Charles brooks biography inventor
Charles brooks biography inventor
Phil brooks inventor!
Charles B. Brooks
US inventor, including street sweeping truck
Charles B. Brooks (1865–1908) was an American inventor. Born in Virginia in 1865, by the 1890s he was a resident of Newark, New Jersey.
Besides inventing, Brooks was a porter for the Pullman Palace Car Company.[1] Unlike other sweepers at that time (1890s), Brooks’ sweeper was the first self-propelled street sweeping truck.[2] His design had revolving brushes attached to the front fender, and the brushes were interchangeable so that when snow fell, scrapers could be attached for snow removal.[2] He received a patent for his invention on March 17, 1896 (US Patent #556,711).[3] A few months later, on May 12, 1896, he patented a dust-proof collection bag for the street sweeper (US Patent #560,154).[4]
Although little information is available about his life, we do know that funding for the production for his sweeper was provided by George M.
Hallstead and Plummer S. Pa