Melville Reuben Bissell

Melville Reuben Bissell (September 25, 1843 – March 15, 1889) was an American entrepreneur who invented the modern carpet sweeper.[1] The Bissell corporation is named after him.

Melville Reuben Bissell
Image of Bissell from History of the City of Grand Rapids
Born1843
Hartwick, New York, United States
Died1889
NationalityAmerican
OccupationInventor
businessman
Known forinvented the modern carpet sweeper
Spouse(s)Anna Sutherland Bissell

Life and career

Bissell was born in Hartwick, New York, and grew up in Berlin, Wisconsin. As a young adult, he opened a grocery store in 1862 with his father, Alpheus, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, selling it in 1869 and opening a crockery and glassware store in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 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 on vacuum technology. 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 in 1889 in Grand Rapids, his wife, Anna Bissell, took control of the company, becoming America's first female corporate chief executive officer.[2]

References
  1. Baxter, Albert (1891). History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Munsell
  2. Krismann, Carol (2005). Anna Bissell, In Encyclopedia Of American Women in Business: From Colonial Times To The Present, Volume 1. Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 9780313333835


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