U.S. patent number 3,900,910 [Application Number 05/343,073] was granted by the patent office on 1975-08-26 for water pillow.
Invention is credited to Yuuichi Nakata.
United States Patent |
3,900,910 |
Nakata |
August 26, 1975 |
Water pillow
Abstract
The disclosure relates to a water pillow made of flexible
waterproof material having a pair of cavities formed therein, one
on the top wall and one on the bottom wall, the central portions of
the cavities being connected together. The bottom wall includes
concave grooves therein in the form of circular arcs concentric
with the cavity in the bottom wall.
Inventors: |
Nakata; Yuuichi (Chigasaki,
Kanagawa, JA) |
Family
ID: |
12810019 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/343,073 |
Filed: |
March 20, 1973 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
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Apr 26, 1972 [JA] |
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47-48680 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
5/644; 5/490;
5/636; 5/924 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47G
9/10 (20130101); Y10S 5/924 (20130101); A47G
2009/008 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A47G
9/00 (20060101); A47G 9/10 (20060101); A47g
009/00 (); A47c 007/02 () |
Field of
Search: |
;5/337,338,341,348R,348WB,327 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Nunberg; Casmir A.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Cantor; Jay M.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A water pillow comprising:
a flexible waterproof hollow enclosure in the form of a pillow,
the upper surface of the enclosure having a concavity therein
substantially centrally thereof, for receiving the head of a
user,
the lower wall of the enclosure being provided with a plurality of
upwardly projecting hollow flexible ridges about the concavity
terminating short of the top wall of the enclosure, said ridges
being compressible in response to pressure applied to the water by
a user's head to provide space for receiving the volume of water
displaced by such pressure, said enclosure being provided with an
inlet for the water.
2. A water pillow according to claim 1 wherein said ridges are of
arcuate shape substantially concentric with the center of the
concavity.
3. A water pillow according to claim 1 wherein the outer surface of
the bottom wall of the enclosure is indented to form said ridges
within the enclosure.
4. A water pillow according to claim 3 wherein said indentations
and resulting ridges are of arcuate shape substantially concentric
with the center of the concavity.
5. A water pillow according to claim 1 wherein the upper surface of
the pillow is provided with a roughened area for preventing
slipping of a cover disposed thereon.
Description
This invention relates to water pillows into which cold water is
poured, and which would be used for cooling a person's head.
A water pillow is generally made from a flexible and flat hollow
bag. Accordingly, the head of its user is unstable and made
uncomfortable due to moving about of the water inside the
pillow.
In order to overcome the problems of prior art water pillows, it
was attempted to make the water pillow with some flexible leg parts
in the form of concentric circles on its bottom and with a concave
curve on its surface in order to make the head of users stable
therein when putting the head of the user on the central part of
the concavity of the water pillow, however, it was noted that the
user complained of feeling uncomfortable due to loss of flexibility
and feeling a pressure against the head from both sides.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a water
pillow which overcomes the above mentioned problems.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a new water
pillow which accepts weighting on it flexibly and removes the
feeling of uncomfortableness due to water moving about within the
pillow.
Other objects of the invention would be apparent from the following
description of a preferred embodiment thereof, which is provided by
way of example and not by way of limitations, wherein:
FIG. 1 is an external view of the water pillow of the present
invention;
FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section of the pillow of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the pillow of FIG. 1, and
FIG. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal section, showing changing of
shape of the pillow with use.
Referring now to the figures, the water pillow 1 is made of a
flexible waterproof material such as rubber or polyvinyl chloride.
The back wall 1a is relatively wide and the front wall 1b is
relatively narrow. The top wall 1c includes a concavity 2 at its
central part. The bottom of the concavity 2 is connected with the
top of a cavity 3 which is placed at the central part of the bottom
wall 1d. On the bottom wall 1d, the concave grooves 4 are placed in
the form of circular arcs and concentric with the cavity 3 to form
hollow flexible ridges extending into the enclosure. These concave
grooves 4 are made by lifting or indenting some parts of the bottom
wall 1d.
Though two grooves 4 and ridge 4' are shown bilaterally on the
figures, the number of the and ridges would be variable in
accordance with materials and size of the water pillow.
As is obvious from FIG. 4 when a user's head is placed on the
pillow, water is displaced and instead of moving away to another
part of the enclosure to cause the latter to bulge thus leaving the
part on which the head rests with very little water, the displaced
water tends to collapse the ridge thus maintaining the water
balanced within the enclosure. Furthermore, the ridges minimize
sloshing about of the water by movement of the user's head.
Inlet 5 is a mouth at the upper central part of the back wall 1a
for receiving and removing water from the pillow. A removable cap 6
is threaded on the mouth 5. The surface of the top wall 1c has a
rough region 7 which is useful for removing the inconvenience such
as sticking and slipping of a cover placed over the water pillow.
The head of user A is shown on the pillow in FIG. 4.
When using the water pillow, cold water is poured therein. The form
of the top wall 1c is changed as shown by the phantom line on FIG.
4 by the weight of the user's head A. Moving of some water in the
pillow changes the form of the concave grooves 4 and the cavity 3.
Because of placing the concave grooves 4 concentric with the cavity
3, however, the water pillow would be made hollow and balanced.
Accordingly, the head A of the user would be kept on the concavity
2 the water pillow being prevented against forming a hollow region
without water on one side thereof.
As discussed above, the user would not have the feeling of pressure
on his head due to the concavity at the center of the water pillow.
And, furthermore, the pillow provides a feeling of softness and
comfort for the user. It is also pointed out as an excellent
feature that the water pillow is adequate not only for cooling the
head but also for reforming a distortion of the skull in an
infant.
Though the invention has been described with respect to a specific
preferred embodiment thereof, many variations and modifications
will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is therefore
the intention that the appended claims be interpreted as broadly as
possible in view of the prior art to include all such variations
and modifications.
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