Vacuum Cleaners
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Wikipedia-Article "Vacuum Cleaners"
A vacuum cleaner is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from carpeted floors. Most homes with carpeted floors in developed countries possess a domestic vacuum cleaner for cleaning. The dirt is collected by a filtering system or a cyclone for later disposal.
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Configurations
Several general configurations for vacuum cleaners have emerged:
- Upright vacuum cleaners have the pump mounted directly above the suction intake, with the bag mounted on the handle, which rises to about waist height. Upright designs usually employ mechanical beaters, often rotating brushes, to help disturb dust to be vacuumed up; these beaters are usually driven by a belt attached to the vacuum motor.
- Canister (or cylinder) designs have the motor and bag in a separate canister unit (usually mounted on wheels) connected to the vacuum head by a flexible hose. Although upright units have been tested as more effective (mainly because of the beaters), the lighter, more manoeuverable heads of canister models are popular. Some upmarket canister models have "power heads", which contain the same sort of mechanical beaters as in uprght units, although such beaters are driven by a separate electric motor.
- Back-pack vacs are commonly used for commercial cleaning: they allow the user to move rapidly about a large area. They are essentially canister vacuum cleaners, except that straps are used to carry the canister unit on the user's back.
- Built-in or central vacuum cleaners move the suction motor and bag to a central location in the building and provide vacuum inlets at strategic places throughout the building: only the hose and pickup head need be carried from room to room; and the hose is commonly 8 m (25 ft) long, allowing a large range of movement without changing vacuum inlets. Plastic piping connects the vacuum outlets to the central unit. The vacuum head may either be unpowered or have beaters operated by an electric motor or air-driven motor. The dirt bag in a central vacuum system is usually so large that emptying or changing needs to be done less often, perhaps once per year.
- Robotic vacuum cleaners move autonomously, usually in a mostly chaotic pattern ('random bounce'). Some come back to a docking station to charge their batteries, and a few are able to empty their dust containers into the dock as well.
- Small hand-held vacuum cleaners, either battery-operated or electric, are also popular for cleaning up smaller spills.
Most vacuum cleaners are supplied with attachments that allow them to reach otherwise inaccessible places and to be used for cleaning such surfaces as upholstery. Wet vacs can be used to clean up liquid spills. Shop vacs commonly can accommodate both wet and dry soilage; some are also equipped with a switch for reversing the flow of suction, a useful function.
History
The first hand-powered cleaner using vacuum principles may have been the "Whirlwind", invented in Chicago in 1865.
The first powered cleaner employing a vacuum was patented by H. Cecil Booth, a British engineer, in 1901. He noticed a device used in trains that blew dust off the chairs, and thought it would be much more useful to have one that sucked dust. He tested the idea by laying a handkerchief on the seat of a dinner chair, putting his mouth to it and sucking hard. He nearly choked, but upon seeing the dust and dirt collected on the underside of the handkerchief he realised the idea could work. Booth worked to create a device operating on such principles, and patented such a machine in Britain: the large device, known as the Puffing Billy, was drawn by horses and parked outside the building to be cleaned; suction was then provided by an internal-combustion engine burning petrol (gasoline). However, Booth never achieved great success with his invention.
In 1905 "Griffith's Improved Vacuum Apparatus for Removing Dust from Carpets" was another manually operated cleaner, patented by Walter Griffiths Manufacturer, Birmingham, England. It was portable, easy to store, and powered by "any one person (such as the ordinary domestic servant)", who would have the task of compressing a bellows-like contraption to suck up dust through a removable, flexible pipe, to which a variety of shaped nozzles could be attached. This was arguably the first domestic vacuum-cleaning device to resemble the modern vacuum cleaner.
Another inventor, in the United States, had much better luck with an electric vacuum cleaner. In 1906, James Murray Spangler, a janitor in Canton, Ohio, rigged a vacuum cleaner out of a fan, a box, and a pillowcase. In addition to suction, Spangler's design incorporated a rotating brush to loosen debris. He patented it in 1908, and eventually sold the idea to his cousin's "Hoover Harness and Leather Goods Factory". In the United States, Hoover remains one of the leading manufacturers of household goods, including cleaners; and Hoover became very wealthy from the invention.
In Britain, Hoover has become so associated with the manufacture of vacuum cleaners that "hoover" (without initial capitalization) often is used as a generic term and even as a verb: "I've just hoovered the carpet".
For many years after their introduction, vacuum cleaners remained a luxury item; but after World War II they became ubiquitous among the rising middle classes. They tend to be more common in Western countries because, in some parts of the world, wall-to-wall carpeting is uncommon and homes have tile or hardwood floors, which are easily swept, wiped, or mopped.
Recent developments
Vacuum cleaners working on the cyclone principle became popular in the 1990s. These were adapted from industrial cyclonic separators by James Dyson in 1985. He launched his cyclone cleaner first in Japan in the 1980s at a cost of about US$1,800 and later the Dyson DC01 upright in the UK in 1995 for £200. It was expected that people would not buy a vacuum cleaner at twice the price of a normal cleaner, but it later became the most popular cleaner in the U.K.. Cyclonic cleaners do not use bags: instead, the dust collects in a detachable, cylindrical collection vessel. Air and dust are blown at high speed into the collection vessel at a direction tangential to the vessel wall, creating a vortex. The dust particles and other debris move to the outside of the vessel by centrifugal force, where they fall because of gravity, and clean air from the center of the vortex is expelled from the machine after passing through a number of successively finer filters at the top of the container. The first filter is intended to trap particles which could damage the subsequent filters that remove fine dust particles. The filters must regularly be cleaned or replaced to ensure that the machine continues to perform efficiently. Since Dyson, several other companies have introduced cyclone models, including Hoover, and the cheapest model is no more expensive than a conventional cleaner.
In early 2000 several companies developed robotic vacuum cleaners. Some examples are Roomba, Robomaxx, Trilobite and FloorBot. These machines move by themselves in patterns across a floor, cleaning surface dust and debris into their dustbin. They usually can navigate around furniture and find their recharging stations. Most robotic vacuum cleaners are designed for home use, although there are more capable models for operation in offices, hotels, hospitals, etc. By the end of 2003 about 570,000 units were sold worldwide.
In 2004 a British company released Airider, a hovering vacuum cleaner that floats on a cushion of air. It is claimed to be light weight and easier to manoeuvre (compared to using wheels), although it is not the first vacuum cleaner to do this.
Vacuum cleaner specifications
The performance of a vacuum cleaner, when mentioned at all by the manufacturer, can be measured by several parameters:
- airflow, in cubic feet per minute (CFM or ft³/min) or litres per second (l/s)
- air speed, in miles per hour (mph) or metres per second (m/s)
- suction, vacuum, or water lift, in inches of water or pascals (Pa)
The suction is the maximum pressure difference that the pump can create. For example, a typical domestic model has a suction of about negative 20 kPa. This means that it can lower the pressure inside the hose from normal atmospheric pressure (about 100 kPa) by 20 kPa. The higher the suction rating, the more powerful the cleaner. One inch of water is equivalent to about 249 Pa; hence, the typical suction is 80 inches of water.
The power consumption of a cleaner, in watts, is often the only figure stated. Many North American vacuum manufacturers only give the current in amperes (e.g. "12 amps"[1]) and the consumer is left to multiply that by the line voltage of 120 volts to get the power ratings in volt amperes (not quite the same as watts for AC current, see AC voltages). The power does not indicate how effective the cleaner is, only how much electricity it consumes. The amount of this power that is converted into airflow at the end of the cleaning hose is sometimes stated, and is measured in air watts: the units are simply watts; "air" is used to clarify that this is output power, not input electrical power. This is calculated using the formula:
| cleaning power (air watts) | = airflow (CFM) × suction (inches of water) / 8.5 |
| = airflow (m³/s) × suction (Pa) |
Electric mop combo
Some vacuum cleaners are combined with electric mops in the same machine: for dry and a later wet clean.
See also
External links
- Vacuum Cleaner Questions and Reviews
- Eight myths of vacuuming
- The Vintage Vacuum Cleaner Museum
- Vacuum Cleaner History - Gizmohighway Technology Guide
- Newcomen Society paper
- Robotic vacuum-cleaners:
References
- The origin of the vacuum cleaner - H. Cecil Booth, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1934–1935, Volume 15.