Hubert Cecil Booth, the engineer who gave prestige to cleaning by inventing the vacuum cleaner
The headache of cleaning at home was solved by Hubert Cecil Booth in 1901 with the invention of the first suction engine.Until then it was easier to blow to move dirt or, simply, hide it under the carpet, but thanks to the British engineer, cleaning became fun and not exempt from prestige.Thanks to his invention, there is no home that currently does not have one to clean soils and carpets, although technological development has endowed them with such autonomy that they are authentic robots that do not need the hand of man.
Hubert Cecil Booth nació en Gloucester (Inglaterra) tal día como hoy de hace 147 años, el 4 de julio de 1871. Su padre, Abraham Booth, era un comerciante que tuvo que ver con el desarrollo de las líneas telefónicas transatlánticas, y tenía cinco hermanos. Fue un buen estudiante que a los 18 años escogió la rama de ingeniería para su formación al ingresar en el Colegio Técnico Central de Londres, más conocido después como City & Guilds Engineering College, tras superar un exigente examen de ingreso. Allí completó un curso de tres años en ingeniería civil e ingeniería mecánica destacando entre los mejores alumnos de la promoción.
Más informaciónEl rey de las aspiradoras tiene más tierras que Isabel IIEn diciembre de 1892 Hubert ingresó en la empresa Maudslay Sons & Field como ingeniero civil, diseñando puentes y norias para parques de atracciones en Londres, París y Viena, al mismo tiempo que trabajó en el diseño de motores para acorazados de la Royal Navy británica y hasta de una fábrica de acero en Bélgica.
But Hubert Cecil Booth is known for presenting in society one of the first engine vacuum cleaners.Before he achieved his version of the vacuum cleaner, the cleaning machines of the time blew or simply brushed the dirt.In 1901, a fact would change this situation forever and one of the most useful cleaning elements: Booth attended a demonstration of an American machine in the Empire Music Hall in London.According to Booth's description, the device was destined to clean the railway cars and consisted of an air pump that expelled the air and blowing the dust, but did not eliminate it, but dispersed it.
This did not satisfy the young engineer, who thought there should be a better solution, so simple but at the same time as complex as doing the opposite, sucking instead of blowing.Booth believed that if a filter was placed before the pump and the dust could be retained in a receptacle the process would be invested and a machine that would perform a much more efficient work could be built.So he decided to try an experiment: he placed a handkerchief in the seat of a chair in a restaurant, placed his lips on the handkerchief and sucked the air until he almost breathed.When he saw that he had accumulated a lot of dust in the handkerchief he knew that his idea was feasible.
Hubert Cecil Booth built a machine propelled by an internal combustion engine.He used a piston pump to aspire air through flexible pipes and a filter made of cloth.It was a large machine and had to be dragged by horses, while staying out of the building while cleaning and the pipes stood out through the windows to be able to enter the rooms.
Más informaciónEl embrión de los robots personales del futuro puede ser una aspiradoraPeople called him ‘Puffing Billy’ and he himself demonstrated his invention for the houses.The next vacuum was of electricity, but it was still great to enter the buildings.In the following decades, Booth founded British Vacuum Cleaner Company (BVCC), which offered cleaning services and whose president and general director was him.They had bright red vans that contained the vacuum cleaners (a term actually used for the first time by the company that marketed the Booth machines) and used by uniformed operators.
But the invention also received criticism, especially because of the noise, which is why they would end up fine.However, when obtaining the real seal of approval of its utility, the Motorized Booth vacuum cleaner was used to cleanTo improve the level of sanitation in naval barracks and theaters and stores, although he was too large to be used as an appliance.
On one occasion, when cleaning the real currency house, Booth was arrested because his machine had collected a large amount of silver dust from the coins and had forgotten to empty it, although he was quickly released.
Hubert Cecil Booth received his first patents on February 18 and August 30, 1901, respectively.He founded the Goblin company to sell aspiration cleaning services and refined his invention over the years.However, in the domestic market of vacuum cleaners, Goblin lost in front of Hoover's competition, but the Booth company focused successfully in the industrial market, building increasingly large models for factories and stores.For this reason, "Hoover" is synonymous in English of "passing the vacuum", although the invention is from Booth.
Más informaciónRoomba, la aspiradora que te espíaCecil Booth continued to perform engineering work until 1940 with a large design curriculum of steel structures.Between 1914 and 1918 he managed to install many aspiration cleaning plants in dangerous products factories, and during an epidemic in the United Kingdom he dedicated himself to cleaning the glass palace in Sydenham for admiralty.
After World War I built hanging bridges in Burma, India and South Africa, as well as numerous bridges for railway companies in the United Kingdom.Booth's wife was one of Francis Tring Pearce's daughters, Director of Priday, Metford and Company Limited.She died on January 14, 1955, in Croydon (England), but his invention became the best legacy for hygiene and domestic cleaning.A century later, current modern vacuum cleaners are still based on the principles invented and used by Booth.
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