U.S. patent number 3,886,949 [Application Number 05/426,678] was granted by the patent office on 1975-06-03 for baby soother.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Lewis Woolf Griptight Limited. Invention is credited to Eric Kenneth Hurst, Ronald Keith Moore.
United States Patent |
3,886,949 |
Hurst , et al. |
June 3, 1975 |
Baby soother
Abstract
A baby soother comprising a shield carrying a teat and having at
the side remote from the teat a handle which is connected to the
shield and incorporating an integral hinge.
Inventors: |
Hurst; Eric Kenneth (London,
EN), Moore; Ronald Keith (Kempsey, EN) |
Assignee: |
Lewis Woolf Griptight Limited
(Birmingham, EN)
|
Family
ID: |
10480053 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/426,678 |
Filed: |
December 12, 1973 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
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|
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|
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Dec 14, 1972 [GB] |
|
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57798/72 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
606/236 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A61J
17/001 (20150501); A61J 17/105 (20200501); A61J
17/1011 (20200501) |
Current International
Class: |
A61J
17/00 (20060101); A61j 017/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;128/359,360 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Gaudet; Richard A.
Assistant Examiner: Opitz; Rick
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow &
Garrett
Claims
We claim:
1. A baby soother having a shield with two sides, a resilient teat
on one side and a handle on the other side, comprising an integral
shield and handle structure, said handle being substantially
arcuate in shape, the arcuate shaped handle having ends integral
with said other side of said shield, said ends being joined to said
shield at positions diametrically opposite to each other, said
handle being substantially circular in coross-section throughout
most of its arcuate shape but having narrow neck portions adjacent
each end but spaced from said other side of said shield to form
integral resilient hinge means, said neck portion having a degree
of resilience to cause the handle to normally stand up on said
shield but permitting it to be hinged on the shield by the baby,
said shield having a centrally disposed enlarged boss, said boss
having a stepped bore therethrough extending from one side to the
other, said bore having shoulders therein with the shoulders being
disposed in the bore at the respective opposite sides of the
shield, said resilient teat being hollow and having beads
surrounding an open end thereof, said beads being adapted to
interfit with said shoulders to hold said teat projecting from said
one side of the shield, a double headed plug fitted into the open
end of the teat situated in said bore, the head at one end of said
plug being smooth and said plug having a shape fitting within and
filling said bore, and said plug engaging the beads on the open end
of the teat to hold them interfitted with said shoulders while the
head on the other end of said plug holds the plug in place.
2. A baby soother as in claim 1 wherein the head at said one end of
the plug is dome shaped and forms with said boss a substantially
continuous partly spherical surface on said other side of the
shield.
3. A baby soother as in claim 1 in which the shield has two parts
secured together and between them is defined a space containing
beads.
Description
This invention relates to baby soothers of the kind comprising a
member which acts as a shield carrying a teat and also having a
handle extending in a direction away from the teat.
The object of the invention is to provide a baby soother of this
kind in a convenient form.
In accordance with the present invention, a baby soother comprises
a shield carrying a teat extending from one side thereof, the
shield also having on its side remote from the teat, a handle which
incorporates a hinge whereby a main portion of the handle can be
hinged relatively to a portion of the handle fixed to the
shield.
The invention will now be described by way of example with
reference to the accompanying drawings in which
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a baby soother constructed in
accordance with the invention,
FIG. 2 is a side elevation view and
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an alternative
construction.
The baby soother illustrated comprises three components. The main
component is a combined shield 10 and handle 11, which is formed as
a single part preferably by a moulding process from a plastics
material such as polypropylene.
The shield 10, is a substantially flat round disc with an enlarged
boss on one side having a stepped bore, in its centre. The handle
11 is generally arcuate and joins the shield 10, on the side
thereof on which the centre boss is formed. The ends of the handle
join the shield at positions diametrically opposite to each other.
The handle is of circular cross-section but near its two junctions
with the shield 10, it has two narrow neck portions 12. These serve
as hinge connections between an outer main portion of the handle
and short portions connected to the shield 10 respectively. The
hinge portions 12 have a degree of resilience so that the handle
tends to stand up from the shield 10 as shown in the drawings.
However, the handle can be hinged down into the position indicated
in dotted lines at 13 in FIG. 2.
In the bore in the boss of the shield 10 are located a plug 14 and
the open end of a resilient teat 15. Such open end is provided with
a thickened bead 16 which locates on a shoulder 17 formed in the
bore of the shield 10. The plug is double headed and has a tapered
shank joining the two heads, one of which is however, larger than
the other. The flat surface under the larger of the heads engages
the bead 16, of the teat and secures it against its shoulder 17 in
the shield 10. The smaller head of the plug 14 traps the teat
against another shoulder 18 in the bore of the shield 10, such
shoulder 18 being presented in the opposite direction to the
shoulder 17. Between the two shoulders 17 and 18 there is defined a
frusto conical section 19 of the bore which also serves to trap the
teat and force it against the correspondingly tapered shank of the
plug 14.
The bulbous end of the teat 15 extends from the shield away from
the handle 11.
The boss of the shield 10 and the larger head of the plug 14, which
is domed, form a substantially continuous approximately
part-spherical surface so that it is almost impossible to detach
the plug from the shield and thus separate the three components of
the soother.
To assemble the parts, the teat is introduced into the bore of the
boss of the shield 10 and the plug is then forced into place to
trap it. Since the smaller end of the plug 14 is also headed, as
described, this resists separation of the components.
In the alternative construction shown in FIG. 3, the shield is made
from two parts 20, 21 secured together at their inner and outer
peripheries. A space 22 is defined between these parts and in this
are loosely carried a number of glass beads 23 or other objects
intended to provide a rattle effect when the soother is moved.
The two parts 20, 21 are preferably welded together at their edges
and both are plastics mouldings. The handle 11 is formed integrally
with the part 20 of this shield.
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