Editing Broom (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Shaker broom vise}}
[[File:Besenbinder.JPG|thumb|upright|Making brooms, 2012]]
The earliest brooms and brushes are from prehistory, when things such as bird wings and [[bur]]s were fastened to handles of bone, ivory, or wood. The indigenous peoples of the [[Southwestern United States]] created brooms from [[yucca]] plants for cleaning [[pueblo]]s.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=120}} The indigenous people of Saint Lucia created brooms from coconut fronds for cleaning around hearths.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|pp=120–121}} Brooms are mentioned in the 1540 manuscript ''[[Codex Mendoza]]'' of the [[Aztecs]], which instructs girls to sweep.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=120}}

The birch besom was made by fastening twigs to a handle with a strip of [[ash wood]], harvested from a log after washing it in a running stream. The besom became a symbol of breweries in England, where brewers used it as a whisk while fermenting alcoholic beverages, and the brooms were typically displayed by [[pub]]s. When not in use, a brewer's besom was stored and dried on wall pegs or hanging by a leather cord. The broom was not washed so that yeast would remain in the bristles for future uses.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=122}} Hearth besoms were created in Ireland to keep ash on a hearth.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=121}} Until the 18th century, brooms were crafted by hand.{{Sfn|Nedelcheva|Dogan|Guarrera|2007|p=2}}

In 1797, the quality of brooms changed when Levi Dickenson, a farmer in [[Hadley, Massachusetts]], made a broom for his wife, using the tassels of [[sorghum]], a grain he was growing for the seeds. His wife spread good words around town, creating demand for Dickenson's sorghum brooms. The sorghum brooms held up well, but ultimately, like all brooms, fell apart. Dickenson subsequently invented a machine that would make better brooms, and faster than he could. In 1810, the foot treadle broom machine was invented. This machine played an integral part in the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = History of Early American Brooms and Broom Making - BroomShop.com|url = http://broomshop.com/history/|website = broomshop.com|access-date = 2015-09-29|archive-date = 2015-09-18|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150918074503/http://broomshop.com/history/|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Earle |first=Alice Morse |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2RWAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Levi+Dickenson%22+broom&pg=PA256 |title=Home Life in Colonial Days |date=1898 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4556-0592-7 |pages=256 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Shakers]] began growing broom corn to create brooms in the present-day United States, which they crafted on [[treadle]] wheels and stored hanging on the wall under a cotton hood. The Shaker Theodore Bates invented the flat broom in 1798.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=889}} [[Benjamin Franklin]] grew [[French broom]], a practice which was then taken up by [[Thomas Jefferson]], who had broomsticks made from the plant. Americans commonly kept brooms with their fireplaces by the early 19th century.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=123}} At this time, brooms were often made by children, the disabled, the elderly, and slaves.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|pp=123, 587}} By the middle of the century, brooms were created in factories with [[machine press]]es, trimmers, and [[winding machine]]s and then sold [[door-to-door]]. People in the [[American frontier]] crafted brooms with a wet [[Rawhide (material)|rawhide]] fastening, which dried and hardened around the bristles.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=123}}

Henry Hadley invented a hybridized machine-harvested broom corn at the [[University of Illinois]] in 1983 for more efficient creation of brooms.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=125}} Modern factory-made brooms are made with straw bristles, which are flattened and stitched together before a handle is inserted.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=124}} In industrialized countries, brooms are sometimes replaced or superseded by powered cleaning instruments such as [[leaf blower]]s and [[vacuum cleaner]]s.{{Sfn|Snodgrass|2004|p=125}} Brooms remain commonly used for cleaning purposes in the 21st century.{{Sfn|Nedelcheva|Dogan|Guarrera|2007|p=2}}

One source mentions that the United States had 303 broom factories by 1839 and that the number peaked at 1,039 in 1919. Most of these were in the [[Eastern United States]]; during the [[Great Depression]] in the 1930s, the number of factories declined to 320 in 1939.<ref name="EOHC-Broom">{{cite web|last=Fugate|first=Tally D.|title=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture|work=Broom Factories|access-date=August 13, 2012|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/B/BR024.html|archive-date=November 19, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119131923/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/B/BR024.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The state of [[Oklahoma]] became a major center for broom production because broom corn grew especially well there, with The Oklahoma Broom Corn Company opening a factory in [[El Reno, Oklahoma|El Reno]] in 1906. Faced with competition from imported brooms and synthetic bristles, most of the factories closed by the 1960s.<ref name="EOHC-Broom" />