Arthur E. Drumm is an American inventor and industrialist of the modern street sweeping and industrial broom industry.

Early life

Born 1929 in Marysville, Ohio

Marysville, Ohio

Marysville is a city in and the county seat of Union County, Ohio, United States. The population was 15,942 at the 2000 census, and the Census Bureau estimated that it had risen to 17,621 by 2006.Marysville's longtime slogan is "Where the Grass is Greener"...

, Arthur was one of 14 brothers and sisters, and the son of Francis Drumm and Evelyn Warner. Raised during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, he worked on his father's farm from a very young age, graduated high school, and then joined the Marine Corps

Marine corps

A marine is a member of a force that specializes in expeditionary operations such as amphibious assault and occupation. The marines traditionally have strong links with the country's navy...

. He achieved the rank of staff sergeant before his discharge. Stationed in San Francisco, he would meet his wife, Roberta Bumpus. He would earn an apprenticeship in machinery, and would manage his own farm on the outskirts of Marysville until his 30's while raising his young daughters.

Industrial Brooms

Drumm would become involved in the industrial broom industry. Industrial brooms are an emerging conservation product as the world moves toward more environmentally friendly practices. They remove harmful substances and pollutants from the roads that would otherwise drain off into vegetation and/or water sources, or be continually carried and pushed around by vehicles and other street traffic. They add longevity to asphalt through cleansing and preventing early decay. This in turn cuts down on the environmentally harmful practices of consistently paving and the manufacturing of toxic asphalt. They prevent flooding by collecting debris that would accumulate and block storm drains.

Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc.

In 1964, Drumm started Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc. in his machine shop, which was on the property of his home and farm. He would sell locally and regionally through "word of mouth." In the late 1960s he would develop a machine which made the manufacturing of wafer brooms cheaper and faster through a mechanical process, versus the old manual process. This gave the business an advantage, and production increased dramatically. He would also obtain U.S. patent 3407425 for a spacer used in rotary brush assembly in 1968.

By the 1970s, Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc. had become a notable player in the industry, selling nationally and worldwide. Drumm would obtain numerous U.S. patents in the years to come while he led Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc.: 3900913 in 1975 (core mounting assembly for rotary brooms), 4077081 in 1978 (sweeper brush section), 4214339 in 1980 (rotary broom core assemblage), 4490872 (spiral brush section), 4490877 (spiral brush section), and 4498210 (brush bristle unit for brush rolls) in 1985. The machine shop Drumm had started in eventually would be transformed into a modern factory through additions and new construction during this period.

Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc. reached its pinnacle under Drumm by the mid-1980s. The company was attracting attention from all over with various interests, whether it was Drumm being featured on the local Columbus

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

 WBNS-TV

WBNS-TV

WBNS-TV, channel 10, is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The station is an affiliate of the CBS Television Network and is owned by the Dispatch Broadcast Group, a subsidiary of the Columbus Dispatch, along with WBNS radio...

 evening news in a story about Reaganomics

Reaganomics

Reaganomics refers to the economic policies promoted by the U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, also known as supply-side economics and called trickle-down economics, particularly by critics...

 and the successful impact it was having locally on the economy with businesses.

For personal and retirement reasons, Drumm would let go of Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc., eventually being bought out in 1985 by Savage. Kennedy Brush, Savage's other industrial broom manufacturing company, and Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc. would merge in 1990 to form United Rotary Brush.

Drumm Industries

Shortly after he sold Marysville Rotary Broom Service, Inc., Drumm would start a new company, Drumm Industries in which he manufactured push brooms. In 1988 he received U.S. patent 4763378 (push broom head of the channel-mounted bristle type).

He would focus a considerable amount of time innovating a replaceable strip brush. This changed the whole process of manufacturing tube-brooms, as one tube could be recycled simply by replacing the brush through replaceable slide-on strips, versus the old method of wrapping the brush around the tube, welding it together, and shipping the tube back for a replacement wrap when it was worn out or scrapping the tube altogether. Drumm would obtain many patents relating to the strip brush innovation, including U.S. patents 5160187 in 1992, 5251355 in 1993, 5358311 and 5358312 in 1994, 5445438 in 1995, 5762404 in 1998,

Family and Retirement

In 2004 he was issued U.S. patent 6681871 along with his son-in-law, which improved an auger boring device. This invention is celebrated as progress in the history cited in a patent obtained in 2007 by another individual. The "ground-breaking" product was part of a joint venture he became involved with called Custom Augers.

The Drumm Family was honored by the Union County, OH Veterans Remembrance Committee on Veterans Day, 2008. A ceremony was held at the veterans memorial in Marysville honoring the Drumm Family's military service.