The History Lesson
Right around this time back in 1901, Englishman Hubert Cecil Booth patented a revolutionary device. Hubert Cecil Booth’s invention sucked. Really — that’s what it did!
See, Hubert created the motorized vacuum cleaner. He got the idea while watching another inventor demonstrate a really lame gadget: A machine that cleaned carpets by blowing dust off them. Hubert thought it’d be cooler if the machine sucked dust up. But how to keep it from coming right back out? One night, Hubert laid a handkerchief on a sofa, put his mouth over it — and inhaled. The fabric trapped a ton of grime. Eureka! The vacuum filter.
Hubert’s vacuum wasn’t like the thing in your closet. It was a huge gas-powered pump mounted on a horse-drawn cart. He’d park it outside a house, run tubes through the windows, and fire it up. The noise was insane. But housewives loved it! They threw parties, so friends could watch dirt shoot down the transparent hoses. Hubert got rich selling this vacuuming service. But it wasn’t ‘til 1908 that anyone sold an actual vacuum. A smaller, portable version invented by an Ohio janitor. And manufactured by a guy named William Henry — Hoover.
Suck It Up as concocted by bartender Melissa Venditti of the Main Street Grill in North Canton, Ohio — Hoover’s former hometown:
In a mixing glass, add:
- 1 1/2 oz. Canadian Whiskey
- 1/4 oz. amaretto
- generous splash of fresh-squeezed lemonade
- splash of soda water
Chill, pour into martini glass, serve it up, hoover it down.
