The Museum of Clean in Pocatello is ‘where vacuums go to die’ and here are 3 early models
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Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a series highlighting the stories behind local museum artifacts.
POCATELLO – A picture hanging in the northwest corner of the main floor of the Museum of Clean in Pocatello shows Don Aslett holding a suitcase that looks like a toilet.
The 89-year-old man founded the museum in 2011 at 711 South 2nd Avenue and has acquired the world’s largest collection of cleaning and hygiene products. He became nationally recognized as the face of cleanliness. He’s written numerous books on the subject and his seminars attracted quite a crowd in his heyday.
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Laura Simons, his daughter, tells EastIdahoNews.com humor was an integral part of his presentation and the toilet-shaped suitcase always elicited laughter because he’d carry it around and sit on it like a seat when he spoke to people.
Today, there are hundreds of toilets on display in the museum, some of which date back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.
But Aslett is particularly passionate about his vacuum collection. There are more than 900 on display, about 400 of which pre-date the electric era. Aslett’s favorite is the premium Ezee designed by James Kirby in 1914. This non-electric vacuum powered by a manual bellows system launched the Kirby brand, according to a museum exhibit.
“Nicknamed ‘The Grasshopper,’ it more accurately should have been nicknamed ‘The Inch Worm’ or perhaps even ‘The Caterpillar,'” it reads. “This is an extremely rare piece and indeed another of the museum’s holy vacuum grails.”
Among his collection are four patent models for the earliest carpet sweepers and cleaners. Here’s a look at three of them.
The World’s first vacuum cleaner
The earliest known vacuum design dates back to 1860. Daniel Hess of West Union, Iowa was issued a patent on July 10, 1860 for a design he called the “carpet sweeper.” It used roller brushes and bellows to create suction.
A miniature replica of his model is on the main floor of the museum, which is “the only physical piece of the Daniel Hess carpet sweeper in existence.” A placard below it describes how it worked.
“The bellows is attached to the wheels so that the operator’s movement … of the machine would cause the bellows to expand and contract. When the bellows expanded, they sucked the air and the dust in. When they contracted, they blew the air with dust into two cylinders with water that acted as filters, whose role was, according to Hess’s patent, ‘for the purpose of destroying dirt substantially,'” the placard reads.
The filters were designed to keep the dirt in one place and the cylinders could be emptied, cleaned and put back in the machine.
“This machine may be constructed upon a large scale, and may be used as a street sweeper,” Hess’ patent application for the device said.
Hess never successfully marketed his invention and there is no record that it was ever produced, but the fact that the museum has the only model in existence is historically significant.
J.B. Baker Carpet Sweeper
Little is known about the inventor of this early vacuum model patented on July 21, 1869, but the model on display on the top floor of the museum includes the original tag and is an extremely rare piece.
This device swept dirt from the carpet with brushes that were rotated by a wooden rod. Like contemporary carpet sweepers, it could be emptied through a trap door.
Gates and Potter Carpet Sweeper
Hanging on a wall near the J.B. Baker model is the Gates and Potter Carpet Sweeper model, patented on Jan. 21, 1879.
This was the first of two carpet sweeper patents issued to George Gates and Benjamin Potter. Their patents came three years after the Bissell Carpet Sweeper, created by Melville Bissell, the man behind one of the most recognizable carpet cleaner and vacuum brands in the world today.
Gates and Potter hailed from Grand Rapids, Michigan — the same place Bissell was from.
As the history on the brand’s website points out, the carpet sweeper was something Bissell made to make it easier to clean up his crockery shop. He never intended to sell it until people saw how it worked.
“Sick of constantly cleaning sawdust off the shop’s carpet, Melville invented and patented a one-of-a-kind sweeper. It didn’t take long for friends and customers at the shop to ask about buying the sweeper, and when they did, a new business was born,” the website says.
Bissell’s first manufacturing plant was built in 1883, according to a museum exhibit.
When Melville passed away in 1889, his wife, Anna, took over and became the first female CEO in America. She began marketing the product across North America and Europe. Under her leadership, it caught the attention of Queen Victoria, who “insisted her palace be ‘Bisselled’ every week.”
Today, Bissell is a “jack of all surfaces,” providing numerous cleaning products for nearly any type of mess. It remains a family-owned business after 148 years of operation. Mark Bissell is the CEO today, the third great grandson of Melville and Anna.
The latest vacuum models at the Museum of Clean date to about 2006. Simons and her husband are working to expand the collection to include vacuums of the future.
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The Museum is now in the process of merging with the My World Discovery Museum. The children’s museum will occupy the basement and second floor of the Museum of Clean and is expected to be complete this summer.
The Museum of Clean is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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