecil Booth. It was't exacly portable - Booth's first vacuum was a wagon and long hoses were pushed into a house to suck up the dirt. An American janitor James Spangler made a smaller version in 1907, one that a person could acctually carry around while cleaning up. His brother-in-law, William Hoover, bought Spangler's invention and started Hoover Vacuum Company. The feather duster is a patented invention. The patent was awarded in 1876 to Susan Hibbard, who had to fight her own husband, George Hibbbard, in patent court because he claimed the invention as his own. Susan Hibbard's idea was prompted by seeing turkey feathers, which she thought could be useful, thrown away as waste. Other early feather dusters were made of goose feathers which were soft and sprang back to their shape. Feathers were also used to make small brushes for buttering loaves of bread to keep them soft; these were similar to modern basting brushes except that the use of feathers fell out of fashion. To make brushes for the hearth and the stove, wings still bearing their feathers from geese, chickens, and turkeys were popular "wing dusters," although they had to be kept from cats and dogs and were also meals for insects and moths. By 1900, dusters made of ostrich feathers were preferred for both light and demanding dusting because of their durability (read more). Toilet Brushes In the 1930's, the Addis Brush Company created the first artificial Christmas brush trees, using the same machinery which made their toilet brushes! In general, the type of material used to make a brush and its design was dictated by the intended use. The hair of animals such as horses, oxen, squirrels and badgers was used in household and toilet-brushes. Various types of plant fibers have been used, such as the piassava obtained from a Brazilian palm and palmyra bassine derived from the palmyra palm of Africa and Sri Lanka. Brush bristles were joined to handles and backs of wood, plastic or metal. Many household and toilet-brushes were produced by inserting tufts of fibers into holes drilled in brush backs (read more). The inventor Eddy Key received a patent for a mop holder in 1837. In 1933 Harry Drackett invented Windex, a product that still keeps America's windows clean. A female janitor was formerly called a janitress. The title custodian is sometimes given to janitors merely as a term of higher respect, however, generally speaking, custodians tend to have higher salaries, and more responsibilities. In some settings janitors are called housekeepers or housekeeping staff and in others they are referred to as maintenance or maintenance staff. Cleaning is one of the most commonly outsourced services. The source of this articles are Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Book of Firsts by James Buckley, Jr.
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