Anna Bissell's New Carpet Sweeper

Born 1846 in River John Nova Scotia, Canada Anna Bissell had completed all of the schooling available to her and, by the age of 16 she was a school teacher. In 1865, she married Melville R. Bissell and together they moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. There, her and her husband were joint partners in a crockery and china business. They decided to move again in to the Grand Rapids 1871, in search of more business opportunities.
After hearing Anna’s complaints about how difficult it was for her to clean the saw dust stuck in their carpets her husband, Melville Bissell made various improvements to their new carpet sweeper and managed to invent his own version of it in 1876. Anna began travelling to various towns and selling their new product for

the price of $1.50. When she found herself in Philadelphia she had convinced a man named John Wanamaker to place the carpet sweepers in his department stores. She also developed instructions on packaging, marketing and delivering the product to consumers. In 1884 there was a fire at their first manufacturing plant, but because of Anna’s good reputation with others she was able to get the loans and funding she needed to continue production, within 30 days of the fire.
Melville passed away in 1886 ,at the age of 46. Leaving behind his wife and their five children, Anna took charge of the company, becoming one of the first female CEO’s in North America. After acquiring the proper trademarks and patents for the carper sweeper, she was able to release it to an international market. With Great Britain being the second largest consumer, and by 1899 she had created one of the most the most substantial corporations in the world.