History of W.H. Hoover
Necessity and ingenuity have long been driving forces behind the world's great inventions, and the Hoover vacuum cleaner is no exception.The story begins in 1907. Murray Spangler, an inventor who worked nights as a janitor, was cleaning rugs in a Canton, Ohio, department store. But all the dust raised from his broom aggravated his asthma, and he called upon his inventor's creativity to find a solution to the problem.
Spangler gathered a tin soap box, a fan, a sateen pillow case and a broom handle, then assembled an odd-looking, cumbersome contraption that managed to pull the dust away from the air he breathed. He quickly realized that this "suction sweeper," as he called it, had enormous sales potential, and he began seeking financial backing.
Spangler's family friend, Susan Hoover, agreed to try the machine in her home. Before long, she was singing its praises to her husband, W.H. "Boss" Hoover, owner of a leather goods manufacturing shop. Hoover bought the patent from Spangler in 1908, retained him as a partner, and soon had six employees assembling six units a day in a corner of the leather goods shop.To educate the public about the product, Hoover placed a small ad in the Saturday Evening Post offering 10 days' free use of a Hoover suction sweeper to anyone who wrote and requested it. But instead of sending the cleaner directly to the potential customer, he chose a reputable store in each city from which requests arrived and sent the product to that store. He sent a letter requesting that the store manager deliver the machine and keep the commission from any resulting sale, then offered the store the opportunity to become a dealer for the Company. This laid the groundwork for a national dealer network which continues today as the main channel of distribution for Hoover products.
"Boss" placed trained Hoover sales representatives in dealer showrooms to demonstrate the products and also had them travel door-to-door conducting home demonstrations.
Meanwhile, engineers were designing new and improved methods of cleaning carpet in keeping with the mission of the Hoover engineering and design development program, which had been established in 1909.One of their most noteworthy innovations was the beater bar, introduced in 1926, which was the basis for one of the most memorable advertising slogans in history: "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans." Here's how it works: As a metal bar gently taps the carpet to loosen deeply embedded dirt, a bristle brush rapidly sweeps the carpet aided by strong suction.
The beater bar, further refined to become the Quadraflex agitator for double the brushing action, is utilized in most Hoover vacuum cleaners today. And countless other "firsts" have been developed by Hoover engineers over the years to give consumers their most-wanted convenience features. These include the disposable paper bag, the vacuum cleaner headlight, the self-propelled feature and the side-mounted attached hose feature, for which Hoover received a patent in 1936 - long before consumers showed an interest in it.
This dedication to innovation has kept Hoover America's No. 1 name in vacuum cleaners and the leading manufacturer of floor care appliances.The Company was owned by the Hoover family until the 1940s, when it became publicly owned. The Company's stock was first traded on Aug. 6, 1943. In 1985, Hoover was acquired by Chicago Pacific Corp., and in 1989, Maytag acquired Chicago Pacific. As a result, Hoover belongs to a family of companies with some of the most prestigious names in home appliances, including Jenn-Air, Blodgett and Magic Chef.
Maytag common stock is traded under the symbol MYG on the New York Stock Exchange. (Learn more about Hoover's corporate parent at www.maytagcorp.com )
Today, Maytag's diversified business portfolio is organized into four groups: Home Appliance Solutions Group, of which Hoover is a major division; Commercial Solutions Group, which includes commercial cooking, laundry and floor-care products, and vending machines; Global Solutions Group, which develops business opportunities worldwide; and Emerging Business Solutions Group, which exploits opportunities in electronic commerce and business systems.
THE WAR YEARS
In 1942, The Hoover Company ceased manufacturing vacuum cleaners and focused its attention on aiding the war effort. Plastic molding presses were modified to turn out helmet liners. Sewing machines and other equipment that had been used to make dust bags for vacuum cleaners were used to produce parachutes for fragmentation bombs. Hoover also produced a component for the variable time or proximity fuze, credited by many military experts with helping to win the war. This fuze was designed to explode a projectile when it came within lethal range of its target, eliminating the need for direct hits.
For their efforts, the Company and its employees won every possible government award, including the Army-Navy "E" for Excellence banner five times, and the Navy Bureau of Ordnance Production "E" with a three-star pennant - one of only nine such awards made throughout the nation.
Besides producing military items to help the Allies win the war, The Hoover Company worked to rescue children of employees at its plant in Perivale, England. Eighty-four British children were taken out of harm's way during the Nazi bombing of Great Britain and brought to North Canton, where they lived in the homes of Hoover employees and other members of the community.
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