Rechargeable vacuum cleaners have come a long way since the
introduction of the Black and Decker DustBuster
vacuum in January of 1979. Over a million DustBusters were sold
during its first year. Although the original
DustBuster line has long been discontinued, Black and Decker still
uses the name to refer to some of its hand held
vacuum cleaners. The term DustBuster has become a genericized
trademark with handheld vacuum cleaners the world
over.