Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Vacuum Cleaner |
Vacuum CleanerNoun1. An electrical home appliance that cleans by suction. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definitions |
Electrical Engineering | An apparatus which removes dust by suction, the energy being supplied by an electric motor. Source: European Union. (references) |
Occupations | Keeps working areas in production departments of industrial establishment in clean and orderly condition, performing any combination of following duties: Transports raw materials and semifinished products or supplies between departments or buildings to supply machine tenders or operators with materials for processing, using handtruck. Arranges boxes, material, and handtrucks or other industrial equipment in neat and orderly manner. Cleans lint, dust, oil, and grease from machines, overhead pipes, and conveyors, using brushes, airhoses, or steam cleaner. Cleans screens and filters. Scrubs processing tanks and vats. Cleans floors, using water hose, and applies floor drier. Picks up reusable scrap for salvage and stores in containers. Performs other duties as described under CLEANER (any industry) I Master Title. May burn waste and clean incinerator. May pick up refuse from plant grounds and maintain area by cutting grass or shoveling snow. May operate industrial truck to transport materials within plant. May start pumps to force cleaning solution through production machinery, piping, or vats. May start pumps to lubricate machines. May be designated according to area cleaned as Alley Cleaner (textile); Can-Filling-Room Sweeper (beverage); Casting-And-Locker-Room Servicer (plastic-synth.); Ceiling Cleaner (any industry); Engine-Room Cleaner (any industry); Floor Cleaner (any industry); Overhead Cleaner (any industry). (references) |
Personal Care & Hotels | . . more women are exposed to noisy household appliances. . such as. . the vaccum cleaner. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A vacuum cleaner is a device that uses an air pump to suck up dust and other small particles of dirt, usually from carpeted floors. Most homes with carpeted floors possess a domestic model for cleaning. The dirt is collected by a filtering system or a cyclone for later disposal.
The first hand-powered cleaner using vacuum principles may have been the "Whirlwind", invented in Chicago in 1865–unfortunately, its personal details seem to be lost in time. Subsequent varieties persisted throughout the 19th century, in all manner of shapes and sizes.
The first electrically-powered cleaner was invented by two men at about the same time. The first was H. Cecil Booth, a British engineer.
He noticed a device used in trains that blew dust off the chairs, and thought it would be much more useful to have one that sucked dust.
He attempted to test the idea by sucking the dust out of a dinner chair with his mouth. He nearly choked, but realised the idea could work.
He patented it in Britain, and created a large horse-drawn vacuum cleaner that was would park outside a building to clean it.
Booth never had great success with it, however.
The other inventor, in the United States did not have much better luck.
In 1906 Murray Spangler, a janitor in Canton, Ohio, jury-rigged a vacuum cleaner out of a fan, a box, and a pillowcase. He eventually sold the idea to his cousin's "Hoover Harness and Leather Goods Factory."
Hoover remains one of the leading manufacturers of household goods including cleaners, and Hoover became very wealthy from the invention.
In Britain, Hoover has become so associated with the manufacture of vacuum cleaners that "Hoover" is virtually a synonym of vacuum cleaner, indeed many people will often refer to their "hoover" and "doing the hoovering" even if the machine has been made by another manufacturer.
For many years after their introduction, they remained an expensive luxury item, but after World War II, vacuum cleaners became ubiquitous amongst the rising middle classes of the United States and, gradually, the rest of the West.
Two general configurations for vacuum cleaners have emerged as the standard for domestic use.
"Upright" vacuum cleaners have the pump mounted directly above the suction outlet, with the bag mounted on the handle which rises to approximately waist height.
Upright designs usually employ motor-driven mechanical beaters to help disturb dust to be vacuumed up. "Canister" designs instead have the motor and bag in a separate unit, usually mounted on wheels, to the vacuum head, which is connected by a flexible hose. Upright units, mainly due to the effects of the beaters, have been shown in tests to be more effective, but the lighter, more manoeuverable heads of canister models are popular.
Some upmarket canister models have "power heads", which act as mechanical beaters, but they are quite uncommon.
Most vacuum cleaners are also supplied with a variety of attachments which allow them to be used to vacuum places unreachable with the normal head.
Other configurations exist–some commercial vacuum cleaners are designed to be carried on the back.
Centralized home vacuum systems connect a canister, installed in a central location in the house, to each room via pipes, which only require a lightweight suction hose and head to be carried from room to room.
Small hand-held vacuum cleaners, either battery-operated or electric, are also popular for cleaning up spills.
Vacuum cleaners working on the cyclone principle became popular in the 1990s.
The air is forced around at high speed in a tighter and tighter circle inside a vessel. The dust particles are thrown to the outside of the vessel by centrifugal force, and clean air from the middle of the vortex is expelled from the machine.History
Configurations
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Vacuum cleaner."
Synonym: Vacuum CleanerSynonym: vacuum (n). (additional references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Where's that vacuum cleaner I brought over here? (Driving Miss Daisy; writing credit: Alfred Uhry) I never dance with a vacuum cleaner! (Et Dieu... créa la femme; writing credit: Roger Vadim ; Raoul Lévy) Yeah, and Mom also told you not to stick your dick in the vacuum cleaner! (Scary Movie; writing credit: Shawn Wayans; Marlon Wayans) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Vacuum Cleaner (1921) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Vacuum cleaner powering down. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | If you vacuum, use a dust mask (from a hardware store), a double-layered or microfilter vacuum cleaner bag, or a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. (references) | |
Women | Kuwait | In August the criminal court postponed hearing the case of an Indonesian domestic worker who was beaten to death with a vacuum cleaner by her female employer. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
vacuum cleaner | 2,900 |
vacuum cleaner bag | 224 |
miele vacuum cleaner | 162 |
vacuum cleaner review | 158 |
rainbow vacuum cleaner | 154 |
vacuum cleaner rating | 139 |
best vacuum cleaner | 131 |
vacuum cleaner part | 120 |
hoover vacuum cleaner | 107 |
kirby vacuum cleaner | 84 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "vacuum cleaner"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | fshesë elektrike (exhauster, vac, vacuum). (various references) | |
Arabic | مكنسة كهربائية (sweeper, vacuum), ممتص غبار, المنظفة الخوائية. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | прахосмукачка (vac, vacuum). (various references) | |
Czech | vysavaè (cleaner, Hoover, vacuum flask). (various references) | |
Danish | støvsuger (baby's comforter, comforter, dummy, pacifier, vacuum-cleaner). (various references) | |
Dutch | stofzuiger (baby's comforter, comforter, dry pick up, dummy, pacifier, vacuum-cleaner). (various references) | |
Esperanto | polvosuĉilo (vacuum-cleaner). (various references) | |
Finnish | pölynimuri. (various references) | |
French | aspirateur (vacuum, vacuum-cleaner). (various references) | |
German | Staubsauger (hoover). (various references) | |
Greek | ηλεκτρική σκούπα. (various references) | |
Hebrew | שואב אבק, שאבק. (various references) | |
Hungarian | porszívó (hoover, vacuum-cleaner). (various references) | |
Italian | aspirapolvere. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 真空掃除機 , バイヤー法 (all-terrain vehicle, baccalaureat, bacteria, bacteriophage, Bagdad, baggy look, bagpipe, baguette, basilisk, bass, bassoon, bath, baumkuchen, Bayer process, bazaar, bilingual, bind, binder, binding, bounce, bound, bow side, bucket, budget, bug, bug fix, bug list, bug report, bugbear, buggy, bus, by-line, holidays, honey wagon, pail, sand buggy, surf clam, vacation, vacuum, vacuum car, vagabond, vagina), 掃除器 , 掃除機 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | バキュー クリーナー , そうじき, し"くうそうじき. (various references) | |
Manx | glenneyder jiole. (various references) | |
Maya | haapab. (various references) | |
Papiamen | stòfzùiger (vacuum-cleaner). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | acuumvay eanerclay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | aspirador (aspirator, aspiring, exhauster, Hoover), aspirador de pó. (various references) | |
Romanian | aspirator de praf (duster), aspirator (aspirator, carpet sweeper, inspirator, sucker, sucking). (various references) | |
Russian | пылесос (vac). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | usisivač za prašinu (vac), usisivač (aspirator, hoover). (various references) | |
Sicilian | aspirapulviri. (various references) | |
Spanish | aspiradora (carpetsweeper, Hoover, vacuum). (various references) | |
Swedish | dammsugare (vacuum, vacuum-cleaner). (various references) | |
Turkish | elektrik süpürgesi (Hoover, suction cleaner, suction sweeper). (various references) | |
Ukranian | пилосос (carpetsweeper, exhauster, vacuum). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | máy hút bụi (cleaner, dust-collector). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-c-e-e-l-m-n-r-u-u-v" | |
-4 letters: avuncular, calcaneum, clearance. | |
-5 letters: canceler, caruncle, cerulean, clarence, maneuver, neurulae, revenual, vernacle. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)56 61 63 75 75 6D 43 6C 65 61 6E 65 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010110 01100001 01100011 01110101 01110101 01101101 00100000 01000011 01101100 01100101 01100001 01101110 01100101 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)V a c u u m   C l e a n e r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0056 0061 0063 0075 0075 006D 0043 006C 0065 0061 006E 0065 0072 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)566769878779237787167807184 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
