U.S. patent application number 11/118437 was filed with the patent office on 2005-11-03 for glass with the drinking plane not perpendicular to the axis of the container.
Invention is credited to Groppo, Aldo.
Application Number | 20050242102 11/118437 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34935940 |
Filed Date | 2005-11-03 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050242102 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Groppo, Aldo |
November 3, 2005 |
Glass with the drinking plane not perpendicular to the axis of the
container
Abstract
Described herein is a glass with the drinking plane not
perpendicular to the axis of the container, which can be made of
any material, preferably variously coloured glass and/or crystal;
it comprises a resting base, from which there departs
perpendicularly or otherwise to the resting base a stem with its
axis inclined or perpendicular to the base, on the top end of which
the wine-containing part is located, said wine-containing part
having an inclined axis, and the plane of its mouth being parallel
or otherwise to the resting base itself.
Inventors: |
Groppo, Aldo; (Carmagnola,
IT) |
Correspondence
Address: |
MERCHANT & GOULD PC
P.O. BOX 2903
MINNEAPOLIS
MN
55402-0903
US
|
Family ID: |
34935940 |
Appl. No.: |
11/118437 |
Filed: |
April 29, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
220/669 ;
220/628 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47G 19/2288 20130101;
A47G 19/2266 20130101; A47G 19/2205 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
220/669 ;
220/628 |
International
Class: |
B65D 008/04 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Apr 30, 2004 |
IT |
TO2004U000053 |
Claims
1) A glass with the drinking plane not perpendicular to the axis of
the container, wherein said glass comprises a resting base, a stem
having an axis inclined or perpendicular with respect to the base,
a wine-containing part located on said stem, said wine containing
part having a mouth, said wine-containing part having an inclined
axis, wherein the plane of, the mouth being parallel to the resting
base.
2) The glass according to claim 1, wherein, the axis of the stem is
perpendicular to the resting base, the axis of the wine-containing
part is inclined, and the plane of the mouth is parallel or
otherwise to the resting base.
3) The glass according to claim 2, wherein, adopting a cylindrical
container, the plane of the mouth thereof will have an elliptical
conformation enabling, in the vertical plane that contains the
major axis of the ellipse, a wider degree of inclination of the
glass.
4) The glass according to claim 2, wherein, the elliptical shape of
the plane of the mouth has its major axis oriented as the
projection of the nose of the person drinking, thus enabling the
bouquet of the wine to reach his nostrils, limiting dispersion
thereof at the sides of the nose, where the ellipse has its minor
axis.
5) The glass according to claim 1, further comprising a compartment
for housing melting ice-cubes in order to maintain the portion of
wine contained in the wine-containing part at the temperature of
7-8.degree. C.
Description
[0001] A glass can have various shapes, colours and dimensions, due
not only to the aesthetic imagination of the producer but also to
the use for which it is designed.
[0002] The glass is a container the shape of which is,
conceptually, generated by the rotation (almost always a circular
rotation) about a vertical axis, of a segment of a line (profile)
which moves away from the axis in the top part so as to describe
the rim of the glass.
[0003] Said rotation generates a hollow solid, which can be used as
a container for beverages.
[0004] The bottom part of the container is closed and has a
horizontal resting surface, to which, up to now, the axis of the
container has always been perpendicular.
[0005] Commonly, the resting surface can be obtained by bestowing a
plane shape on the bottom part of the container, or else by adding
a base thereto, with the interposition of a stem.
[0006] For reasons of stability, it is desirable for the centroid
of the wineglass filled with liquid to project into the centre of
the base or, at least, to fall always within the boundary of said
base.
[0007] The top part of the container is open, and its rim (forming
the mouth) normally lies in a horizontal plane, parallel to the
resting surface and perpendicular to the axis of the container.
[0008] It is desirable, above all for wines such as champagne and
dry sparkling wine to be drunk using wineglasses made of
non-coloured crystal, where a slender and elongated wine-containing
part is separated from its resting base by a long stem.
[0009] Such a glass is referred to as "flute", which comes from the
French "flte", a type of tall slender glass for champagne and
similar drinks that to some extent resembles a flute on account of
its elongated cylindrical shape.
[0010] In the flute, the small diameter of the container is
justified both by the fact that it must limit the capacity of the
container itself, given that the wines for which it is designed
must be served in small amounts, and by the fact that it must limit
the surface of exchange between the liquid and the air, thus
limiting dispersion of the characteristic and precious bubbles
("perlage") due to the natural fermentation of this type of
wine.
[0011] The elongated shape bestows on the glass a volume sufficient
to limit the formation of froth, which, at the moment of pouring of
the wine is formed in large amounts although, to limit its
formation, the wine is made to slip delicately along the side wall
of the glass, by keeping the glass tilted to form with the axis of
the bottle an obtuse, almost flat, angle (the development of froth
means, in fact, a loss in "perlage").
[0012] The stem enables the glass to be lifted up without any need
to touch the wine-containing part, both to allow the drinker to
admire more fully the colour and the fineness of the "perlage" of
the contents and in order not to warm up with the heat of the
finger tips the small portion of wine, which ought to be drunk
after being kept in the melting ice at the temperature of
7-8.degree. C.
[0013] Originally, the flute had, instead of its present and usual
resting base, a spherical end, for the purpose of preventing the
glass from being put down before it had been rapidly emptied of its
already limited contents; this was so that the wine could be
appreciated in optimal conditions, without it being impoverished in
its "perlage" and warmed up by a longer permanence in the
glass.
[0014] To empty the glass, it is necessary to tilt it until every
point of the container is above the horizontal plane passing
through the mouth of the person drinking, with which the edge of
the glass is in contact.
[0015] The above operation is easier in cup-shaped or bowl-shaped
glasses (where, in order for the glass to be emptied, the
inclination of the generatrix of the cup of bowl with respect to
the axis of the glass is subtracted from the angle of inclination
of the glass) rather than in cylindrical glasses (where, since the
generatrix is parallel to the axis of the container, the angle of
subtraction becomes zero). It is easier with glasses with a wide
mouth than with ones with a narrow mouth.
[0016] Belonging to this latter type of glasses is the flute, even
though it is not the only one, where the inclination of the glass
is also limited by the contact of its rim with the nose of the
person drinking, who, in order to impart upon the glass the
necessary inclination, is forced to incline his head backwards.
[0017] The main purpose of the invention is to eliminate the
drawbacks referred to above, thus providing a solution to the
operation of emptying of said type of glasses, without requiring
any need for the user to incline his head backwards, with an action
that is uncomfortable and unaesthetic.
[0018] The invention, as is characterized by the claims, consists
in a glass where its rim (forming the mouth) lies in a plane
inclined with respect to the axis of the wine-containing part
(container).
[0019] The mouth of the container, if the latter is cylindrical,
will no longer be circular but elliptical, and the user will rest
his lips on the rim of the container in the one of the two points
with horizontal tangent that is set at the higher level from the
base of the glass.
[0020] The elliptical shape of the rim will enable, in the vertical
plane which contains the major axis of the ellipse, a greater
degree of inclination of the glass, before the latter comes into
contact with its user's nose.
[0021] Furthermore, the fact that the edge of the glass has an
elliptical shape, with the major axis oriented, at the moment of
use, as the projection of the user's nose, not only enables the
aforementioned greater inclination of the glass before this will
come into contact with the nose but also enables the bouquet of the
wine to reach the nostrils limiting its dispersion at the sides of
the nose, where the ellipse has its minor axis.
[0022] Even though the cylindrical shape of the container is the
most usual one, it is described hereinafter merely as an example of
embodiment of the invention. The container may have any other shape
in so far as the inclination of the plane of the mouth with respect
the axis of the container bestows on the glass the same improved
characteristics as those described for a cylindrical container.
[0023] The glass thus devised may be made with a base perpendicular
to the axis of the wine-containing part, or else it may be possible
to recover the parallelism between the plane of the mouth of the
glass and its resting surface by means of appropriate and suitable
inclination or conformation of the stem that joins the base to the
wine-containing part.
[0024] Both of the above embodiments enable the user, by
appropriately holding the glass, to keep the wine-containing part
in a vertical position in order to limit the surface of contact
between the air and the contents.
[0025] The second embodiment moreover enables the wine to be poured
correctly even with the glass in the resting position by causing it
even so to run down the internal surface of the glass, which
presents with the wine-containing part already inclined with
respect to the horizontal plane, in this way causing a limited
amount of froth to form and consequent contained dispersion of
"perlage".
[0026] The practice of pouring champagne and sparkling wines into
fltes which are inappropriately resting on a surface is a custom
that is as widespread as it is to be deprecated in so far as, by so
doing, the wine falls from the bottle for the entire height of the
glass and directly impinges upon the wine that has preceded it
during pouring, thus mixing therewith, with the consequent
formation of a very high amount of froth and a proportional loss of
"perlage".
[0027] Other characteristics will emerge more clearly from the
ensuing description with reference to the attached plate of
drawings, in which:
[0028] FIG. 1 is a side view of the glass;
[0029] FIG. 2 is a front view of the glass;
[0030] FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the glass;
[0031] FIG. 4 is a side view of the glass provided with a container
for the ice;
[0032] FIG. 5 is a front view of the glass illustrated in FIG. 4;
and
[0033] FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the glass illustrated in FIG.
4;
[0034] FIGS. 7-9 show the glass of FIGS. 1-3 with a difference in
the shape of the mouth; and
[0035] FIGS. 10-12 show the glass of FIGS. 4-6 with a difference in
the shape of the mouth.
[0036] With reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the glass forming the
subject of the invention, which may be made of any material,
preferably variously coloured glass and/or crystal, comprises a
resting base 2, from which there departs, in a direction either
perpendicular to the base or not, a stem 3 having an axis which is
inclined or perpendicular with respect to the base, at the top end
of which the wine-containing part 4 is located, having an inclined
axis, with the plane 5 of its mouth 6 parallel or otherwise to the
base 2.
[0037] As has been said above, the glass forming the subject of the
present invention may be made even with the axis of the stem 3
perpendicular to the base 2. The axis of the wine-containing part 4
will always be inclined, and the plane 5 of the mouth 6 may be
parallel or not to the base 2.
[0038] Of course, in all the solutions, for reasons of stability
the centroid of the glass full of liquid must fall in any case
within the boundary of its resting base.
[0039] In the solution described herein merely by way of example,
there has been chosen the cylindrical shape of the container in so
far as it is the most usual one, but any other shape may be used.
In this case, the mouth 6 of the cylindrical container will no
longer be circular but will have an elliptical shape 7, and the
lips of the user will rest on the rim 8 of the container in the one
of the two points with a horizontal tangent that is at a higher
level from the base 2 of the glass.
[0040] The aforesaid elliptical shape 7 of the rim 5 will enable,
in the vertical plane that contains the major axis of the ellipse,
a larger degree of inclination of the glass 1 before this comes
into contact with the nose of its user, thus preventing the need
for the user to incline his head backwards.
[0041] In addition, the aforesaid elliptical shape 7 of the rim 5
with the major axis oriented at the moment of use as the protrusion
of the nose of the person drinking also enables the bouquet of the
wine to reach the drinker's nostrils, thus limiting dispersion of
the bouquet at the sides of the nose, where the ellipse 7 has the
minor axis.
[0042] Represented in FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 is a variant embodiment of
the invention, which consists in the fact that the glass 1
comprises a compartment 9 for housing melting ice-cubes having the
purpose of maintaining the portion of wine contained in the
wine-containing part 4 at a temperature of between 7 and 8.degree.
C., thus preventing any watering-down of the contents deriving from
the fact that the ice-cubes are inserted directly in the
wine-containing part.
[0043] The glass of FIGS. 7-9 and 10-12 show a small difference
respectively in reference to the glass shown in FIGS. 1-3 and 4-6;
the difference consists in the shape of the mouth 6 that, however,
maintains its elliptical shape 7 according to the invention.
[0044] The invention described above solves the problem of
providing a wineglass contained in a plane that is in any case
inclined with respect to its base and to its drinking plane, which
lies on a plane parallel or not to the plane of the resting
base.
[0045] Of course, the present invention is not limited to the
arrangements described and represented herein, but rather may
undergo further improvements and possible variations, particularly
if these are dictated by requirements of practical use.
* * * * *