What is a central vacuum cleaner?

Already at the end of the 19th century the idea of central vacuum cleaning was applied in England. At this time special companies offered this comfortable way of cleaning as a service to people living in apartment mansions.They used big vacuum turbines, placed on a horse carriages, later on vans, and thus could be transported easily to the building site. Located in front of the house, they used a quite long suction hose and thus also reached the upper apartments of the building. These big machines had a strong suction power. Especially in the Victorian style furnished appartments with lots of carpets, thick curtains and upholstered furnitures they made housekeeping much more easy.

This smart idea of central vacuum cleaning later was followed up and technically improved in the 50 ties of last century. These developments finally allowed it to install central vacuum cleaners directly in the building, usually in the basement or in the garage.
A suction pipe system with inlet valves at central positions throughout the house is connected to the central vacuum cleaner. For vacuuming, the suction hose is simply plugged into one of these sockets.
Especially in the United States and Canada this technology was applied, but also in Germany some well-off families allowed themselves the „luxury“ of central vacuuming.

By and by the massive and strong machines were replaced by smaller and cheaper units and thus were installed in many one-family houses.