Hubert Cecil Booth Biography and Facts: Everything You Need to Know

Ever wondered what cleaning would be like without vacuum cleaners, well, no need to wonder, because British inventor and civil engineer, Hubert Cecil Booth, eliminated that possibility.

Hubert Cecil Booth is an engineer popularly known for creating the first motorized vacuum cleaner. The British inventor changed the course of cleaning forever with his ‘Puffing Billy’, as he dubbed it. This invention had the basic components found in all modern vacuum cleaners.

Prior to its invention in Europe, rugs were cleaned by taking them outside homes and beating them vigorously to remove debris, once a year. This rigorous process has become a thing of the past, as early vacuum cleaners were able to clean carpets from the comfort of homeowners; no wonder its popularity and success in Europe and beyond.

Hubert Cecil Booth – Biography

Hubert was born on the 4th day of July 1871, in Gloucester to Abraham ^CecilBooth, a lumber merchant. The identity of his mother is not known. Hubert had four siblings, all male. Growing up, Hubert would have lived not only with his family members, but also with servants and visitors.

He began his education at Gloucester College and Gloucester Country School and in 1889 entered Central Technical College, City and Guild, London, where he completed a three-year course in civil and mechanical engineering. He married the daughter of Francis Mary Tring Pearce, director of Priday Metford and Co, Charlotte Mary, in 1903. The couple had two children, Francis and Edward.

The British engineer started his career as a draftsman at Maudslay Sons and Field. At Maudslays he designed engines for Royal Navy battleships. Earlier in his career, he was involved in the design and execution of large engines used to create breathtaking attractions.

One of its well-known contraptions is the Ferris wheel used in amusement parks. Its fame began when it was inspired at the Empire Music Hall in 1901, where an inventor presented a new device capable of blowing at high pressure to remove dust. While Booth was fascinated, he wondered why this device was removing dust instead of sucking it up, so he began the process of reversing the process.

Booth’s interest was piqued by a mechanical vacuum at St. Pancras Station, which was used to clean the carriages. Although it worked the same way Booth once encountered it, these inventions caused Booth to search for a more efficient way to clean up the dust.

To find out if his dust-vacuuming idea was feasible, Booth did a little experiment by placing a handkerchief on a velvet seat and sucking on it. He inhaled enough dust to make him cough, and the underside of the handkerchief was covered in a layer of dust. it showed that his idea was worth the hunt.

In 1901, Booth invented the first vacuum cleaner, and patented it in the same year. The device consists of a suction pump, attached to a hollow tool. It also included a flexible tube that was open at one end and connected to a dirt trap that served as a filter. the Puffing Billy had a gasoline-powered generator which was large and bulky and had to be transported to each house using a horse-drawn cart. A pipe of about 8 feet, passing through the window and entering the buildings, was attached to the device, while the other parts of the device remained outside.

In 1906, when electricity became popular, Bootha was able to develop a more portable version of his vacuum cleaner. He also set up the British Vacuum Cleaner Company to market his products. Soon after, word of Booth’s invention reached the English Palace and the machine was used to clean the carpet that was leaking down the center aisle of Westminster Abbey.

News of Booth’s invention spread to many countries and inspired and inspired many other inventors who came up with modified versions of the Puffing Billy and is the reason we have our contemporary vacuum cleaners.

What you need to know about Hubert Cecil Booth

Besides constructing the Ferris wheel, Hubert was involved in the design and construction of “big wheels”, which ranged in diameter from 270 feet to 300 feet. These wheels were used in amusement parks in London, Vienna and Paris.

In 1897 he was elected an associate member and became a bona fide member in 1910. He was also a member of the City and Guilds of London Institute.

In 1900 Hubert started a consultancy business in London.

After his invention of the vacuum cleaner, Hubert occupied himself with the design and construction of steel railways, suspension man bridges, suspension and suspension bridges, factory factories and other structural steel works, in India and parts of Africa.

During the First World War, Hubert delivered and installed vacuum cleaners in high explosive factories and will be remembered in particular for the application of his invention at Crystal Palace in Sydenham for the Admiralty during an epidemic of fever. After application, the fever subsided almost immediately.

He turned down an offer to be knighted, and on January 14, 1955, Booth left the ghost town of Croydon, London, aged 83.