What is "carpet sweeper"

Carpet \Car"pet\ (k[aum]r"p[e^]t), n. [OF. carpite rug, soft of cloth, F. carpette coarse packing cloth, rug (cf. It. carpita rug, blanket), LL. carpeta, carpita, woolly cloths, fr. L. carpere to pluck, to card (wool); cf. Gr. karpo`s fruit, E. Harvest.]

1. A heavy woven or felted fabric, usually of wool, but also of cotton, hemp, straw, etc.; esp. a floor covering made in breadths to be sewed together and nailed to the floor, as distinguished from a rug or mat; originally, also, a wrought cover for tables.

   Tables and beds covered with copes instead of carpets and coverlets.
   --T. Fuller.

2. A smooth soft covering resembling or suggesting a carpet. ``The grassy carpet of this plain.'' --Shak. Carpet beetle or Carpet bug (Zo["o]l.), a small beetle ( Anthrenus scrophulari[ae]), which, in the larval state, does great damage to carpets and other woolen goods; -- also called buffalo bug. Carpet knight.

   1. A knight who enjoys ease and security, or luxury, and has not known the hardships of the field; a hero of the drawing room; an effeminate person.
      --Shak.

   2. One made a knight, for some other than military distinction or service.

      Carpet moth (Zo["o]l.), the larva of an insect which feeds on carpets and other woolen goods. There are several kinds. Some are the larv[ae] of species of Tinea (as Tinea tapetzella); others of beetles, esp. Anthrenus.

      Carpet snake (Zo["o]l.), an Australian snake. See Diamond snake, under Diamond.

      Carpet sweeper, an apparatus or device for sweeping carpets.

      To be on the carpet, to be under consideration; to be the subject of deliberation; to be in sight; -- an expression derived from the use of carpets as table cover.

      Brussels carpet. See under Brussels.

n. a cleaning device with revolving brushes that pick up dirt as the device is pushed over a carpet [syn: sweeper]

A carpet sweeper is a mechanical device for the cleaning of carpets. They were popular before the introduction of the vacuum cleaner and have been largely superseded by them. However, they continue to be used in many home and commercial applications because they are lightweight and quiet, enabling users to quickly clean small messes up from the floor without disturbing patrons, patients, babies and pets. (A very early appearance in film occurs in the 1914 Charlie Chaplin film Laughing Gas, where Chaplin uses it to clean the waiting-room floor of a dentist.) Carpet sweepers are still available in many parts of the world.

A carpet sweeper typically consists of a small box. The base of the box has rollers and brushes, connected by a belt or gears. There is also a container for dirt. The arrangement is such that, when pushed along a floor, the rollers turn and force the brushes to rotate. The brushes sweep dirt and dust from the floor into the container. Carpet sweepers frequently have a height adjustment that enables them to work on different lengths of carpet, or bare floors. The sweeper usually has a long handle so that it can be pushed without bending over.

The design was patented by Melville R. Bissell of Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, in 1876. Bissell began selling carpet sweepers in 1883. They became popular in the UK after the first Ewbank model went on same on 1889. New powered versions were designed at the beginning of the 20th century, with rechargeable batteries and an electric motor to spin the rollers and brushes.

The legacy of carpet sweepers lives on in floor cleaning robots that have limited suction power and rely on sweeping to collect larger bits of debris from the floor. While some research models of robotic vacuums only rely on vacuum motors, models on the market such as Roomba or bObsweep invariably combine suction and sweeping.