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James Murray Spangler needed his janitor job, but he was allergic to dust. Soon his sneezing and coughing were so bad that he knew he'd have to do something about the dust or quit his job. As an inventor, he was sure he could come up with a better method of cleaning.
His first idea was to put the motor from an electric fan on the sweeper brush to make the machine easier to push. This worked too well. The power-driven brush threw up even larger clouds of dust.
But Spangler saw that his idea could work. He decided to experiment with using the fan to pull air and dust into a pillowcase. This worked well enough to show him that he was on the right track. Spangler made a roller brush from goat bristles (the stiff hairs that grow on the back and sides of the goat). He stapled them to a piece of broom handle. Using tougher metal, he built a stronger fan and let the original fan motor power it. Then he carefully attached his fan and motor to his pillowcase dust bag and goat bristle brush. Finally, Spangler sealed everything inside a wooden soap box with adhesive tape to make it airtight.
Murray Spangler's suction sweeper was a huge success. Not only could he work without coughing, but he also spent less time cleaning. That left him plenty of time to think about better methods of producing his machine. Perhaps this was the invention that would make money for him at last.
Copyright ©1997 by Elaine Marie Alphin