I recently posted an ode to all the vacuum cleaners I have destroyed over the years, running the mechanisms over items that broke the innards and sent them all to Hoover Heaven. I was surprised to learn that many of you have also been guilty of vacuumcide! Glad I’m not alone!

I recently learned of a vacuum cleaner that even I wouldn’t be able to break!

The original vacuum cleaner, invented in 1901 by bridge designer Hubert Cecil Booth, was a massive piece of machinery that was drawn by a horse down the streets of London and cost a pretty penny, about the yearly wages of a maid. Long hoses were fed through the house windows and gas-powered engines provided suction power to collect the dirt into a glass chamber, letting all your neighbors see just how filthy your house was. The expense of vacuuming made it affordable for only the wealthy until 1908 when William Hoover managed to fit all that technology into what was known as an electric broomstick.

Pretty sure this baby could have picked up all those nails I tried to suck up!

Be honest, now. What’s an appliance you’ve broken? And how?