Economic Research: Carpet Sweeper

Sunday 9 December 2012

Carpet Sweeper

As word of the Bissell sweeper got around, Melville and Anna loaded their buggy with carpet sweepers and sold them door-to-door, each taking opposite sides of the street. The brushes were made by local women in their homes, then assembled in a room above the store.The BISSELL Carpet Sweeper was patented in 1876, and in 1883 the first BISSELL manufacturing plant was built in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Following Melville untimely death in 1889, Anna Bissell stepped in and confidently took control of the company, becoming America's first female corporate CEO. Under Anna's aggressive and innovative management, The cpmpany soon began to look in new directions in product development and to expand their business to include all the continents of the world. Anna ran the company until her death in 1934, at age 87.Today Bissell Inc. is an industry leader, with products sold in more than 60 countries. Still privately owned and still managed by the Bissell family, Bissell Inc. merits its own chapter in the history of American housekeeping.