Hubert Cecil Booth

Booth was born in Gloucester in 1871 and went to study in London at the City and Guilds Institute. 

He worked on the design of engines for Royal Navy battleships, then was commissioned to work on a Ferris Wheel at Earl's Court and went on to work on others in Blackpool, Vienna and Paris.

By chance Booth was in the Empire Music Hall one day in 1901 when a demonstration of a mechanical 'aspirator' was taking place. The aspirator had been developed in the US to clean railway cars and had a motor to create pressurized air to blow dirt away. Booth wondered whether suction wouldn't work better.

He went away and created the 'Puffing Billy' which consisted of a suction pump, tube and a collection box. The machine was powered by gasoline which meant that the motor was so large that it had to be transported to the house to be cleaned by horse-drawn cart, kept on the pavement during use and therefore the hose needed to be over 80 feet long ! News spread and the machine became a novelty. Wealthy homeowners held tea parties to watch the cleaners at work.

He continued working on his invention and in 1906 a portable version was built and the British Vacuum Cleaner Company established in order to market it. Booth hired out the cleaning services of the Vacuum cleaner transforming standards of cleanliness in wealthy homes across London. Having cleaned the carpet in Westminster Abbey for the coronation of Edward VII, his clients went on to include Wilhelm II of Germany, Nicholas II of Russia and the House of Commons.