In 1869 Ives McGaffey patented the first portable vacuum cleaner, or "sweeping machine".

In the 1930s, the development of small, powerful electric motors increased the popularity and availability of the portable vacuum cleaner, and further diverted consumers from purchasing central cleaners.

In a portable vacuum, if the filter bag fails, this condition becomes immediately obvious as a cloud of dust and dirt blows into the room.

Turbine-driven brushes tend to be noisier than electric brushes; the noise from either is more noticeable in the absence of the "vacuum whine" produced by portable vacuums.

This contrasts with the well-known acrid "vacuum smell" of fine dust and hot air exhausted from a portable vacuum.

Sachs swept the floor under and around the chair and then removed the filter from the portable vacuum and placed it in a plastic evidence bag.

James Spangler invented the first commercially successful portable vacuum cleaner, which he sold to The Hoover Company.

In addition, a central vacuum system is often more powerful than a conventional portable vacuum cleaner, and in at least one respect it is also cleaner.

Already, she had suctioned it clean while they were stalled in the tunnel, using the portable vacuum that she takes everywhere.

The plates and a portable vacuum cleaner she was buying for herself.