Vented double skirt system

Claim 1

In a floor sweeping apparatus having a frame, mounting means within said frame for journably supporting floor treating means for axial rotation therewithin, wall means including a forward wall, a rear wall, and opposed side walls coupled to said frame means forming an enclosure about said floor treating means, said wall means having a debris receiving port formed therein, power means for imparting axial rotation to said floor treating means; a debris receiving chamber, cOnduit means coupled to said debris receiving port and providing fluid communication between said floor treating means enclosure and said debris receiving chamber, and fluid impeller means for providing gaseous fluid flow from said floor treating means enclosure to said debris receiving chamber; a. skirt means coupled to said wall means and extending generally between at least one pair of opposed walls for isolating a portion of said enclosure from the ambience, said skirt means including a plurality of spaced apart generally parallelly disposed flexible sealing elements each having a lower free edge surface and being cooperatively arranged to define at least one enclosed seal chamber therebetween, and at least one vent opening formed in the innermost one of said sealing elements to provide gaseous fluid communication between said floor treating means enclosure and said seal chamber.