Shoe attachment for wet/dry electric vacuum cleaner

Claim 1

A shoe attachment for the intake of a suction device, like a vacuum cleaner, or the like, wherein the suction device includes an intake conduit, means for supplying suction force to the intake conduit, and the intake conduit having an end having an intake orifice into which material is sucked by the suction force; means communicating with the intake conduit for receiving material sucked into the intake orifice; the intake conduit being shaped for defining the intake orifice as a relatively narrow opening measured along one dimension of the intake orifice; the shoe attachment for the intake comprising upstanding walls extending into the intake orifice, a plate extending beneath the end of the intake conduit at which the intake orifice is defined, the walls standing up from the plate, whereby the walls and the plate together close off flow through the intake orifice; an inlet opening through the plate and defined by and extending between the walls of the shoe attachment and communicating into the intake conduit, wherein the inlet opening is narrower along the same one dimension than the intake orifice for increasing the air speed and/or the suction force at the inlet opening, as compared with the air speed and/or suction force that would be present at the intake orifice were the shoe attachment absent; the shoe attachment is, at least at the plate thereof, comprised of a flexible and resilient material that is thick and flexible enough to deform to conform to irregularities in the surface over which the plate is moved as the intake conduit and inlet opening are moved across the surface to be suctioned.