Everything that a vacuum picks up, no matter what type it may be, needs to be deposited somewhere – normally in a vacuum cleaner bag.
Back in 1920, the Air Way Sanitizer Company of Ohio introduced the first vacuum cleaner with a disposable vacuum bag. Until that time, the bags for vacuum cleaners resembled the type of bags that golfers used to carry their clubs. They were somewhat heavy and awkard devices made out of thick, stiff canvas, designed to be very flexible and still keep dust and debris from the carpets from escaping out into the air.
The improvements made by the Air Way Sanitizer disposable vacuum bag went a long way toward improving the effectiveness of the vacuum cleaner. Made out of paper, the bag was designed to fit inside of the cloth bag. Not only did it make cleaning the vacuum easier, but it also kept the insides of the stationary bag clean at all times so that less of the dust and debris could be blown out of the vacuum and make its way through the home again.
In the beginning, each manufacturer designed their own disposable vacuum cleaner bag made out of different types of paper. You couldn’t interchange the bags from one...