Improvements in Carpet Sweepers.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Sept., 1888
Specification Accepted, 5th Oct., 1888
Improvements in Carpet Sweepers.
I REGINALD HADDAN of the firm of Herbert & Co., Patent Agents, of 18 Buckingham
Street, Strand, W.O. London in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer do hereby
declare the nature of this invention a communication to me from abroad by The
Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the United States
of America, Manufacturers and in what manner the same is to be performed to he
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention has for its object to provide novel means for opening and
automatically closing the dust pan or pans of a carpet sweeper and to provide a novel
spring wire of such construction and so applied that the wire forms in itself a .
pressure bar to open the pan by depressing the wire and which by its inherent.
elasticity when relieved of pressure will automatically close the pan.
The invention consists in the several novel means of construction and new
combinations of parts hereinafter fully set forth and definately pointed out in the
claims.
In the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is an end elevation of a sweeper in which my invention is embodied.
Fig. 2 is a plan view partly in horizontal section.
Fig. 3 is a detail perspective of the dumping device removed from the casing.
Fig. 4 is an end elevation of a sweeper showing a slightly modified construction.
In the said drawings the reference numeral 1. indicates the sweeper casing or box
which may be of any known or desired form having a brush roller with pans 2 arranged
upon opposite sides thereof. These pans are pivotally mounted in the usual manner
upon pins 3 set in end walls of the casing.
Upon the exterior face of one of the end walls of the casing is mounted the
dumping device consisting of a single piece of wire bent as shown in Fig. 3. into
two similar angular or V shaped portions 4 connected together by a central U shaped
portion 5 which is bent at or nearly at a right angle to the plane in which the
V shaped parts lie.
At the apex of the angle in each of the portions last named the wire is bent to
form a loop or eye 6 turned outwardly from the angular portion 4 to serve as a rest

page_text: for the finger of the operator in using the sweeper. At the free ends of the arms 4 a
forming part of the V shaped portions are inwardly bent portions 7 which pass
ihrough shallow notches 8 in the edge of the end wall of the casing and engage with
openings in the ends of the pans said openings being removed from the pivotal
points on which the pans turn.
The dumping device thus constructed is applied to the end wall of the casing by
cutting therein a slot 9 and inserting the U shaped central portion 5 which projects
inside the casing. There are many ways in which the parts may be secured in this
position, but a simple and inexpensive fastening is formed by extending the plate 10
which contains the bearing 12 for the handle and bending the prolonged portion 1:3
inward to enter the slot 9 between the converging arms of the U shaped portion 5
which impinge upon the edges of the plate and are held firmly in place.
When thus constructed and attached, the dumping device will have swo of the
arms of the converging or angular portions 4 lying in lines which approximate
toward parallelism with the top of the casing and the "hand holds
::
or loops 6 will
be near the upper angles of the box in convenient position for operation.
In operating the pans, pressure upon the loops G will cause them to move through
a limited are of which the adjacent arm of the U shaped portion 5 is the centre.
The pivotal points 7 will also more in ares of which the pivot pins 3 are the
centres.
In throwing the pans open the pivotal point 7 approaches the point of rigid
attachment of the other arm of the V shaped section by a very limited distance and
shereby the elastic tension to be overcome in throwing the pans open is but little
greater than that exerted in holding said pans closed.
This elasticity that is to say, the elasticity overcome in dumping the pans is located
partly in the flexion of the arms of the angular portion 4 and is partly fensional
elasticity located in the arms of the U shaped portion 5.
By the construction thus set forth the dumping devices for both pans are formed
of one integral piece of wire. It should be noted however that I construct the
device operating each pan in a separate piece or part as seen in Fig. 4.
In this form of construction instead of fastening the dumping device as shown in
Fig. I may attach one end 14 of each device at a point 15 on the end of the sweeper
said point being comparatively near the point of pivotal attachment of the other arm.
Aside from the fact that these devices are constructed in separate pieces and are
each rigidly connected to the casing in the manner set forth whereby their extremities
are brought into comparative proximity, they are not essentially different from the
device shown in Figs. 1 and 3 inclusive being each formed in a single piece, having
a similar hand hold and operating in substantially the same manner.
It will be noted however that by reason of the different location of the point of
attachment the ends of the arms shown in Fig. 4 will approach each other as the pan
is opened thereby producing a constant increase in elastic tension.
may connect the devices shown in Fig. 4 to the casing by angle plates 16 or in
any other suitable manner.
It will be seen from the foregoing that I provide an angular spring wire which in
itself forms a pressure bar to open a pan by pressing the wire and which by its
inherent elasticity will, when relieved from pressure by the hand automatically close
such pan.
It will also be seen that the invention can be used to operate one or two
pans of a carpet sweeper.
The wires, instead of having the sharp angular bend described might have a more
gradual curvature and might be without the specific loops or hand-holds described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is.
1. The combination with a carpet sweeper casing and its pivoted dust pan of a bent
wire having a fixed point of attachment to the casing and connected with the pan
and forming in itself a pressure bar to open the pan by pressure upon the wire

page_text: and which by its inherent elasticity will automatically close the pan substantially as
described.
2. The combination with a carpet sweeper casing and its dust pan of an angularly
bent spring wire secured to the casing and extending from its point of attachment
toward the side of the casing and then turned downward and connected to the pan
and constituting in itself a pressure har to open the pan and by its inherent elasticity
automatically closing the pan substantially as described.
3. The combination with a carpet sweeper and its dust pan of a single piece of
spring wire secured to the casing and angularly bent and extending to and connected
at its opposite extremities to the pans to form pressure bars for opening the pans
and which by their inherent elasticity automatically close the pans substantially as
described.