Combination sweeper and vacuum cleaner for swimming pools

Claim 1

In combination with a hollow housing having an open lower portion in communication with the interior of said housing, a pair of spaced parallel shafts rotatably supported in said housing, which shafts have a pair of elongate cylindrical sweeping brushes supported therefrom in parallel spaced alignment to contact and clean a surface over which said housing is moved, an assembly for concurrently driving said brushes whereby the surface contacting portions of said brushes move towards one another irrespective of the direction in which said housing moves over said surface, said assembly including: a. supporting means, including a plurality of guide rollers, supporting said housing in a spaced relationship with respect to the inner surface of a pool; b. a carrier reciprocable in said housing between a first position and a second position, along an axis parallel to said direction of motion; and c. drive means operatively associated with said supporting means and said pair of brushes for impelling said brushes into opposing rotational motion upon motion of said housing over said surface to discharge foreign material removed from said surface by said brushes into said interior of said housing, said drive means including: 1. a pair of drive gears, rigidly affixed to the shafts of said sweeping brushes, and a pair of idler gears interconnecting said pair of drive gears, rotatably mounted in said housing; 2. a pair of drive pinions, each one coaxial with one of said drive gears and rigidly keyed thereto; and 3. a pair of transfer pinions, each one coaxial with one of said idler pulleys and rigidly keyed thereto, whereby one of said transfer pinions is in mesh with one of said drive pinions in said first position of said carrier, and the other of said transfer pinions is in mesh with the other of said drive pinions in said second position of said carrier.