carpet beater
I watched a television series about a family who ran a hotel in England in the early 1900s. In one episode, the maids were training to use a vacuum. None of them had seen or used one before, and they were scared the machine would suck up their feet.
The maids finally gave it a try. One was so eager that she pushed the vacuum too far from the outlet. The cord pulled hard on the ceiling light plug-in, causing a small section of the ceiling to give way.
The light and a section of the ceiling came crashing down, leaving them standing there in shock, covered in dust.
In other stories on my blog, I wrote about how we understand things better when we can relate to them based on similar life experiences. I could relate to that scene in the show because our house was built in the 1940s when electrical plug-ins were not a priority. Some rooms in our house had one plug-in, while other areas had none.
We eventually installed more outlets, but for years we used ceiling light plug-in adapters so we could plug things in without running extension cords across the floors.
I often pulled too hard on the cord when I had something plugged into the ceiling outlet. The light socket precariously leaned to one side. The Hubs was always on my case that I was going to burn the house down, but a gal has to do what they can to look respectable. Fortunately, I didn’t bring the roof down as the maids did, but I probably could have.
I was surprised to see that you can still buy these light socket adapters. I thought they were long gone. Have you ever plugged anything into one of these jimmy-rigged ceiling outlets?
The maid’s escapades got me thinking about the central vacuuming systems newer homes today have and how far household technology has evolved. I took a look around and saw many everyday things that would fall into this category.
In the 1800s, before fitted carpets and vacuums, the only way to clean a rug was to hang it outside and beat the dust out of it with a paddle-like device known as a carpet beater. The carpet sweeper was an improvement to this method.
Our house also had unfitted carpets. They were thin, the colour of mustard and came to about a foot from the wall. We eventually removed the carpets and the linoleum with the large floral pattern underneath to reveal beautiful hardwood flooring, which we refinished. I love the narrow, light-coloured style of the boards.
When we were doing some additional renovations, we decided to remove three-part walls to open up the small rooms. Every room had a door, as was the style of the day. That left us with the dilemma of how to fill in the floor where the walls had stood. A conversation between our contractor and a friend at coffee row relieved the friend had boards, salvaged from an old cafe, that were a perfect match. He graciously gave us enough to fix our floor—small-town living.
In 1901 Hubert Cecil Booth, a British engineer, patented the first powered vacuum. Initially, vacuums were massive, weighing hundreds of pounds. The show takes place in the 1920s, and by then, the vacuum had evolved into a smaller upright version.
Whether it was the vacuum, the telephone, stove, clothes dryer, the washing machine or television, at some point in time, all the things we take for granted today were new inventions that amazed someone.
Those inventors from the late 1800s and early 1900s would, in turn, be utterly amazed if they could see what is on the market today. Mr. Booth would be impressed that there are vacuums that can peel around your house by themselves, with your cat riding on it, cleaning the house when you are not home.
To me, it seems like there aren’t as many new inventions today as there was back then, but that existing things are continually evolving. I am sure this isn't the case, inventions now aren’t talked about as much because life happens at such a rapid pace, and we see new products all the time.
I admire people who have the kind of mind that can envision something and then follow through and create it. That is cool in my book.
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Thank you for reading.
Have a big fun day!
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