The Hoover Company is a home appliance company founded in Ohio, United States. It also established a major base in the United Kingdom; and, mostly in the 20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the Hoover brand name became synonymous with vacuum cleaners and vacuuming in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Hoover North America was once part of Maytag, but was sold by Maytag's new owners Whirlpool Corporation in 2007 to Hong Kong multinational manufacturing company Techtronic Industries for $107 million. Hoover International had already split from Hoover North America in 1993, and was acquired by Candy in 1995, which was acquired by Haier in 2019. In addition to producing floorcare products, Hoover was also an iconic domestic appliance brand in Europe, particularly well known for its washing machines and tumble dryers in the UK and Ireland, and also had significant sales in many parts of Europe. Today, the Hoover Europe brand, as part of the portfolio of brands owned by Chinese multinational home appliances company Haier remains a major player in the European white goods and floor care sectors in a number of countries. History The first upright vacuum cleaner was invented in June 1908 in North Canton, Ohio by department store janitor and occasional inventor James Murray Spangler. Spangler was an asthmatic, and suspecting the carpet sweeper he was using at work was the cause of his ailment, he created a basic suction-sweeper by mounting an electric fan motor on a carpet sweeper then adding a soap box and a broom handle. After refining the design and obtaining a patent for the Electric Suction Sweeper he set about producing it himself, assisted by his son, who helped him assemble the machines, and his daughter, who assembled the dust bags. Production was slow, just two to three machines completed a week. Spangler soon gave one of his Electric Suction Sweepers to his cousin Susan Troxel Hoover, who used it at home. Impressed with the machine, she told her husband and son about it. William Henry "Boss" Hoover and son Herbert William Hoover Sr. were leather goods manufacturers in North Canton, Ohio, which at the time was called New Berlin. Hoover bought the patent from Spangler later that same year, founding the Electric Suction Sweeper Company for an initial capital investment of $36,000 ($ today), retaining Spangler as production supervisor with pay based on