Carpet sweeper (Bissell)
Barredera de alfombras (Bissell)
- Date
- 1876 · confidence high
- Place
- Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
- Credited to
- Melville Bissell
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A mechanical sweeper with a rotating brush that gathers dust into a pan when pushed over the carpet. Melville Bissell devised it; he ran a china shop and wanted to avoid straw dust.
Earlier mechanical sweepers existed (Daniel Hess, Iowa, 1860); Bissell's, patented in 1876, was the first to sell successfully.
What it led to
- carpet cleaning without raising dust
- the Bissell company and industrialised household cleaning
- suction vacuum cleaners in the 1900s