Chapter II

REQUIREMENTS OF AN IDEAL VACUUM CLEANING SYSTEM.

Before a comparison of the relative merits of any line of appliances, used for any one purpose, can be intelligently made, one must have either some form of that apparatus which we consider as a standard for comparison that we may rate all others as inferior or superior thereto, or else an ideal of a perfect system must be assumed, and the measures with which each of the various appliances approaches the requirements of the ideal will establish their relative merits.

The author has elected to use the latter method in comparing the various systems of vacuum cleaning, and it is necessary, therefore, to first determine what are the requirements we shall impose on the ideal system.

An ideal vacuum cleaning system would be one which, when installed in any building, will displace all appliances used for dry cleaning in the semi-annual renovating or house cleaning, the weekly cleaning or Friday sweeping and the daily supplemental cleaning. If our system be truly an ideal one, the premises should never become so dirty as to require any semi-annual cleaning at all, and, if the daily cleaning be anyway thorough, there need be no weekly cleaning. This latter condition may be governed by the will of the housekeeper or janitor.

The compressed air cleaners first introduced were intended for use only at the semi-annual cleaning and they were in reality carpet renovators, which were assumed as imparting to the carpets all the beneficial results that could be obtained by taking them up and sending them to a carpet-cleaning establishment, with the advantage over this latter method, that the labor of removal and replacement of the carpets was rendered unnecessary, but with the disadvantage that all the germ-laden air, used as a means of cleaning the carpets, was blown back into the apartment, leaving the germs in their former abode.

This disadvantage, however, is partly offset by the fact that while the majority of the germs in one’s own carpet are blown out at the carpet cleaners, a mixed company of germs from your neighbors’ and others’ carpets, which may be in the tumbling barrel at the same time with your own, are returned to you with your carpet.

Neither of these conditions is ideal and we will expect our ideal cleaner to completely remove from the premises, not only the dust and dirt, but also the germ-laden air which is used as a means of conveying this dirt.

For replacing the weekly and the daily cleaning, these earlier renovators were not suitable, as in order to use same the furniture must all be removed from the apartment.

To accomplish this daily and weekly cleaning, the ideal vacuum cleaner must replace the broom and dust pan, and their inseparable companion, the duster, and must also supersede that time-honored mechanical cleaner, the carpet sweeper.

The reader will doubtless consider that in making this statement the author is asking the vacuum cleaner to perform much more than it is usually called on to do. However, we are now discussing an ideal system, and the above requirements are not absolutely beyond what can be accomplished by some of the cleaning systems now on the market.

To accomplish this requirement the ideal cleaner must pick up everything likely to be found on the floor which cannot be readily picked up by hand. The character of this material will vary greatly according to the uses of the apartment cleaned. In residences and offices, where carpets or rugs are in use, cigar stumps and matches are usually deposited in cuspidors and small pieces of paper in waste baskets, consequently there should be nothing but dust to be removed from a residence and, perhaps, mud and sand from the shoes of the many visitors, in addition to the dust in an office.

However, there are special conditions likely to be met in many cases; sewing rooms will be littered with basting threads and scraps of cloth; department stores, with a great quantity of pins; banking rooms with bands and large-sized bank pins; all of which increase the requirements of the ideal system. A cleaner which is perfectly adapted to one sort of apartment will be entirely unsuited for another, and the ideal cleaner will be one which can be readily adapted to all conditions likely to be met in the building in which it is installed.

The ideal cleaner must be able to accomplish the above stated requirements without the necessity of moving heavy pieces of furniture out of or about the apartment; that is, it must be capable of being efficiently operated under beds, tables and chairs, around the legs of other heavy furniture, behind bookcases, pianos, cabinets, etc., over curtains, draperies and hangings, over walls, behind pictures and over mouldings and carved ornaments, all without injury to any of the furniture or fittings of the apartment, and with the least expenditure of energy by the operator.

These conditions should be met with the fewest possible number of cleaning appliances, none of which should be provided with small attachments liable to be lost or misplaced, and all parts of the system, which must necessarily be moved about, either before, after or during the cleaning operation, should be of minimum weight and bulk, but of rugged and lasting construction.

The ideal vacuum cleaner should be of such proportions and provided with ample motive power to clean rapidly and effectively.

For use in an office building the cleaner should be able to thoroughly clean an average-sized office, including floor, walls, furniture and fittings in from 10 to 15 minutes, and for residence work, should be of sufficient capacity to clean an apartment, including floor, walls, curtains, draperies, pictures and furniture in not exceeding 30 minutes.

The ideal system should be so arranged that any apartment in the building can be cleaned with the least possible disturbance and without affecting the use of any other apartment, excepting perhaps, the corridors or hallways.

In large offices, drafting rooms and similar apartments, it may become necessary to clean same while they are occupied; therefore, our ideal system must be practically noiseless in operation and must offer the least possible obstruction to the proper use of the room by its regular occupants.

=Necessity and Proper Location of Stationary Parts.=--To be of sufficient power to do rapid cleaning and in order to remove from the building all dust and germ-laden air, the cleaning system must necessarily contain some stationary parts. The motive power can generally be confined to these stationary parts, and must, in such cases, be located within the building to be cleaned. Therefore, it should operate with the minimum of noise and vibration.

Machines located in office or other large buildings, containing elevators or other complicated apparatus requiring skilled attendance, which are provided with complicated control and with other attachments, are not objectionable, and in such cases simplicity should give way to efficiency, but unnecessary complications should be avoided.

In residences and other small buildings, where the vacuum cleaner is likely to be the only machinery installed, the system must be one which requires the minimum attention and must be capable of being started and stopped by any person of average ability, without the necessity of going to the point where the machine is located.

The power consumption of the ideal system should be a minimum to accomplish satisfactory results and should be, as nearly as possible, directly proportioned to the amount of cleaning being done. This requirement is most important in hotels, where some cleaning is likely to be done at all hours, day and night. In other words, vacuum must be “on tap” and as readily attainable at any point in the building as your water or electric light. In office buildings, where a schedule of cleaning hours is fixed, and in residences where cleaning hours are few and the capacity of the plant is rarely more than could be attended to by one operator, this requirement is not of as great importance.

Lastly, our ideal system, from the standpoint of the purchaser, must be of such rugged construction, as will enable it to operate efficiently for, at least, ten years and its mechanical details such that it will operate continuously, without expert attention, and that the annual expense for repairs during the life of the machine will not exceed 5% of the first cost of the system.