Despite patenting his vacuum cleaner without delay in 1901, it took a legal action several years later for Booth to establish his right to call himself the inventor#Booth's invention was also used industrially for the disposal of hazardous chemicals#By the mid-Sixties more than three-quarters of British households owned a vacuum cleaner#Despite the millions spent on research and development, vacuum cleaners still cannot get right into the corners of the carpet#Vacuum cleaners are versatile things. The sound of a vacuum is known to lull some babies to sleep more efficiently than a lullaby or any amount of cradle-rocking