Industrial air filtration equipment firm Imperial Systems Inc. provides a fascinating overview of the history of dust collection systems in this October 2020 episode of its Dusty Jobs podcast series.

Charlie Miller, Senior Sales Engineer North America for Imperial Systems, tells listeners that the first designs for dust collectors emerged during the Industrial Revolution as manufacturing expanded dramatically.

“The very first dust collectors that were designed were cyclones, and the very first cyclone was designed by a guy named John Finch in 1885,” Miller explains in the episode. “He had a company in New York called the Knickerbocker Company, it was a textile mill, and he designed the very first cyclone and patented it for his business.”

Cyclones were the “staple of the industry” until the early 1920s, when Wilhelm Beth designed and patented several new types of dust collection systems, including systems that incorporate fabric filters, according to Miller. The rest of the episode delves into how the design and performance of dust collectors improved over the decades.

Powder and bulk solids professionals should listen to this episode to hear more the role this essential technology has played in industry throughout time.