Cylinder or canister vacuum cleaners, as shown in FIG. 1, generally comprise a main body 10 which contains separating apparatus 11 such as a cyclonic separator or a bag for separating dirt and dust from an incoming dirty airflow. The dirty airflow is introduced to the main body 10 via a hose 15 and wand 16 assembly which is connected to the main body 10. The main body 10 of the cleaner is dragged along by the hose as a user moves around a room. A cleaning tool 20 is attached to the remote end 17 of the hose and wand assembly. A range of cleaning tools are usually supplied so that a user can choose an appropriate tool for their cleaning task, such as crevice tool and a brush tool. The cleaning tool which is used for general cleaning is a floor tool 20. FIG. 2 shows the underside of a floor tool sold by DYSON™ and shown more fully in Registered Design GB 2,074,319. The floor tool 20 is a wide tool with a sole plate on its lower side that glides over the floor surface. The sole plate has a suction inlet 21 and a suction channel 22–25 communicating with the inlet 21. The tool 20 is pushed backwards and forwards across a floor surface by a user. Air is drawn into the inlet 21 via the suction channels 22–25. Air reaches the channels 22–25 via inlets at the edges of the tool and via leakage between the sole plate of the tool and the floor surface. As the floor tool 20 passes over the floor surface, dirt, dust and other debris is carried along the suction channels 22–25 to the suction inlet 21 and along the hose and wand 15, 16 to the separator 11 in the main body 10 of the vacuum cleaner.
While floor tools of the kind shown in FIG. 1 work well on hard floor surfaces, they are less effective on carpeted floors where hair, fluff and other fibrous material, collectively called ‘lint’, become trapped on the carpet. Thus, efforts have been made to improve the pick up performance of floor tools on carpeted floors. Some tools have a brush mounted in the suction inlet which is rotated so as to agitate the floor surface in the same manner as the brush bar of an upright vacuum cleaner. The brush can be rotated by the use of an air turbine or by an electric motor which is powered by a power supply derived from the main body of the cleaner. However, this type of tool is more expensive than the passive floor tool.
Efforts have also been made to improve floor tools in a more passive manner. Floor tools usually have one or more lint pickers 30, 35 mounted on the sole plate. A lint picker is a strip of material into which a plurality of tufts of fine hair are secured. All of the tufts are aligned in the same direction with respect to the sole plate. The lint picker acts as a one-way gate, allowing lint to pass under the lint picker when the floor tool is pushed along the floor, but to block the lint when the floor tool is pulled backwards. The repeated forward and backwards action of the floor tool across the floor surface traps the lint and rolls it into a ball such that it can be sucked by the floor tool. Each lint picker is mounted within a recessed portion of the sole plate. However, the pick-up performance of such tools is limited.