When in 1870-1900, American inventor Ives McGaffey and British inventor Hubert Cecil Booth turned an air pump backwards and attached an electric motor, they created a machine called an aspirator. Today virtually every home owns one. What is it?

The machine born from a reversed air pump and an electric motor is indeed the modern vacuum cleaner. The term "aspirator" was an early name for this type of device, which literally means a machine that produces a vacuum to draw something in. Early versions set the stage for this revolutionary cleaning tool. American inventor Ives McGaffey patented his "Whirlwind" in 1869, a bulky, hand-cranked device that was difficult to operate. Across the Atlantic, Hubert Cecil Booth developed a massive, gasoline-powered machine around 1901 that was so large it had to be pulled by horses, with long hoses running into buildings to suck up dust.

While these early behemoths proved the concept of suction cleaning, they were not practical for home use. The breakthrough came from a department store janitor named James M. Spangler, who created a portable electric version in 1907 to help with his asthma. He sold his patent to his cousin's husband, William H. Hoover. Hoover redesigned the machine and, through brilliant marketing and mass production, made his "Hoover" vacuums a household name. His company's innovations transformed a niche industrial tool into an essential appliance found in nearly every home today.