Dream machine

It was so heavy and cumbersome that it had to be transported on a horse-drawn carriage, yet the Puffing Billy revolutionised the way we clean our homes

Putting the vac round – a quick household chore that we take for granted but that makes the world of difference to our surroundings. It might take us less than ten minutes to clear the carpet of dust and crumbs with a vacuum cleaner, yet for our ancestors 120 years ago it was a new and remarkable concept. The bystanders in the picture above are gathered round one of Hubert Cecil Booth’s early vacuum cleaning machines, known as the Puffing Billy, which he patented in September 1901.

Booth’s machine was so heavy it had to be transported by horse and cart and was so large it couldn’t actually fit inside the house it was cleaning. Instead, it pulled up outside and a spaghetti tangle of tubes was passed through the windows and used powerful suction to pick up the dust through nozzles on the ends of the tubes. Its petrol-engine powered piston pump made such a fearful racket that it frightened passing horses and drew a crowd who variously marvelled at the new invention or looked on suspiciously. Homeowners had to book in the services of the extraordinary machine by appointment, playing their part in what was to become a household cleaning revolution. Puffing Billy was, of course, the forerunner of the smaller, lighter and quieter cylinder machines we use today, developed over the years from Booth’s prototype. The rest is cleaning history.