US2589098A - Protective enclosure for drinking containers - Google Patents

Description

Patented Mar. 11, 1952 PROTECTIVE EN CLOSURE FOR DRINKING CONTAINERS l Henry Coe Lanpher, Alexandrmva.

Application July 26, 1950, Serial No. 176,050

3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in protective collars for use with drinking containers.

Many persons are accustomed to place a drinking container or tumbler containing water or other liquid on a table by their bed when they retire sov that, they may satisfy their thirst conveniently during the night.

The shape of conventional drinking containers tends to make them easily accidentally upset. This characteristic is particularly notable in certain modern drinking containers made of light-weight plastic material whose circularshaped bottom portions are of small diameter relative to their height and whose side portions nare outwardly as they rise upwardly. Particularly for this last-described type, but also for other styles of conventional drinking containers, a relatively light impact on the upper portion is suiiicient to upset the container. spill its contents, and, if resting on a bedside table, perhaps cause it to fall to the floor. If made of glass, such a fall would be likely to break the container. Such accidental impact is likely to occur from the hand of a person who in the darkness reaches from his bed for his drinking container or for some other object on his bedside table.

Furthermore, when a person in bed in darkness seeks to replace his drinking container on his bedside table after drinking from it, he may accidentally set it down so that it strikes some other object on the table or at a place where its bottom portion isv partly off the table, thus causing it to be upset, its contents spilled, and the container itself, if made of glass, perhaps broken.

This invention provides a convenient, ornamental protective collar for a drinking container on a bedside table which is adapted to prevent such a container from being accidentally upset while resting on the table orV while being placed on the table.

Thus the first object of this invention is to provide a convenient and ornamental protective collar for a drinking container of liquid resting onY a bedside. table to prevent the containers being accidentally upset and its contents spilled.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar for a drinking container which when a person encounters it in the darkness in reaching from his bed for is drinking container will guide his hand upwardly and inwardly by a curved surface pleasant to the touch to where his hand will encounter the upper portion and rim of the container.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar yfor a drinkingk container which when a person in the darkness reaches from his bed to replace a drinking container containing liquid on his bedside table will present to his touch a curved surface pleasant to the touch surrounding and leading upwardly and inwardly to a circular-shaped aperture in which to place the drinking container for its protection.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar for a drinking container resting on a bedside table which will not normally come regularly in contact with any portion of the surface of such container and thus will permit the container to rest in its normal position in contact only with the surface of the table, and, when needed, to be freely lifted from this position of rest and removed from within said collar and thereupon replaced on the supporting surface through said collar without contact or friction between said container and said collar.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar for a drinking container which will be adapted for use with a plurality of sizes and types of such containers.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar for a drinking container of such a shape that when it rests on its base portion on a horizontal supporting surface it will not be readily dislodged from this position.

Having reference to the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the protective collar for a drinking container according to my invention.

Figure 2 is a top plan view.

Figure 3 is a cross-section view on line 3--3 of Figure 2, showing the position of a drinking container protected by the collar.

Figures 4 and '5 are fragmentary cross-section views showing modifications of construction of the protective collar.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, a protective collar according to the invention illustratively comprises a collar-like body of one-piece, substantially rigid construction having the general shape of a attened dome when viewed in side elevation. Accordingly, the body has a sub.- stantially wide and at under surface I whereby it is adapted to rest stably on a horizontal supporting surface and an outer hand-engag- `ing surface 2 which curves upwardly' and inwardly to merge into an inner open space ,3 defined by an axial through-bore. As seen in Fig.v 3, the inner space or b ore 3 has a vsubstantially vertical bore surface, i. e. it flares slightly in outward direction towards its upper edge or rim 4, and said bore is moreover slightly over.- size with relation to a tumbler supported `on said .supporting surface independently of .the .body and about which the body is `disposed ,in

encircling relation. As further seen in Fig. 3, the vertical height of the body is somewhat greater than half the vertical height of the tumbler.

Accordingly, when related to a filled tumbler in the manner illustrated in Fig. 3, a protective collar of the invention serves tactually to guide the hand reaching to grasp said tumbler to a position in which it may grasp the upper or rim portion of the tumbler which extends above the `edge 4. Should the hand inadvertently first strike the upper portion of the tumbler in a manner and with sufficient force as normally to overturn the same, the collar, although permitting a small degree of tipping of the tumbler, precludes any excessive tipping 'thereof by providing oppositely disposed and vertically spaced tumbler-engaging points or portions, the lower for the bottom edge of the tumbler and the upper for a point on the tumbler above its vertical middle line. The oversizing of the inner space or bore 3 relative to the tumbler is also of advantage in that when the collar is forcefully struck by the hand reaching for the tumbler, it may slide on the supporting surface a limited distance independently of the tumbler, with the result that the collar takes the rst shock of the impact, with the movement of the collar also giving a sensitory warning against further uncontrolled or forceful movement of the hand.

Figure 4 shows in fragmentary cross-section View a modification which is generally similar in form to that shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, except that the under surface includes a portion which extends generally upwardly and inwardly and then downwardly and inwardly to form a hollow space 5. This hollow space serves to reduce the amount of material needed in the construction of the collar, and thus to reduce its weight.

Figure 5, also in fragmentary cross-section view, shows another modification. Here the cross-section shape of the upper-and-side surface 2 is a convex curve in its upper portion 6 and a concave curve in its lower portion 7. Also in this xnodication the surface of the inner open space 3 is shown to extend generally downwardly and outwardly from the rim 4 instead of tapering downwardly and inwardly as in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, although said surface may be tapered as in Figure 3, for example.

From the above and the appended claims it will be evident that the broad purpose of the invention, which is to protect a drinking container from being accidentally upset, is achieved through the existence of suitable relationships between the size and height above the supporting surface upon which the protective collar rests of the circular-shaped rim 4 and the shape and size respectively of the drinking container to be enclosed and protected.

The protective collar of this invention may be fabricated of any material, such as wood, plastic material, metal, glass, hard rubber, sponge or foam rubber, or pottery, or of any combination of such materials. If fabricated of foam rubber of fairly firm density, the slight pliability of the outer curved surface would to many persons provide added pleasantness to the touch. Also, if the enclosure, or the portion of the enclosure which is designed to come in contact with the supporting surface, is fabricated of foam rubber, sponge rubber, or other soft material. resistance to the lateral movement of the enclosure on the supporting surface would be increased and protection provided against the scratching of the supporting surface.

It will be evident that modifications of the enclosure other than those shown in the drawings are implicit in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. As an article of manufacture, a collarlike body of one-piece construction adapted when placed on a fiat surface supporting a lled tumbler and in encircling relation to said tumbler to prevent overturning thereof when the tumbler is struck by a hand reaching to grasp the same and tactually to guide the hand upwardly to a position in which it may grasp the portion of the tumbler extending above the body, said body having the general shape of a attened dome when viewed in side elevation so as to provide an outer hand-engaging surface which curves upwardly and inwardly and a substantially greater width at its bottom than at its top whereby it is stable when supported on said flat surface, and being provided with a vertical through-bore having a substantially vertical bore surface and which is oversize with relation to the tumbler, whereby said tumbler may be freely raised from or placed on said supporting surface through the bore and may be tipped slightly with respect to the body, and whereby said body may slide on the supporting surface a limited distance independently of said tumbler when said body is struck by the hand, the vertical height of said body being at least one-half of the vertical height of the tumbler but exposing a substantial height of the tumbler for grasping thereof and whereby said body prevents excessive tipping of the tumbler by engaging the tumbler at opposite and vertically spaced points on the body, the upper of said points being above the vertical middle line of said tumbler.

2. An article of manufacture as set forth in claim 1, wherein the through-bore is ared outwardly toward its upper end.

3. An article of manufacture as set forth in claim 1 wherein the curved outer surface of the body includes a lower concave portion and a merging upper convex portion.

HENRY COE LANPHER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patentz UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 32,025 Strugnell Dec. 26, 1899 D. 110,902 Loesch Aug. 16, 1938 D. 114,551 Morgan May 2, 1939 D. 138,593 Gulick Aug. 22, 1944 791,097 Jericho May 30, 1905 929,389 Clement July 27, 1909 1,657,664 Dexter Jan. 31, 1928 1,858,728 Creighton May 17, 1932 1,937,939 Behrens Dec. 5, 1933 2,240,842 Gehring et al. May 6, 1941 2,427,697 Weidler Sept. 23, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 2,202 Great Britain Feb. 12, 1887 27,894 Great Britain Dec. 22, 1908 430,582 Great Britain June 21, 1935 397,107 Germany June 30, 1924

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