Broom

Soft brooms are used in some cultures chiefly for sweeping walls of cobwebs and spiders, like a "feather duster", while hard brooms are for rougher tasks like sweeping dirt off sidewalks or concrete floors, or even smoothing and texturing wet concrete.

[4] The earliest brooms and brushes are from prehistory, when things such as bird wings and burs were fastened to handles of bone, ivory, or wood.

The indigenous peoples of the Southwestern United States created brooms from yucca plants for cleaning pueblos.

[5] The birch besom was made by fastening twigs to a handle with a strip of ash wood, harvested from a log after washing it in a running stream.

The besom became a symbol of breweries in England, where brewers used it as a whisk while fermenting alcoholic beverages, and the brooms were typically displayed by pubs.

[11] Benjamin Franklin grew French broom, a practice which was then taken up by Thomas Jefferson, who had broomsticks made from the plant.

People in the American frontier crafted brooms with a wet rawhide fastening, which dried and hardened around the bristles.

[15] In industrialized countries, brooms are sometimes replaced or superseded by powered cleaning instruments such as leaf blowers and vacuum cleaners.

[16] A broom is made up of two parts: the handle, which is a long cylindrical stick, and the stiff fibers lined parallel at its base.

[1] The United States International Cooperation Administration made a distinction between brooms based on bristle quality.

The fibers are dyed or bleached to achieve a uniform color, or they are wetted if they are already high quality so they can be more easily wound.

[23] The outer fibers of the brush are typically treated with a dye, called broom crystals, to preserve the color after use.

[22] As an alternative to plant fibers, brooms can be fitted with synthetic brushes made of materials like nylon or plastic.

[18] Metal tension wires, sometimes crafted specifically for use in brooms, are put through a winding machine to fasten the bristles to the handle.

The first known reference to witches flying on broomsticks dates to the 11th-century Islamic traditionalist theologian Ibn Qudamahin his book al-Mughnī ( The Persuader ).

The Wizard commands Dorothy and her three traveling companions to bring the Wicked Witch's broomstick to him in order to grant their wishes.

In Disney's 1940 film Fantasia, Mickey Mouse, playing The Sorcerer's Apprentice, brings a broom to life to do his chore of filling a well full of water.

The tradition was practiced by enslaved Americans and other groups of low social class in the United States through the 19th century.

It was revitalized by Alex Haley after it was prominently featured in his novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family in 1976 and became part of a broader reclamation of Black heritage at the time.

[32] During World War II, American submarine crews would tie a broom to their boat's conning tower when returning to port to indicate that they had "swept" the seas clean of enemy shipping.

[33] The tradition has been devalued in recent years by submarine crews who fly a broom simply when returning from their boat's shake-down cruise.

[37] But a Broom-Stick, perhaps you will say, is an Emblem of a Tree standing on its Head; and pray what is Man, but a Topsy-turvey Creature, his Animal Faculties perpetually mounted on his Rational; His Head where his Heels should be, groveling on the Earth, and yet with all his Faults, he sets up to be an universal Reformer and Corrector of Abuses, a Remover of Grievances, rakes into every Sluts Corner of Nature, bringing hidden Corruptions to the Light, and raises a mighty Dust where there was none before, sharing deeply all the while, in the very same Pollutions he pretends to sweep away: His last Days are spent in Slavery to Women, and generally the least deserving; till worn to the Stumps, like his Brother Bezom, he is either kickt out of Doors, or made use of to kindle Flames, for others to warm themselves by.

[38]For much of the 20th century, political cartoons and propaganda would often depict new or oncoming leaders sweeping away old, corrupt or unpopular figures.