Here's the history of the Hercules.

The first non electric vacuum cleaner was the Whirlwind, invented by Ives W. Mc'Gaffy of Chicago in June of 1869, and manufactured in Boston by the American Carpet Cleaning Company. It was followed in 1870 by the Agan (shown here) made by the Whitehead and Hoag company. The next vacuum cleaner was Willie's cylindrical Sweeper, circa 1872, which was made in Lafayette,  Indiana, and will be shown in the next post. All three were upright hand crank machines, and appeared from 1869 to 1873. The first two person hand pump was the Hercules which dates back to 1875! While I don't know anything about the inventor, it was marketed by the father/son team of Peck and Peck of Rochester, New York. While the Whirlwind was the first vacuum cleaner, the Hercules was the first tank/canister. Needless to say, this is quite a find.

Alex Taber.

Here's a look at Willies cylindrical Sweeper, circa 1872.

non electric.

non electric, page two.

There were a number of variations that date back to the late 1800's and up to 1910. I have two of this style, the first being the Lakeside (shown here) that I figure is circa 1890. Another, and far more elaborate was the Dust-Killer of 1909, and a canister design called the Cyclone, all of which I'll post here. Another variation was that by Regina that was introduced in the early 1900's.

Here is the Cyclone, and the Dust-killer, with an Electro-hygiene that somehow got in there by mistake.  

Here is an interesting one person pumper that dates back to 1891, and was made in Ludlow, Vermont. It was a double bellows design, much like the British machine the Baby Daisy which will be in the next post.

The Baby Daisy shown here was actually the model for the first logo of the V.C.C.C..