Housework continued to become easier in the 1910s, thanks to the continuing spread of electricity and running water, to the invention of new appliances, and to the availability of pre-prepared food and drink. Vacuum cleaners, invented in 1908, made...

As mass-produced carpet s became widely available and affordable during the 1800s, the need for an effective method of cleaning carpets grew pressing. The carpet sweeper was one solution. Devices for blowing or sucking dirt and dust out of carpets were...

Carpet cleaning before the advent of the mechanical carpet sweeper was a laborious task. Carpets were swept with hand-held whisk brooms and, once or twice a year, were taken outside, hung over a clothesline, and pounded with a carpet beater. The first...

A vacuum cleaner (in colloquial British English also hoover[1]) is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors. Most homes with carpeted floors in developed countries possess a vacuum cleaner...

A dinosaur with a strange jaw designed to hoover-up food grazed in what is now the Sahara Desert 110 million years ago. Remains of the creature that "flabbergasted" paleontologist Paul Sereno went on display Thursday at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society, where they...

Perhaps it was one of those eureka moments, when the scientists realized they had discovered a new dinosaur with mouth parts designed to vacuum up food.The 110 million-year-old plant eater, discovered in the Sahara Desert, was to be unveiled Thursday by the National Geographic Society.Discoverer...

"Father Knows Less" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 272 pages, $24.95), by Wendell Jamieson: Kids ask questions, and little ones ask them endlessly. Answering them will strain a parent's knowledge as well as his or her patience.Wendell Jamieson's son, Dean, started asking questions at age 3. Dean's...