Portable wall system

In a portable wall system extending generally vertically between a floor and ceiling and including at least one wall panel, that improvement in which the wall panel includes a fixed dimension panel assembly having a vertical heighth only slightly less than the distance between the floor to the ceiling, a floor engaging supporting assembly on the lower edge of said panel assembly for movably supporting the lower end of the panel assembly for moving the wall panel along the surface of the floor, and a manually operated, vertically extendible and retractable assembly along the bottom edge of said panel assembly for selective vertical orientation above the point of contact between the supporting assembly and the floor surface and below the bottom edge of the supporting assembly, the vertical extension of the assembly serving to lift the panel assembly to bring it into engagement with the ceiling and secure the wall panel between the floor and ceiling, and a spring biased assembly at the upper edge of the panel assembly for engagement with the ceiling, said spring biased assembly including spring means exerting a small upward force to compensate for irregularities in building surfaces and to engage the ceiling with a "light touch", said spring biased assembly including an inverted channel shaped member having spaced parallel legs telescoped in relation to the upper end of the panel assembly, transversely spaced seal means along the upper surface of the channel shaped member for engaging the ceiling, said spring means including coil springs having widely spaced convolutions thereon to exert a light force on the channel shaped member, and means on the upper surface of the channel shaped member for engaging a positioning means on the ceiling between the seal means on the channel shaped member, said spring biased assembly for engagement with the ceiling including vertical adjustment means for retracting the spring biased assembly to shorten the heighth of the panel assembly to a vertical dimension less than the floor to ceiling heighth thereby enabling the panel assembly to be moved along the floor surface substantially in a vertical position without manhandling the panel assembly by lifting and supporting the entire weight thereof, said vertical adjustment means including a screw threaded member having a head disposed above the inverted channel-shaped member in rotatable relation thereto for receiving a tool to rotate the screw threaded member for varying the initial position of the inverted channel-shaped member without varying to any appreciable degree the resistance to movement of the channel-shaped member provided by said coil springs, said seal means being disposed along opposite sides of the head of the screw threaded member to conceal the same and providing continuous engagement with the ceiling, said panel including a screw threaded member adjacent each end thereof with the head on the screw threaded member constituting the means for engaging a positioning means on the ceiling between the seal means whereby the seal means also conceals the positioning means, said supporting assembly at the lower edge of the panel assembly including a plurality of ball-type rollers mounted on the lower edge thereof for rolling engagement with a supporting floor surface for movement of the panel assembly in any direction, said extendible and retractable assembly including a channel-shaped member having a bottom, horizontally disposed and substantially continuous bight portion disposed below the rollers when in extended position, said bight portion including apertures to enable the bight portion to move upwardly so that the bight portion may be oriented above the bottom edge of the rollers when in retracted position, screw threaded members threadedly mounted on the panel assembly and journaled to the bight portion of the channel-shaped member whereby rotation of the screw threaded members will cause vertical extension and retraction of the channel-shaped member.