When I first saw this strange object online, I was stumped. Turns out—it’s a vintage vacuum cleaner! Vacuum cleaners have come a long way since the 1800s. Back then, cleanliness was becoming more important, and inventors were creating new tools to make housework easier.

Early vacuum cleaners were bulky, made of metal, and operated manually using a hand pump to generate suction—hardly convenient. One example is the Whirlwind, patented by Ives W. McGaffey in 1869. It used bellows for suction but wasn’t very practical.