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"   Although the 2009 National Hardware Show was not without its highlights, the Chicago show in 1978 must have really been a scene: There, among the vibrant polyester sportcoats, the world witnessed the debut of a slick new handheld vacuum called the Dustbuster. Developed by Black &amp;amp;amp; Decker as an alternative to the whirling beater bars and brushes on bulky conventional vacuums, the new &amp;quot;electric dustpan&amp;quot; was styled to physically resemble a dustpan in profile. Its intuitive design\u2014aided by a killer name\u2014led to over a million units sold when it hit the market in 1979. The Dustbuster set the record for the highest per-unit sales of any product in Black &amp;amp;amp; Decker history.   My family certainly contributed to its success. I can remember afternoons spent &amp;quot;playing&amp;quot; with the Dustbuster on our carpeted stairs, having a fine time with my first power tool while my parents gently encouraged me to explore how it worked on all the stairs, in sequence, without overlooking the corners. To address the fact that most closets didn&amp;#039;t contain outlets to recharge the tool&amp;#039;s battery, B&amp;amp;amp;D designers conceived the charging base so that it could be mounted on the wall near a power source. Their cradle shape took its inspiration from the wall-mounted Trimline telephone of the same era\u2014if the kitchens of suburban Atlanta are any indication, most homes contained both of these items, often mounted in tandem.   An informal PM staff survey revealed everyone on board to have some memory of the Dustbusters of their youth. Some recalled the delightful sounds of turning the tool on and off repeatedly, while others confirmed the word &amp;quot;Dustbust&amp;quot; being used within the family as a verb to describe its action. A few expressed bitter regret over disappointingly brief battery life\u2014&amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re bringing up bad memories, man&amp;quot;\u2014or the tool&amp;#039;s tendency to clog on the tufts of shed hair brushed from a Husky. Others told of using the tool to clean up soil from an overturned potted plant\u2014but later admitted that they may have only been remembering a demonstration in one of the tool&amp;#039;s many TV ads.   It&amp;#039;s this sort of cultural saturation that eventually earned the humble Dustbuster a spot in the Smithsonian. It&amp;#039;s been there since 1995, in the National Museum of American History. Somewhere near Thomas Edison&amp;#039;s first light bulbs and Alexander Graham Bell&amp;#039;s first telephone, you can find the pearly plastic of the item named &amp;quot;Best New Product in Show&amp;quot; by a bunch of power tool journalists of the Carter era: the original Dustbuster. Happy birthday, pal. Now go clean up after your party. \u2014Harry Sawyers   RELATED STORIES \u2022 EARLIER: 50 Tools Everyone Should Own  \u2022 AS SEEN ON TV: PM Puts the Products to the Test  \u2022 PLUS: How Vise Grip Pliers Saved my Life  \u2022 FOLLOW US: Popular Mechanics is Now on Twitter!  \u2022 FRIEND US: Find PM on Facebook   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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