Abstract: A floor sweeper for recovering material from a surface to be cleaned comprises a handle assembly pivotably attached to a foot assembly. The foot assembly comprises a housing forming a brush chamber having a bottom opening. The foot assembly comprises a pair of driving gears and a split brush assembly rotatably mounted within the brush chamber and adapted to contact the surface through the opening. The brush assembly comprises two separately-rotatable halves each corresponding to one of the driving gears, with each half comprising a brush core, brush paddles or bristles affixed to an exterior of the brush core, and a brush gear adapted for rotation with the brush core. Each brush gear is driven by a corresponding driving gear to the corresponding brush core as the floor assembly is moved across the surface in order to drive the brushes to cleaning of the surface.

Abstract: A sweeper comprising a main wheel being capable of spinning in both a counterclockwise and a clockwise direction in response to the broom being moved backwards or forwards. The sweeper has a brush wheel driven by the main wheel and being capable of spinning in one direction irrespective of the spinning direction of the drive wheel. The sweeper has a plurality of intermediate wheels capable of translating the spinning motion from the drive wheel to the brush wheel, and each of the wheels being capable of simultaneous and non-slip spinning.