The very first street sweeping machine was patented in 1849 by its inventor, C.S. Bishop. For a long time, street sweepers were just rotating disks covered with wire bristles. These rotating disks served as mechanical brooms that swept the dirt on the streets. A black man from Newark, New Jersey, Charles B. Brooks, invented the U.S.' first self-propelled street sweeper truck. Brooks' patent was approved on March 17th, 1896; his application for the patent had been filed on April 20, 1895. His street sweeper had a truck-like frame mounted on axles supported by wheels.