Fall 2009
Postcard / Hoover “Model O,” 1908
The first production electric vacuum cleaner
![The front of this issue’s postcard featuring a photograph of the first production electric vacuum cleaner.](/issues/35/cabinet_035_postcard_1.jpg)
![The back of this issue’s postcard bearing text that reads: “In nineteen oh seven, James Murray Spangler, a department store janitor in Canton, Ohio, concluded that his asthma could only be alleviated with a better type of cleaning apparatus. Using an old fan motor, a soapbox, a broom handle, and a pillowcase, he created the first electric vacuum cleaner. He subsequently improved his odd-looking contraption and formed the Electric Suction Sweeper Company after receiving a patent in nineteen oh eight. Sales were sluggish, however, and in the same year he sold the patent to his cousin’s husband, William H. Hoover.”](/issues/35/cabinet_035_postcard_2.jpg)
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