James Murray Spangler

American janitor and entrepreneur

• Born: November 20, 1848
• Birthplace: Plainfield, Pennsylvania
• Died: January 22, 1915
• Place of death: Chicago, Illinois

Spangler’s electric suction sweeper revolutionized household cleaning in the United States and abroad. His Electric Suction Sweeper Company became the Hoover Company, which grew to be the largest vacuum cleaner company in the world and a leader in innovative marketing techniques.

Primary field: Household products

Primary invention: Vacuum cleaner

Early Life

James Murray Spangler was born in Plainfield, Pennsylvania, the son of William and Elizabeth Lind Spangler. He came from a large family with five brothers and four sisters. On May 21, 1874, he married Elestra Amanda Holtz. They had three children: two sons, Clarence and Francis, and a daughter, Jennie.

In 1880, Spangler moved his family to Akron, Ohio, where he operated a men’s clothing business with one of his brothers. He also worked as a salesman for the Aultman Company, which manufactured portable and traction steam engines. Interested in how things worked and how they could be improved, Spangler invented a grain harvester and a combined hay rake and tedder. He received patents for the equipment in 1887 and 1895, respectively. He then founded a company to manufacture and sell his inventions but was unsuccessful in this business venture.

Despite this setback, Spangler’s interest in inventing was not dampened. His next invention was a velocipede wagon. In 1897, he received a patent for it and promptly sold his invention to a Springfield, Ohio, company. Unfortunately, about this time bicycles gained immense popularity and overshadowed the velocipede wagon, resulting in disappointing sales.

Life’s Work

Eventually, Spangler took a janitorial job at the Zollinger Department Store in Canton, Ohio. He suffered from asthma, which was severely aggravated when he swept the dusty floors. Spangler became convinced that there was a better way to clean the dust and dirt from floors. Observing a rotary street sweeper in operation, he got the idea for a vacuum cleaner or, as he called it, an electric suction sweeper. Spangler attached a sewing machine motor to a carpet sweeper. He cut a hole in the back of the sweeper and attached fan blades that would blow dust into the attached sweeper bag (a pillowcase). He attached one end of a leather belt to the motor shaft and the other end to a wooden cylinder with a brush roller. He used a broomstick for a handle and a wooden box for the main body of the sweeper. Spangler’s invention proved very successful, and he was ready to go back into business.

In September of 1907, he filed for a patent for his electric suction sweeper. Later that fall, he entered into a partnership with Ray Harned, the nephew of F. G. Folwell and W. H. Folwell, the owners of the building in which the Zollinger Department Store was located. Spangler and Harned named their business the Electric Suction Sweeper Company, financed by the Folwells. Spangler was granted a patent on the sweeper in June of 1908. Dissatisfied with the amount of financial backing from the Folwells, Spangler began to search for additional assistance.

Spangler soon found his investor. His first cousin was married to William Henry “Boss” Hoover, a saddle and harness manufacturer. At the time, Hoover was looking for a new product to sell. (With the invention of the automobile, demand for his leather goods was severely diminished.) Hoover’s wife had bought one of Spangler’s sweepers, which her husband found fascinating. Hoover promptly invested in the Electric Suction Sweeper Company, which started with just six employees who assembled the sweepers in Hoover’s saddle and harness shop. By August of 1908, the company had been reorganized, with Hoover as president and treasurer and his son as secretary and general manager, with responsibility for sales and marketing. The firm was headquartered in Canton, but as early as 1911 Hoover began to expand the company by opening a factory in Canada. The first sweeper sold by the company was the Model O, which retailed for $60.

Hoover and his son were instrumental in making the electric suction sweeper a success. They developed innovative marketing techniques to convince consumers to buy this new type of sweeper. The first advertisement for the sweeper appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1908. It offered potential buyers a free ten-day in-home trial of the sweeper. The sweepers were not, however, sent directly to consumers. Instead, Hoover made them available at reputable stores, thus developing a dealer network for the product. The following year, the company placed a full-page ad in Collier’s.

The Spangler family was still very involved in the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. Spangler became superintendent and continued to work at the company for a salary. He also received royalties for his invention. Both Spangler’s wife and his daughter Jennie made all the bags for the sweepers until 1914, when that work was moved to New Berlin, Ohio. Spangler’s son Clarence also worked at the company for a short time. He contracted a terminal disease and died in December, 1911. On January 22, 1915, James Spangler died in Chicago.

The company continued to prosper under Hoover. In 1919, he opened a factory in England, and in 1922 he renamed the company the Hoover Company. He continued to pay royalties to the Spangler family until June 2, 1935, when Spangler’s patent expired.

Impact

Spangler’s electric suction sweeper made household cleaning easier, more efficient, and healthier, as his vacuum cleaner sucked up dust and debris into a bag. Spangler played a significant role in launching the vacuum cleaner manufacturing industry with the founding of the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. William Hoover’s successful marketing of the sweepers under the Hoover name in England resulted in “hoovering” becoming a synonym for “vacuuming” in British English. Spangler’s invention also led to new advertising and marketing strategies, particularly in the United States. In-home demonstrations, door-to-door selling, and free home trials were introduced by the Hoover Company.

Bibliography

Gershman, Michael. Getting It Right the Second Time: How American Ingenuity Transformed Forty-nine Marketing Failures into Some of Our Most Successful Products. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1990. Includes a good discussion of what happened to Spangler’s invention once Hoover began running the company. Discusses Hoover’s marketing techniques for making the vacuum cleaner a success.

Ikenson, Ben. Patents: Ingenious Inventions—How They Work and How They Came to Be. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2004. Contains a diagram of Spangler’s electric suction sweeper and his description of it.

Kenney, Kimberly A. Canton: A Journey Through Time. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2003. An excellent history of the Hoover Company and how it became world-famous, as well as its role in the small midwestern town of Canton, Ohio.

Smil, Vaclav. Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Spangler’s electric suction sweeper is among the vast array of electrical inventions discussed.