Melville Reuben Bissell (September 25, 1843 – March 15, 1889) was an American entrepreneur who invented the modern
carpet sweeper
A carpet sweeper is a mechanical device for the cleaning of carpets. They were popular before the introduction of the vacuum cleaner and have been largely superseded by them. However, they continue to be used in many home and commercial applicat ...
.Baxter, Albert (1891). ''History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan.'' Munsell The
Bissell
Bissell Inc., also known as Bissell Homecare, is an American privately owned vacuum cleaner and floor care product manufacturing corporation headquartered in Walker, Michigan in Greater Grand Rapids.Hartwick, New York
Hartwick is a town located in Otsego County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 2,110. The Town of Hartwick is located in the middle of the county, southwest of the Village of Cooperstown.
History
The t ...
grocery store
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...
in 1862 with his father, Alpheus, in
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...
, selling it in 1869 and opening a crockery and glassware store in
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
, in 1870. He made money manufacturing crockery and investing in real estate.
Following the financial Panic of 1873 and the following economic depression, Bissell began working on a carpet sweeper. In 1876 Bissell patented a sweeper with a central brush, rubber wheels, and other improvements over previous sweepers. A fire in 1884 destroyed his first factory, but he was able to overcome the loss and still later expand his business.
Following his death from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
in 1889 in Grand Rapids, his wife,
Anna Bissell
Anna Sutherland Bissell (1846–1934) was a Canadian-American businesswoman who was the first woman CEO in the United States as the executive board member of the Bissell Corporation, known for its carpet sweepers and vacuum cleaners.
Early life ...
, took control of the company, becoming America's first female corporate chief executive officer.Krismann, Carol (2005). Anna Bissell, In ''Encyclopedia Of American Women in Business: From Colonial Times To The Present, Volume 1.'' Greenwood Publishing Group,