Career
Kenney's most significant patent was granted in March 1907. He had filed the application in 1901, when the notion of an electrically powered cleaner was only beginning to be seen as a possibility. A Savannah woman, Corinne Dufour, who had a year earlier received a patent for an "Electric Carpet Sweeper and Dust Gatherer" whose motor was designed to operate a suction-fan, also is a forgotten figure. Kenney purchased one of the English inventor H. Cecil Booth's vacuum cleaners, and after the 1907 patent was granted, Booth withdrew his own application for a US patent. Litigation followed, and the Vacuum Cleaner Company as the holder of Kenney’s patents, was a party to several lawsuits in subsequent years. When the Vacuum Cleaner Manufacturers' Association was formed in 1919, its membership was entirely made up of licensees under the Kenney patents, "the basic vacuum cleaner patents." Though most such cleaners by this time were electric, they still depended on the mechanism devised and patented by him - the opening in the nozzle sealing contact with the carpet through a vacuum.
Read more about this topic: David T. Kenney
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)