This invention relates to utility brushes, and more particularly, to utility brushes including an integral reservoir for holding a supply of cleaning fluid.
The cleaning of various objects, for example, cars or other motor vehicles, requires the use of a brush and cleaning fluid such as soapy water. Normally the soapy water is retained in a bucket and the cleaning brush is dipped into the bucket, absorbing the soapy water. The brush is then placed on the vehicle, allowing the soapy water to run onto the surface of the vehicle to be cleaned by the brush. This technique is time-consuming, as only a small amount of the soapy water is retained on the brush bristles, causing the brush to be continually dipped into the bucket.
Reservoir brushes have been taught by Wilson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,517,152, and Fletcher, U.S. Pat. No. 3,119,142. Both of these brushes contain a fluid-holding reservoir and a passageway through the head of the brush to the area of the brush bristles which allows for an emptying of the reservoir while the brush is being used. The brushes of Wilson and Fletcher, however, are filled by removing a cap in the back of the head of the brush or on top of the reservoir. This filling procedure is time-consuming and cumbersome and undesirable in car washing applications.
Whitehous, U.S. Pat. No. 946,832, and Lundin, U.S. Pat. No. 984,098, teach hand-operated vacuum cleaners for cleaning dust from carpets and the like. Cellini, U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,031, teaches a hand-operated vacuum cleaning device for swimming pool bottoms. Each of these devices as taught by Whitehous, Lundin and Cellini includes a complicated operating structure including the necessity for an intake check valve which assures that any fluid or dust particles drawn into the device does not escape through the incoming pathway. The designs as taught by Whitehous, Lundin and Cellini do not contemplate the use of a suction pump as a filling means for a reservoir brush. Moreover, by the very nature of their complicated structure, their devices would have cost-prohibitive manufacturing costs when directed toward the automobile accessory market for cleaning brushes.
What is desired is a suction pump reservoir brush of simple and durable design which would be relatively economical to manufacture and which would be easily operated to quickly fill the reservoir of the brush providing a soapy water dispensing brush for cleaning automobiles.
An object of this invention is to provide a fluid-dispensing reservoir brush having a suction pump operation for readily filling the reservoir.
Another object of this invention is to provide such a brush with a fluid-containing membrane for holding the fluid within the reservoir chamber separate from vacuum creating mechanisms within that reservoir chamber.
Another object of this invention is to provide such a reservoir brush where the discharge rate of fluid from the reservoir membrane onto the brush bristles may be adjustably controlled.
A further object of this invention is to provide a simplified vacuum pumping mechanism, including a simplified construction for the vacuum creating piston and check valve operation associated therewith.
An even further object of this invention is to provide a venting of the vacuum chamber when the vacuum pump is inoperative, this venting assisting in the collapse of the fluid-holding membrane and assuring an even and steady flow of the fluid out of the brush.