William Hoover Biography

William Hoover

After nearly 30 years in the remarkably un-clean tannery business (1870–1907), Hoover decided to clean up his act. He bought a patent for an electric cleaning machine from janitor James Murray Spangler, and formed the Electric Suction Sweeper Company in 1908 to exploit the technology. When he renamed the firm in 1910 to Hoover, his name became ubiquitously attached to vacuum cleaners.