The Kirby Company (stylized as KIRBY) is a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and home cleaning accessories, located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is a division of Right Lane Industries. Dealers are located in over 50 countries throughout the world. Kirby's products can be sold via in-home door-to-door demonstrations and the company is a member of the Direct Selling Association, or their website can take orders and ship directly. All of the vacuum cleaners are built in either Ohio or Texas. History Jim Kirby (1885–1971) designed the first Kirby vacuums for George Scott and Carl Fetzer after World War I, although the Kirby name was not used on a vacuum cleaner until the 1930s. James Kirby invented the "vacuette" circa 1920. The company's primary competitors included The Hoover Company and The Eureka Company, both of which began operations in 1909, as well as Bissell that started building carpet sweepers in 1876. Their primary European competitor was Electrolux, which started 1924. Dyson, Miele and Sebo followed in the 1980s. Introduced in 1916, the Edgewater, Ohio factory was opened by the Scott & Fetzer Company at Locust Ave. (now Franklin Blvd.) and W. 114th St., and the Vacuette Electric was introduced. It featured a removable floor nozzle and handle and became the forerunner of current multi-attachment Kirby vacuum models. The Vacuette was briefly offered as a manual vacuum cleaner, utilizing a spring-loaded worm gear driven by pulling the vacuum cleaner backwards; when pushing the machine forward, the worm gear would power a turbine that provided suction. As long as the cleaner was consistently pulled backwards, tension in the spring would remain constant and the turbine would continue spinning. It was designed for rural areas that did not have electricity and was very similar to the carpet sweeper. In 1935, the company introduced the Kirby Model C, the first product to carry Jim Kirby's name. One of the key features is the amount of suction the motor generates. Beginning in the 1950s, owners manuals listed an innovation the company called "Triple-Cushion Vibration" rug cleaning action. The current Avalir 2 has been given an airflow rating of 132 Cubic feet per minute, which allows it to lift the carpet off the floor, flexing the surface to be cleaned, whereby the brush roll that spins at 3,200 RPM agitates and lifts the dirt, while grooming the carpet fibers from the base of the carpet. Another