U.S. patent number RE32,017 [Application Number 06/427,493] was granted by the patent office on 1985-11-05 for toilet flush water colorizer.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Globol-Werk GmbH. Invention is credited to Horst Hautmann, Georg Schimanski.
United States Patent |
RE32,017 |
Hautmann , et al. |
November 5, 1985 |
Toilet flush water colorizer
Abstract
.[.A toilet flush water colorizer comprises a container adapted
for receiving therein a flush water-coloring block and having at
least one entry opening for admitting flush water thereinto, and
outlet means for the discharge of colored flush water from the
container, which colorizer further comprises suspending means for
suspending the container at the inside of a toilet bowl, a diluting
chamber in the interior of the container adapted for collecting
drops of color concentrate dripping off a block after each
flushing, the outlet means being located in the bottom of the
diluting chamber..]..Iadd.A toilet flush colorizer container is
suspendable in a toilet bowl. The upper part of the container
admits flush water and, after passing over a colorizer block,
colored water collects in a diluting chamber. The colored water is
transferred to the toilet bowl by means of a siphon in the bottom
of the diluting chamber..Iaddend.
Inventors: |
Hautmann; Horst (Neuburg,
DE), Schimanski; Georg (Hagen, DE) |
Assignee: |
Globol-Werk GmbH (Neuburg,
DE)
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Family
ID: |
27027419 |
Appl.
No.: |
06/427,493 |
Filed: |
September 29, 1982 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
|
Reissue of: |
899289 |
Apr 24, 1978 |
04168551 |
Sep 25, 1979 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
4/231; 4/223 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E03D
9/032 (20130101); B01F 1/0027 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B01F
1/00 (20060101); E03D 9/03 (20060101); E03D
9/02 (20060101); E03D 009/02 () |
Field of
Search: |
;4/228,227,222,231,223
;222/434,438 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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49602 |
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198003 |
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937640 |
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1053424 |
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1136673 |
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24318 |
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1286972 |
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1930773 |
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1609225 |
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2255161 |
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323662 |
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2603585 |
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481235 |
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FR |
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1117332 |
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May 1956 |
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FR |
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2244880 |
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Apr 1975 |
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FR |
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937640 |
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Jan 1956 |
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NL |
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503167 |
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Mar 1971 |
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CH |
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21720 |
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1908 |
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GB |
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379553 |
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1035210 |
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Jul 1966 |
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1103761 |
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Feb 1968 |
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GB |
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Primary Examiner: Artis; Henry K.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Wells; Gilbert L. Herzfeld;
Heinrich W.
Claims
We claim:
1. A toilet flush water colorizer comprising a container adapted
for receiving therein a flush water-coloring block and having at
least one entry opening .Iadd.in the upper part of said container
.Iaddend.for admitting .Iadd.said .Iaddend.flush water thereinto
and outlet means for the discharge of colored flush water from said
container, said colorizer further comprising means for suspending
said container at the inside of a toilet bowl, a diluting chamber
in the lower part of the interior of said container and adapted for
collecting drops of color concentrate dripping off a block after
each flushing; supporting means in said container across the upper
end of said diluting chamber and adapted for supporting a flush
water-coloring block in the upper part of said container above said
diluting chamber, said supporting means having at least one opening
for permitting flush water to pass from the upper part of said
container into said diluting chamber, said container having a
bottom and side walls, said side walls being closed up to the upper
end of said diluting chamber, and wherein said outlet means are
located in the bottom of said container in communication with said
diluting chamber and comprise siphoning means having a siphon
passage the apex of which passage is below said upper end of said
diluting chamber and below the level of said supporting means, said
siphoning means being adapted for siphoning off flush water from
said diluting chamber down to a minimum sump level.
2. The toilet flush water colorizer of claim 1, wherein said
supporting means have a plurality of openings which are narrow
enough to prevent larger pieces of a coloring block being eroded by
flush water from dropping into said diluting chamber.
3. The toilet flush water colorizer of claim 1, wherein said
supporting means comprise projections from the inner side wall of
said container into the interior of the latter.
4. The toilet flush water colorizer of claim 1, wherein said
supporting means comprise a grip or perforated plate adapted for
supporting a coloring block.
5. The toilet flush water colorizer of claim 1, wherein said
siphoning means comprise a suction tube in the lower part of said
diluting chamber for suctioning off colored flush water under the
hydrostatic pressure thereof in said diluting chamber.
6. The toilet flush water colorizer of claim 5, wherein said
suction tube is sealingly inserted in the bottom of said diluting
chamber and has its upper end curved whereby its upper opening is
near the bottom of said diluting chamber.
7. The toilet flush water colorizer of claim 5, wherein said
suction tube is sealingly inserted upright in the bottom of said
diluting chamber, having its upper opening near the upper end of
said diluting chamber and its lower opening in or underneath said
bottom, and wherein said siphoning means further comprise a cover
member mounted on said bottom and having a closed upper part inside
which the upper end of said suction tube opens, said cover member
further having ports near or at the bottom of said diluting chamber
for the passage of colored flush water from the latter chamber into
the interior of said cover member and into said suction tube.
.Iadd.
8. A toilet flush water colorizer for coloring of flush water
flowing from the cistern of a toilet to the toilet bowl and
descending on the inner sidewall of the toilet bowl, when said
toilet is flushed,
said colorizer comprising:
a container adapted for receiving a flush-water coloring block in
an upper part thereof and having, exclusively in said upper
container part, at least one entry opening in the top of said
container adapted for having said flush water pass therethrough
from said cistern into said container upper part, during the time
when said toilet is flushed;
suspending means for suspending said container at the upper region
of the inner wall of the toilet bowl,
said container comprising a diluting chamber having a closed
sidewall and being disposed below said upper container part,
supporting means adapted for supporting said coloring block and
being located at the upper end of said diluting chamber above the
highest level maintained by the flush water therein after each
flushing until the next-following flushing;
said supporting means comprising at least one passage, through
which only, at every flushing, flush water can flow from said entry
opening and after having had contact with said coloring block in
said upper container part, downward into said diluting chamber;
and
siphoning means comprising a siphon passage having its apex located
below said supporting means and below the upper end of said
diluting chamber, and adapted for withdrawing colored flush water
from said diluting chamber and discharging it through the bottom
zone thereof into said toilet bowl..Iaddend.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a toilet flush water colorizer which
comprises a container adapted for receiving therein a flush
water-coloring block and having at least one entry opening for
admitting flush water thereinto, and outlet means for the discharge
of colored flush water from the container.
Toilet flush water colorizers of the above-described type are
known, for instance, from British Pat. No. 1,057,865 to J. Goddard
& Sons Limited, wherein a recipient containing an erodable
coloring block, i.e. a block which is slowly dissolved and/or
disintegrated from the outside inwardly by the flush water, is
placed or hung into the cistern of the flush water of a toilet.
The coloring block contains as primary ingredient a soluble
coloring material such as a dyestuff or pigment, a blue coloring of
the flush water in the toilet bowl being preferred. Of course, such
blocks or sticks are also known to contain disinfectants or
deodorants, as well as cleaning agents. When, after actuation of
the flushing device of the toilet, repeatedly over a prolonged
period of time, e.g. for a month or more, the flush water leaves
the cistern uncolored, this will indicate that the coloring block
has been consumed, its coloring agent being exhausted. Replacement
of the exhausted block by a new one requires that the user can take
off the lid of the cistern, put in the new block and then fasten
the lid back in place. However, increasingly, such cisterns are
being manufactured of thermoplastic resin material and after
mounting the discharge valve means therein the lid is fastened on
the cistern by means of glueing or thermic welding, thus making
replacement impossible.
As the effectiveness of active ingredients, in particular of
deodorants, of such blocks which have been discharged from the
block into the flush water in a toilet cistern is only very weak
and hence unsatisfactory, blocks or sticks containing such
ingredients have for some time been suspended in a small slotted
container, e.g. a small elongated basket, at the inner sidewall of
a toilet bowl, as has been described in French Pat. No. 1,602,063
to Madison Chemical Corporation (see also U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 693,488 filed on Dec. 26, 1967 by Seymour Leavitt, in
particular FIG. 3).
However, if a toilet bowl cleansing block of this type would
contain a coloring agent such as a blue dyestuff, besides the
deodorant, disinfectant and cleansing agents now conventionally
present therein, in order to color the flush water in the toilet
bowl, e.g. a blue color, at each flushing of the toilet, then this
would have the drawback, confirmed by the applicant in numerous
tests, that after each flushing, when the flow of flush water has
subsided, there is still an "after-dripping" of the block, i.e.,
drops of flush water continue for a prolonged period of time,
depending on the erodibility of the block, in fact often for five
to ten hours or more, to flow down the sidewall of the toilet bowl.
The concentration of colorant in these drops increases with time,
thus producing on the sidewall a stripe of color, e.g. of blue,
which extends from the block container downwardly causing an
unclean, unesthetic aspect of the bowl. This stripe is the more
difficult to remove, the longer the "after-dripping" has
lasted.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention sets out to solve this problem and to provide a
toilet flush water colorizer of the initially described type which
can be hung in a toilet bowl in a similar manner as described supra
in the case of the Leavitt cleansing block, without suffering from
the above-described serious drawback of staining the internal
sidewall of the toilet bowl by after-dripping of drops of
increasing colorant concentration from the block after each
flushing.
It is another object of the invention to provide a toilet flush
water colorizer of the initially described type from which only
diluted colored flush water is discharged.
These objects are attained according to the invention in a toilet
flush water colorizer of the initially described type which further
comprises suspending means for suspending the container at the
inside of a toilet bowl and a diluting chamber in the interior of
the container adapted for collecting drops of color concentrate
dripping off a block after each flushing, and wherein the outlet
means are located in the bottom of the diluting chamber.
In a preferred embodiment of the toilet flush water colorizer
according to the invention, the diluting chamber comprises
(a) supporting means in the container across the upper end of the
diluting chamber therein and adapted for supporting a flush
water-coloring block in the container above the diluting chamber,
which supporting means have at least one opening for permitting
flush water to pass from the upper part of the container into the
diluting chamber, and
(b) the container has a bottom and side walls, the latter being
closed up to the upper end of the diluting chamber, and wherein
(c) the outlet means are located in the bottom of the container and
are siphoning means adapted for siphoning off flush water from the
diluting chamber down to a minimum sump level.
The supporting means can have a plurality of openings which are
narrow enough to prevent larger pieces of a colorizing block being
eroded by flush water from dropping into the diluting chamber.
Moreover, the supporting means can comprise projections from the
inner side wall of the container into the interior of the latter.
These supporting means can also comprise a grid or perforated plate
adapted for supporting a coloring block.
The siphoning means can comprise a suction tube in the lower part
of the diluting chamber for suctioning off colored flush water
under the hydrostatic pressure thereof which prevails in the
diluting chamber.
Preferably, the suction tube is sealingly inserted in the bottom of
the diluting chamber and has its upper end curved whereby its upper
opening is near the bottom of the diluting chamber.
In a most preferred embodiment, the suction tube is sealingly
inserted upright in the bottom of the diluting chamber, having its
upper opening near the upper end of the diluting chamber and its
lower opening in or underneath the said bottom, and in which
embodiment the siphoning means further comprise a cover member
mounted on the bottom of the diluting chamber and having a closed
upper part inside which the upper end of the said suction tube
opens; the cover member further has ports near or at the bottom of
the diluting chamber for the passage of colored flush water from
the latter chamber into the interior of the cover member and onward
into the suction tube.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Further details of the toilet flush water colorizer according to
the invention will be explained in the following description of
preferred embodiments of the same illustrated in the accompanying
drawings. In the latter
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the
toilet flush water colorizer according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a frontal view, partially in section, of the same
embodiment;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the same embodiment, in a plane
indicated by III--III in FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a view from above of the same embodiment as shown in
FIGS. 1 to 3, of a toilet flush water colorizer being open at the
top;
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view similar to that shown in FIG. 3,
but having a somewhat different embodiment of the siphoning
means;
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the
toilet flush water colorizer according to the invention, and
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 seen
from the front and above, and having the conventional suspending
clamp partially broken away.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS SHOWN IN THE DRAWINGS
The preferred embodiment of the toilet flush water colorizer
according to the invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 comprises a
container 1 having approximately the shape of a deep trough. The
frontal wall 2, the rear wall 3 and the lateral end walls 4 and 5
are closed in their lower region upward to about half the height of
the trough, and surround, together with a bottom 6, a diluting
space or chamber 7, which latter can be filled with flush water up
to a level 8, when the colorizer is hung in a toilet bowl and the
flushing mechanism of the toilet is actuated. In the four walls 2,
3, 4 and 5, above the level 8, windows 9 are provided which are
separated from one another by port 10. Some of these ports 10 bear
on their insides distancing projections 11, and, as supporting
means, carrier ribs 12 project horizontally into the interior space
of the container 1 at level 8. Preferably, a grid or perforated
plate 13 is placed on the carrier ribs 12. A coloring block or
stick 14 which is indicated by a phantom line in FIG. 3, rests on
the aforesaid supporting means. When a perforated plate 13 is used,
the holes therein are preferably so narrow that larger pieces of
the block which become loosened by the gradual erosion of the
latter, can not fall through these holes into the diluting space 7.
At its upper end 15, the container 1 is preferably open.
In the embodiments of FIGS. 1 to 4, a siphoning device is provided
in the bottom 6 of the container 1 and comprises a cover part 16,
preferably having the shape of an inverted cup, which sits on the
inside face of the bottom 6 and has ports 17 provided in its side
wall 16a near the bottom 6. In the bottom 6, centrally to the cover
part 16, there is provided an opening 18, having a circumferential
rim in which an annular groove 19 is provided. A straight discharge
tube 20 bearing a closing flange 21 transverse to the tube axis, is
pressed with the latter sealingly into the groove 19. Preferably,
flange 21 is integral with tube 20. Outlet tube 20 is thus mounted
coaxially with cover part 16 and has an axial outlet duct 22.
Outlet tube 20 and the interior space 23 of cover part 16, in which
the outlet tube 20 projects with its upper end to near the closed
roof wall 16b thereof, constitute together a siphoning device by
means of which colored flush water, filling the diluting space 7
maximally up to level 8, is suctioned off, at each flushing of the
toilet, until the level of the liquid in space 7 has dropped again
to the upper end of ports 17. In the liquid sumps 24 which remains
above the bottom 6, any "after-dripping" drops of flush water of
increasing colorant concentration are collected and diluted.
However, due to the siphoning effect of the siphoning device, the
phenomenon of "after-dripping" is strongly reduced or even
completely avoided.
In the preferred embodiment, the container 1 can be manufactured in
one piece from synthetic plastics material by injection molding
techniques, whereupon the tube 20 is pressed with its flange 21
into the groove 19 of bottom opening 18, in order to assemble the
colorizer.
The container is provided in a conventional manner with a clasp or
eyepiece 25 in which a known elastic suspending clip 26 is
inserted, by means of which the container 1 can be attached to the
inner upper sidewall of a toilet bowl below the inwardly projecting
rim bead of the latter, which bead may also project outwardly.
When the flushing mechanism of the toilet is actuated, flush water
will flow along the under side of this upper rim bead on the inside
at least of the rear wall of the toilet bowl, or, in other types of
such bowls also from outlets at the under side of the rim bead
about the entire circumference of the toilet bowl, with more or
less pressure. This causes a certain turbulence of the flush water
stream whereby always a sufficient amount of flush water penetrates
into the container 1, dissolving or eroding colorant as well as, if
present, other ingredients such as cleansing agents or
disinfectants, from the coloring block or stick, whereupon the
flush water laden with such ingredients, passes through the
openings of the grid or perforated plate 13, or when the latter is
missing, between the carrier bars 12 into the diluting space 7
there below.
Under the hydrostatic pressure of the hydrostatic flush water,
which collects in diluting space 7 at each flushing, colored flush
water will then flow through the siphoning device constituted by
cover part 16 and outlet tube 20 from container 1 into the toilet
bowl. No "after-dripping" of flush water drops of increased
colorant concentration, and hence no staining of the sidewall of
the toilet bowl underneath the container 1 will occur.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the siphoning device consists of
a simple suctioning tube 30 having a curved, downwardly opening
bent portion 30a, the opening of which is inside the diluting space
7 near and above the bottom 6 of the latter. However, the making or
assembly of this embodiment is more complicated, as the suction
tube 30 is more difficult to make from synthetic plastics material,
while its assembly is similar to that of the embodiment of FIGS. 1
to 4, if it is provided with an annular flange by which it can
engage the annular groove 19 of central bottom opening 18.
The embodiments shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 comprise a drum-shaped
container 31 which is especially suitable for being hung in such
toilet bowls in which the flush water does not emerge only at the
inside of the rear wall of the toilet bowl but also underneath the
circumference of the upper, inwardly projecting bowl bead. Below
the level 8, the diluting space 7 and the siphoning device therein
are devised analogous to that of the first embodiment, and in the
region of the level 8, carrier bars 12 projecting into the interior
of container 1 and/or a grid or perforated plate are provided as in
the first embodiment.
In the upper part of container 31, the rear wall 33 thereof which
is destined to come to lie against the side wall of the toilet
bowl, is preferably closed, while the front wall 32 has a number of
slots or windows 39 separated from one another by ports 40. Spacing
elements 41 can be provided to project from the inside of the front
wall 32 and of the rear wall 33.
In its upper wall the container 31 has an elongated axially
extending slot or opening 45 and bears, at the edge of the latter
adjacent the rear wall 33, an upwardly protruding baffle plate 34.
Also in this embodiment, a coloring stick 44 rests on the
supporting bars 12 or a grid or perforated plate placed on the
latter, and is held in place by the spacing elements 41 which
prevent it from resting against the wall of the container with
ensuring disuniform erosion.
A fastening clip 46 is also provided, by means of which the
container 31 can be hung into a toilet bowl with the upper edge of
baffle plate 43 abutting against the underside of the upper
inwardly projecting toilet bowl bead in such a manner that flush
water outlet orifices in that underside are located inwardly of
baffle plate 43 toward the interior of the toilet bowl. Flush water
which emerges from these orifices or otherwise streams along that
bead underside is deflected by the baffle plate 43 through the
axial slot 45 onto the coloring block or stick 44.
In all other aspects, the effect of the diluting chamber 7 and of
the siphoning device of that embodiment is the same as in the
embodiments of FIGS. 1 to 5.
* * * * *