Automated pool cleaner

An automated pool cleaner is a vacuum cleaner intended to collect debris and sediment from swimming pools with minimal human intervention. Popularly dubbed a ''creepy-crawly'' or "Kreepy Krauly" in South Africa, it is one of several types of swimming pool vacuum cleaners. Other major types are battery-powered or manually powered wands effective only for very small pools, kiddie or wading pools and small spas and hot tubs, and battery-powered, handheld/extended reach pool and spa vacuums. The latter are powered by rechargeable batteries and can be hand held attached to a telescopic pole used for extended reach. These are used for small to medium-sized pools, larger spas, and to spot clean larger pools. The name ''creepy-crawly'' derives from the vacuum's webbed-nozzle crawling creepily through the underwater mist as well as for its creepy suction noise. ''Creepy crawly'' originally referred to strange creatures that crawl on the bottom of the ocean, as the webbed nozzle of the vacuum slightly resembles an octopus in both appearance and suction ability.

Swimming pool cleaners evolved from two areas of science: development of the water filter and early cistern cleaners. The forerunner of today's pool cleaners were cistern cleaners. A cistern (Middle English cisterne, from the Latin cisterna, from cista, box, from Greek kistê, basket) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Often cisterns were and still are built to catch and store rainwater. The great palaces of antiquity had both lavish pools and cisterns. They were prevalent in early America as well. United States Patent and Trademark Office makes reference to a cistern cleaner patent filed (though never issued) as early as 1798. Before swimming pools were affordable and fashionable, many swam in their larger cisterns.

In 1883 John E. Pattison of New Orleans filed an application for a "Cistern and Tank Cleaner " and the first discovered patent was issued the following year. It swept and scraped the bottom of a cistern or tank, and through a combination of suction and manipulation of the water pressure was able to separate and remove sediment without removing the water. Over the next 20 years his invention was improved on numerous occasions. Many pool cleaner patents issued in the modern era refer to some of the cistern cleaners as predecessors of their invention.

The first swimming pool cleaner was invented in 1912 by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania local citizen John M. Davison. On November 26, 1912, he submitted a patent application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office entitled "Cleaning Apparatus For Swimming Pools And The Like," patent number 1,056,779 that was issued on March 25, 1913.

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