The Hoover Company

History

The first upright vacuum cleaner was invented in June 1908 in North Canton, Ohio, by department store janitor and occasional inventor James Murray Spangler. Spangler was an asthmatic, and suspecting the carpet sweeper he was using at work was the cause of his ailment, he created a basic suction-sweeper by mounting an electric fan motor on a carpet sweeper and then adding a soap box and a broom handle. After refining the design and obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper he set about producing it himself, assisted by his son, who helped him assemble the machines, and his daughter, who assembled the dust bags. Production was slow, completing just two to three machines a week.

Spangler soon gave one of his Electric Suction Sweepers to his cousin Susan Troxel Hoover, who used it at home. Impressed with the machine, she told her husband and son about it. William Henry "Boss" Hoover and son Herbert William Hoover Sr. were leather goods manufacturers in North Canton, Ohio, which at the time was called New Berlin. Hoover bought the patent from Spangler later that same year, founding the Electric Suction Sweeper Company for an initial capital investment of $36,000 ($1,290,000 today), retaining Spangler as production supervisor with pay based on royalties in the new business. Spangler continued to contribute to the company, patenting numerous further Suction Sweeper designs until his death in 1915, when the company name was changed to the Hoover Suction Sweeper Company, with Spangler's family continuing to receive royalties from his original patent until 1925.

The Hoover Historical Center

In 1978, the Hoover Company opened a museum in the old Hoover home in North Canton, Ohio on the campus of Walsh University. It is called The Hoover Historical Center, and is dedicated to the history of the Hoover company in Canton. The museum exhibits include a number of non-Hoover hand-operated vacuum cleaners from before the company started, and displays of Hoover products throughout the company's history. Also on display are some of the munitions the company produced during World War II to help the war effort, and Hoover family personal items.

The products sold under the Hoover brand vary increasingly from one market to the next. For example, in the United States, the Hoover brand is used exclusively to sell floorcare products produced by TTI. Meanwhile, in the UK and most of Europe, Hoover branding appears on Candy Group products including white goods such as washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators, as well as floorcare products. Current details of the product range available to consumers can be found by visiting the Hoover website for the market of interest.