Numatic International Limited is a British company with a large manufacturing facility located in Chard, Somerset in south-west England. Numatic manufactures a range of domestic, commercial and industrial cleaning and maintenance equipment for distribution worldwide; and incorporates wholly owned distributors in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa.^{[citation needed]} The company employs over 700 people, and produces 4500 units per day, over 40% of which are for export. Numatic is solely owned by its founder, Chris Duncan, who created the prototype for its flagship "Henry" vacuum cleaner in 1968.

Numatic manufactures a number of products, including a range of vacuum cleaners, aimed at both commercial and domestic markets. It is the last major producer of vacuum cleaners in the UK.^{[citation needed]}

One of Numatic's most popular products is a vacuum cleaner called Henry, which is easily distinguishable by the large smiling face on the front of the canister (there are two screen printed eyes and a mouth, and the vacuum's hose forms its nose). Since the introduction of Henry in 1981, over 7 million have been produced worldwide.

Lou Henry Hoover (March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was the wife of President of the United States Herbert Hoover and First Lady, 1929-1933.

Marrying her engineer husband in 1899, she travelled widely with him and became a cultivated scholar and linguist. During World War I, Mrs. Hoover helped him in providing relief for Belgian refugees. As First Lady, she oversaw construction of the presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp in Virginia. She was the first First Lady to make regular radio broadcasts to the Nation. She was president of the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1922-1925 and 1935-1937.

Lou Henry was born in Waterloo, Iowa to Charles Delano Henry, a banker, and Florence Ida Weed, his wife. Lou grew up something of a tomboy in Waterloo, Whittier, California and Monterey, California. Charles Henry took his daughter on camping trips in the hills—her greatest pleasures in her early teens. Lou became a fine horsewoman; she hunted, and preserved specimens with the skill of a taxidermist; she developed an enthusiasm for rocks, minerals, and mining. She attended San Jose Normal School and in 1894 enrolled at Stanford University as the school's only female geology major. That year she met Herbert Hoover, then a senior.