In 1901, huge horse-drawn petrol-powered machines like this one began to appear on the streets of London. Invented by engineer Hubert Cecil Booth and manned by uniformed operators, the vacuum cleaner would stand outside the home while long cleaning hoses were fed through the doors and windows. Rugs could also be brought outside to vacuum, as we see here in 1919.

Onlookers would marvel as they watched the dirt build up inside a special glass viewing chamber. While it disrupted the streets so intensely it sparked court cases, the machines proved a hit –Russia's Tzar Nicholas II snapped one up, as did Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II and the British House of Commons. Few else had the means: just one visit from a vacuum cleaner cost the same as a junior maid's yearly wage.

The incredible evolution of our favourite household gadgets