This noiseless carpet sweeper was manufactured by the Prindle Manufactuing Company of Aurora, Illinois, in the 1880s. When pushed along the floor, the brushes would rotate, sweeping dirt and dust from the floor into the dust pan. Devices like these saved homeowners from the laborious process of taking carpets and rugs outside to beat them.

The era between the Civil War and World War I was something of a golden age in Illinois industry. The Prindle Manufacturing Company was one of hundreds of businesses that sprang up during this Gilded Age, capitalizing on advances in manufacturing to produce innovative products and advances in transportation to get those products to consumers.