The other dust collector, 10 year-old Gregory Evans of Tuscola, Illinois isn’t fascinated with dust, but with the machines that collects it.
Collecting vacuum cleaners since he was three-years old, he has gotten to know the machines quite intimately differentiating the vacuum cleaners by sound. His unwavering excitement in finding a new model to add to his collection is unprecedented, even using the old terminology “carpet sweeper.”
The first patent to the carpet sweeper was given on August 30, 1901 to Hubert Cecil Booth, a British Engineer. In 1908, James Murray Spangler, who worked in department store in Canton, worked on a fan motor attaching it to a soap box since the carpet sweeper he was using caused him to cough. He further worked on his contraption and in 1908 received his patent. He formed the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. William H. Hoover improved upon Spangler’s design and soon after Hoover became a household name.
Bissell made other changes to the design by adding bristles, which is still used today.
Gregory is quite bright, knowing the differences between vacuums as to which contain bellows, have a crevice tool and which ones have bristles. His utmost place to visit is the Hoover Vacuum Museum in Canton, Ohio.