AU2004201215B2 - Stable Outdoor Stemmed Glass - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT STABLE OUTDOOR STEMMED GLASS The following statement is a full description of this invention.

09/01/2006 03:14 612971356631 DAVID SHANKS ASSOCSM PAGE 05/11

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NSTABLE OUTDOOR STEMMED GLASS 1The present invention relates to stemmed glasses for beverages or 00 5 non-solid foodstuffs and, in particular, stemmed wine glasses. The remainder of this specification will concentrate on stemmed wine glasses, but it will be clear to the skilled addressee that it is not limited to such.

The common wine glass comprises a cup, a stem and a supporting base. The shape, size or length of each part varies for different styles of wine S 10 glass and the glass itself can be made of, among other things, plastics, glass, o metal, wood or combinations of those materials. Nevertheless, the common wine glass has one intrinsic characteristic that makes it particularly ill suited for uneven, soft or even liquid surfaces. This is that they all have a high centre of gravity, especially when holding liquid in the cup, which makes them prone to overturning when placed on any of those surfaces.

This invention is directed towards reducing a stemmed wine glass's propensity for overturning on uneven, soft or liquid surfaces. These surfaces are commonly encountered by people wishing to picnic or entertain in gardens, at the beach or in swimming pools.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a drinking glass comprising: a cup section for containment of a beverage; an elongate stem depending from the cup section; and a base on the stem, wherein the base is movable by action of a user between positions along the stem including a position wherein a lower portion of the stem protrudes below the base.

Preferably, the said lower portion of the stem is adapted to penetrate downwardly into a supporting surface and resist lateral movement of the stem through the supporting surface.

It is particularly preferred that the base is movable by a user to a further position along the stem such that the drinking glass can stand upright on a hard surface with the base in contact with the hard surface and the stem above the hard surface.

COMS ID No: SBMI-05827906 Received by IP Australia: Time 22:53 Date 2007-01-05 09/01/2006 03:14 09/1/006 0314 61297136631 DAVID SHANKS ASSIJCSM PG 61 PAGE 06/11 o Preferably, the base is resistant to sliding movement along the stem between the said positions.

In one way of achieving this, the stem is engaged threadably with the 00 base. In this case, the base may include means for dislodging debris from a threaded portion of the stem as the base is moved along the stem.

The base may have formations adapted to penetratingly engage a surface on which the glass is placed so as to enhance stability of the glass on the said surface.

N In another preferred embodiment, the base is so proportioned and of such weight that the drinking glass and contents thereof can float in water with o the cup section uppermost and the base in the water.

Further detail will now be provided.

A stemmed glass in accordance with the invention has the same basic components as a regular stemmed wine glass. However, the base in the present invention can be moved and fixed at different heights along the stem.

In its use as a standard wine glass for use on a typical, hard, flat surface such as a table, the base provides the standard supporting means for the glass by being positioned at the end of the stem furthest away from the cup.

When the base is some way along the stem, it defines an upper and lower portion of the stem. The upper portion of the stem, closest to the cup, provides the typical wine glass appearance suited to enable the person holding the cup to wrap their hand around the upper portion of the stem and cup. However, the lower portion of the stem is adapted to penetrate into an uneven orsoft supporting surface up to the point of the base. While the base provides support for the glass from sinking into the surface and some resistance to overturning, it is the lower portion of the stem in conjunction with the base which provides the predominant overtumning resistance to the stemmed glass.

COMS ID No: SBMI-05827906 Received by P1 Australia: Time 22:53 Date 2007-01-05 This is achieved in at least three distinct manners. First, the stem can resist lateral movement by resistive forces against or from the supporting surface material within which it is pierced. Secondly, the centre of gravity of the stemmed glass is lowered in relation to the supporting surface. Finally, in the usual manner, the base provides a platform for the glass to rest on the surface.

When the lower portion of the stem is pierced into a semi solid supporting surface material such as sand or soil, the predominant overturning resistance will be produced by resistive forces between the lower stem portion and the supporting surface material, in conjunction with support against the surface in the direction of the overturning bias by the base providing support against the ground in that direction in the usual fashion. When the supporting surface material is very soft, such as water in a pool, the predominant overturning resistance will be produced by lowering the centre of gravity of the stemmed glass in relation to the supporting surface as the base and surface interaction will be far less appreciable.

The adjustability of the height of the base allows the depth of piercing of the lower portion of the stem into the supporting surface to be adapted according to either the depth of the supporting surface or its density so as to provide optimum resistance to overturning of the stemmed glass and allow the use to retain as much of the portion of the stem as possible to provide the traditional stemmed glass appearance. As stated above, it also enables the stemmed glass to be used in a conventional manner when the base is fixed at the very end of the stem such that the lower portion of the stem does not protrude beneath the base.

Some embodiments of the invention will be less suited to liquid supporting surfaces because they are not buoyant in those surfaces. Also, liquid surfaces will provide less lateral resistance against the lower portion of the stem. Accordingly, in a further embodiment of the invention, the invention provides for a base adapted to give overall positive buoyancy to the stemmed glass in respect of the liquid supporting surface.

For example, when the surface is water such as in a bath or pool, the base may comprise a block of material of low enough density to provide the positive buoyancy and the lower portion of the stem will be of a sufficiently dense material to lower the centre of gravity of the stemmed glass, for example, a lead lower portion of the stem and the remainder of the glass as a light plastic.

The base can be fixably moved along the stem by a variety of methods generally known in the art. Preferably the base will be fixably moveable along the stem by a screwing motion, as a nut moves along a bolt. As with a nut and bolt, the base will be resistant to movement up and down the stem when pressure is applied against the base in the direction of the stem, but will be able to move up and down the stem when twisted around the stem.

The invention is further described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

Figure 1 Is a side elevation of an embodiment of the invention with lighter lines depicting features not visible from the side and shows a cup stem and base depicted in a standard stemmed glass arrangement with the base at the farthest end of the stem from the cup and the stem having bolt like wide helical grooves with the base including corresponding nut like helical grooves Figure 2 Is a side elevation of an embodiment of the invention as in figure 1 but with the base unscrewed from the stem Figure 3 Is a side elevation of an embodiment of the invention as in figure 1 but with the base screwed approximately two thirds up the stem (2) with the line A- B depicting both the cross section used in figure 4 below, and the supporting surface for the stemmed glass when the lower portion of the stem is piercing that supporting surface.

Figure 4 Is a plan view of the bottom of the base taken in the line A-B in figure 3 without the stem screwed into it.

Figure 5 Is a side elevation view of another embodiment of the base of the invention suitable for more uneven supporting surfaces than that depicted in figure 1.

Figure 6 Is a plan view of the base depicted in figure Figure 7 Is a side elevation view of another embodiment of the base (7) positioned along the stem of the invention suitable for liquid supporting surfaces and depicting a denser portion of the stem (2) at the end of the stem.

Figure 8 Is a plan view of the base depicted in figure 7.

The stemmed glass comprises three standard elements: the cup stem and base The drawings show a stemmed glass with 3 different bases adapted for different supporting surfaces for the stemmed glass. The cup will be of any of a typical wine, champagne flute or cognac glass shape but will clearly not be limited to such shapes. The style of cup depicted is a champagne flute with a circular cross-sectional diameter running down to a tapered closed end which is fixed to the top of the stem either in the moulding process or later by some fixing means well known to persons skilled in the art.

The stem as depicted will be preferably in the range of 5mm to 10 mm crosssectional width and is described in greater detail below. Each of the bases can be used with the stemmed glass in the standard arrangement well known in the art, where the base is fixed at end of the stem furthest away from the cup for use of the stemmed glass as depicted in figure 1, without the stem protruding beneath the lowest plane of the base The stem as depicted has bolt-like helical grooves matching complementary nut-like grooves in the centre of the base so that the base may be screwed up and down the stem but resists movement up and down the stem when pressure is exerted to it in the direction of the stem (just as a with nut on a bolt).

Preferably, the base and stem are adapted so as to allow the base to be completely screwed off the stem for easier cleaning of the stem (2) and base and to enable various kinds of bases suitable for different supporting surfaces to be used on the stemmed glass.

The helical grooves along the stem are preferably sufficiently large so as not to become jammed with loose material from the supporting surface such as dirt or sand, and to be cleaned easily in the event of this occurring. The corresponding helical grooves on the base can be moulded so as to clear debris from the stem's grooves as it as it rotates around the stem by providing a spade like element at one or each end of the groove on the base by such methods available to persons skilled in the art. Preferably, the grooves on the stem and base will have a rectangular cross section with a width of between 2mm and Other methods for fixably moving the base along the stem will be apparent to those skilled in the art and include sliding latch mechanisms or rotating the base into staged fixed points along the shaft.

The base would commonly be circular but could effectively be any shape, including 'pronged' to increase the stability on sloped surfaces by providing only selected points for contact with the supporting surface and digging into the surface for added stability. Other bases will be light enough to provide positive buoyancy in water so as to provide a floating stemmed glass, where the glass would preferably have a lowered centre of gravity by also adding dense material such as lead to the stem or the lower portion of the stem. The base is preferably fully removable for efficient cleaning and storage purposes.

The stemmed glass components may be made of glass, plastic, metal, wood and many other materials known in the art or combinations of those materials. Combinations will be most effective when a lower centre of gravity is sought as with the embodiment of the invention most suited to use in liquids so that the stem may be made of or include metal or have a heavy metal lower portion while the cup (1) is made of light plastic and the base is made of polystyrene or some equally light material or combination of materials.

Further modifications of the stemmed glass within the ambit of the present invention will be arrived at by the skilled person.

Claims (9)

1. A drinking glass comprising: a cup section for containment of a beverage; 00 "5 an elongate stem depending from the cup section; and a base on the stem, Swherein the base is movable by action of a user between positions along the stem including a position wherein a lower portion of the stem 1protrudes below the base.

2. A drinking glass according to claim 1 wherein the said lower portion of Ci the stem is adapted to penetrate downwardly into a supporting surface and resist lateral movement of the stem through the supporting surface.

3. A drinking glass according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the base is movable by a user to a further position along the stem such that the drinking glass can stand upright on a hard surface with the base in contact with the hard surface and the stem above the hard surface.

4. A drinking glass according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the base is resistant to sliding movement along the stem between the said positions.

5. A drinking glass according to any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the stem is engaged threadably with the base.

6. A drinking glass according to claim 5 wherein the base includes means for dislodging debris from a threaded portion of the stem as the base is moved along the stem.

7. A drinking glass according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the base has formations adapted to penetratingly engage a surface on which the COMS ID No: SBMI-05827906 Received by IP Australia: Time 22:53 Date 2007-01-05 09/01/2006 03:14 61297136631 DAVID SHANKS ASSOCSM PAGE 08/11 7 0 o glass is placed so as to enhance stability of the glass on the said surface. Ct 00 11. A drinking glass according to claim 1 wherein the base is so proportioned and of such weight that the drinking glass and contents thereof can float in water with the cup section uppermost and the base in the water. 0 13. A drinking glass substantially as described herein by reference to attached Figures 1 to 4 inclusive. 0

14. A drinking glass substantially as described herein by reference to Figures 5 and 6.

15. A drinking glass substantially as described herein by reference to Figures 7 and 8. COMS ID No: SBMI-05827906 Received by IP Australia: Time 22:53 Date 2007-01-05