CA1229321A - Dispenser - Google Patents

Dispenser

Info

Publication number
CA1229321A
CA1229321A CA000444276A CA444276A CA1229321A CA 1229321 A CA1229321 A CA 1229321A CA 000444276 A CA000444276 A CA 000444276A CA 444276 A CA444276 A CA 444276A CA 1229321 A CA1229321 A CA 1229321A
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
dispenser
hole
reservoir
nozzle
bottle
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
CA000444276A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
John Briffa
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to CA000444276A priority Critical patent/CA1229321A/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1229321A publication Critical patent/CA1229321A/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A45HAND OR TRAVELLING ARTICLES
    • A45DHAIRDRESSING OR SHAVING EQUIPMENT; EQUIPMENT FOR COSMETICS OR COSMETIC TREATMENTS, e.g. FOR MANICURING OR PEDICURING
    • A45D34/00Containers or accessories specially adapted for handling liquid toiletry or cosmetic substances, e.g. perfumes
    • AHUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A45HAND OR TRAVELLING ARTICLES
    • A45DHAIRDRESSING OR SHAVING EQUIPMENT; EQUIPMENT FOR COSMETICS OR COSMETIC TREATMENTS, e.g. FOR MANICURING OR PEDICURING
    • A45D34/00Containers or accessories specially adapted for handling liquid toiletry or cosmetic substances, e.g. perfumes
    • A45D34/02Scent flasks, e.g. with evaporator

Abstract

DISPENSER

ABSTRACT
A container / dispenser for cologne is disclosed, which is designed to be carried on the person. The dispenser has a dispensing hole of 2 to 4 mm. The reservoir for the cologne is long and thin, like a pen. Shaped thus, the dispenser dispenses only a single drop when its dispensing end is touched against the skin, and the cologne is retained in the reservoir without spilling. A tapered nozzle enables the dispenser to be refilled.
The nozzle is inserted into the mouth of a cologne bottle, which is then inverted: air in the dispenser bubbles out of the dispensing hole, and is replaced by cologne from the bottle.

Description

I
This invention is in the field of containers for cologne and similar liquid.
BACKGROUND TOOTH INVENTION
Cologne, perfume, and other similar liquids are characterized as being volatile, an runny (i.e., not viscous).
They leave wetness on a surface with which they come into contact. The liquids have no tendency to foam, i.e., to retain bubbles, when shaken. Conventionally, they are kept in bottles made of glass which have stoppers or caps. To dispense cologne, a person removes the cap, tips the bottle upside down, and either pours or shakes the liquid out, depending on the size of the hole Sometimes, the cologne is dispensed in this manner: the person removes the stopper, places his finger over the hole in the bottle, and then tips the bottle with his finger still over the hole, an operation which leaves a dab of the cologne on the person's finger.
It is known also to keep cologne in squeezable plastic bottle, from which the liquid may be dispensed as a spray or a jet, either by inverting the bottle or by keeping it the right way up.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION _ ` In the invention, a cologne dispenser has a dispensing hole dimensioned so that the narrowest width of the hole is not less than about 2 mm, nor more than about 4 mm. The reservoir for containing the cologne is characterized as long and thin.
There is no opening to and from the reservoir other than the 27 dispensing hole; Typically, in the invention the section of the reservoir is slightly wider than that of the dispensing hole yin Jo I
that the reservoir tapers down towards the hole) whereas the length of the reservoir is of the order of 10 or 12 CM. The dispenser thus can have the same physical appearance and size as a pen. The similarity to a pen is enhanced by the provision of a liquid-tight cap that is secured to the dispenser to seal off the dispensing hole when the dispenser is not in use.
It has been discovered, in the invention, that a dispenser that has a hole-size and a reservoir size disposed as described has, as a consequence, the property that cologne lo contained in the reservoir will not, of its own accord, fall out when the dispenser is tipped upside down. If the reservoir were bigger in section, then the cologne would gush out of a hole of that size, and the flow of liquid could be regulated only as a function of how long the dispenser remained inverted.
It is noted, in the invention, that when the disposition of the dispensing hole is as indicated, the dispenser has the property that liquid does not fall out when the dispenser is held with the hole at the bottom unless the dispenser is dabbed against the skin. This may be stated, alternatively, in that air bubbles cannot enter the reservoir through the hole. On the other hand, the dispenser has the property that when the dispenser is held with the hole at the top, and with a head of liquid above the hole, air bubbles can flow freely upwards through the hole and out of the dispenser, and liquid can flow freely in tug take its place. This difference is caused by the different pressure heads in each case, being on the one hand 27 great enough, and on the other hand not great enough, to overcome the surface tension forces. It is suggested that, in fact, the friction between the liquid and the sides of the reservoir is as important as the surface tension at the actual hole; since, as mentioned earlier, if the reservoir is of much large section than the hole then the liquid will not stay in the dispenser when it is turned upside down.
The invention therefore provides a dispenser in which the flow of cologne can be exactly regulated with no more than the most casual control on the part of the user, and yet the dispenser can be readily refilled, not by an inconvenient pouring operation, but simply by inserting the dispenser into a bottle and inverting the two together. It will be noted that these properties have been achieved without the use of valves, indeed without any moving parts at all. The dispenser behaves as if it were equipped with a complex, sophisticated, and very reliable, valve. Apart from the cap, which is provided to seal off the dispenser hole when not in use, the dispenser may be made in a single piece of hard plastic.
Alternatively, the nozzle might be made in a softer rubber-like material to aid in sealing the nozzle to the hole of the bottle when refilling the dispenser.
The reservoir may be provided with inserts of transparent material or may itself be transparent, so that a person can see -- not so much how much cologne is left in the reservoir - but how the operation of refilling is progressing:
many cologne bottles are themselves not transparent, and if the 27 reservoir too were not transparent it might be hard to tell when the bubbles have stopped.

~22~
The dispenser of the invention is preferably round, since that is the easiest shape to make. However, the reservoir need not be round, the dispensing hole need not be round, and the outer shape of the dispenser need not be round, though the tapered part of the nozzle should be round, i.e., conical, because the holes of the bottles from which the dispenser is to be refilled are invariably round. If a special refill bottle were provided having a non-round hole, then the nozzle would be shaped to suit.
It should be noted that if the dispenser hole is not round, the important dimension is the width of the narrowest part of the hole: the properties of the hole in behaving like a valve are governed by the surface tension etc., as described, and those are forces that depend not so much on the area of the hole, nor on its widest dimension, but on its narrowest dimension.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENT _ he invention will now be further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a section of a cologne dispenser according to the invention, including a cap;
Figure 2 is a view of the same dispenser held upside down to allow cologne to be dispensed;
Figure 3 is a view of the same dispenser when the dispenser is being refilled from a bottle;
Figure 4 is a section of part of an alternative 27 dispenser.
The dispenser shown in the drawings has the general ~;2~32~L

appearance of a pen. It has a tubular plastic body and a plastic cap with a pocket clip.
The reservoir of the dispenser is included in the body.
One end of the body is closed by a glued plug, and the other end is left with a hole of some 3.5 mm diameter, which will become the dispensing hole of the dispenser. Formed in this manner, the reservoir slay have a somewhat larger section than the hole.
Another manner of manufacture that would allow the same shape and size of reservoir to be produced is blo~-moulding.
The dispenser is shown inverted in Figure 2. Jo liquid comes out of the dispensing hole in this position. This is because of the hole size and the reservoir size. There is not enough pressure to cause an air bubble to rise from the hole to the space above the liquid, providing the hole is not too big, and providing the reservoir is long and thin.
If the reservoir were wide, air bubbles could travel through the liquid without restriction. If the reservoir were short, not much pressure would be needed to make the bubbles travel the short distance. In fact this latter aspect has the manifestation that when the cologne in the reservoir is becoming empty, a vacuum develops more and more strongly above the liquid (when the dispenser is in the inverted position) and the distance the bubble would have to travel becomes progressively shorter:
the last few drops of liquid therefore tend to gush out because the bubble finally bursts through. So long as the diameter is small, and hence the quantity of liquid remaining is small, this 27 effect causes no real probleni.

~:2~;3 I

The reservoir should be of a narrowest-width-dirnension of no more than 5 or 6 mm. for at least the first 4 cm nearest the dispensing hole: the reservoir can be made somewhat wider beyond that, if desired. In the present case, the reservoir has a diameter of 5 mm over most of its 12 cm length.
hen the dispenser is touched against the skin, the cologne has such high wetting characteristics that a drop of the liquid if left on the skin. As many drops may be left as are required.
lo If the dispenser is shaken very violently, then quite a large blob may be dispensed. If the dispenser is knocked hard against something while inverted, it is possible for the liquid to gush out of the hole. Nevertheless, for all practical purposes, the liquid will not spill out of the hole at all until the hole is touched against the skin. The dispenser is even, to some extent, proof against spillage when dropped on the floor.
Figure 3 shows the dispenser being refilled. The end of the body around the dispensing hole is tapered, as called for in the invention, to produce a nozzle. The nozzle fits into the mouth of a conventional bottle of cologne, the diameter of which typically is 6 mm or so. The smallest diameter of the tapered nozzle should be no larger than say 4 or 4.5 mm to ensure that the nozzle will fit a large number of proprietary cologne bottles. The smallest diameter of the nozzle is equal to the hole diameter plus twice the wall thickness, which would typically be Us or 0.6 mm at the very end of the nozzle. The maximum 27 diameter of the taper should extend to g or 10 mm, again to ensure easy figment to a wide range of bottle sizes. As shown in ~22~32~
Figure 4, the end of the dispenser having the tapered nozzle (and the dispensing hole) may be of softer material to ensure a good seal in the mouth of the bottle.
In Figure 1, the body and the nozzle are formed as a single unitary mounding. The material of the reservoir is transparent, so that the progress of refilling (and emptying) may be observed.
The cap should fit tightly on the body as otherwise the cologne will quickly evaporate. The cap and body may be arranged to snap together or to jam together at a taper. To provide some resilience to ensure a good closing the hole, a quantity of softer material may be included inside the cap. This material may either seal the hole itself, or urge a separate plug to cover and seal the hole. The plug may alternatively be urged by a metal coil spring. The cap may be screwed down onto the body so as to close off the hole.
It is important that the cap seals the hole directly as otherwise liquid could collect inside the cap if the dispenser were violently shaken or knocked with the cap on.
The body is of rigid material. It does not need to be squeezed to dispense the liquid Squeezable dispensers are inappropriate for carrying on the person, since they can be accidental squeezed at the Wrong moment. The dispenser of the invention is admirably suited to be carried on the person, being safe and foolproof in operation, but strong, light, inconspicuous, and easily stored between operations.

Claims (11)

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS
1. Dispenser for liquids such as cologne, perfume, and the like, comprising:
a dispenser body having a tapered nozzle, wherein the body has a hole in the end of the nozzle, the hole having a width of between 2 and 4 mm;
the body includes a reservoir for the liquid, the reservoir having no communication outside the body other than through the hole;
wherein the reservoir has a width of between 2 and 6 mm for at least the nearest 4 cm of its length to the hole;
and comprising also a cap, adapted to seal off the hole when the dispenser is not in use.
2. Dispenser of claim 1, wherein the nozzle tapers from a diameter commensurate with the width of the hole in the nozzle plus the minimum practical thickness of material around the hole, and out to a diameter of 9 mm.
3. Dispenser of claim 1, wherein the reservoir is about 10 or 12 cm long, and is about 6 mm in diameter for substantially all that length.
4. Dispenser of claim 1, wherein the body is made of transparent material.
5. Dispenser of claim 1, wherein the cap includes a plug that is resiliently urged into sealing contact with the material surrounding the hole.
6. Dispenser of claim 1 that has a visual similarity to a pen.
7. The use of the dispenser of claim 1 to contain and dispense a liquid such as cologne, perfume, and the like.
8. A method of dispensing liquid from the dispenser of claim 1 comprising the steps of removing the cap, inverting the dispenser so that the hole is at the bottom, and dabbing the dispenser onto the skin.
9. A method of re-filling the dispenser of claim comprising the steps of removing the cap; inserting the tapered nozzle of the body into the hole of a bottle until the nozzle seals with respect to the bottle; and inverting the assembly of dispenser body and bottle until air bubbles from the body into the bottle and liquid from the bottle takes its place.
10. Dispenser of claim 1, wherein the nozzle and the reservoir are in respective separate pieces, the nozzle being of a softer material than the reservoir to aid in sealing the nozzle to a hole in a bottle.
11. Dispenser of claim 1 wherein the dispenser body is a single unitary moulding in plastic.
CA000444276A 1983-12-23 1983-12-23 Dispenser Expired CA1229321A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA000444276A CA1229321A (en) 1983-12-23 1983-12-23 Dispenser

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA000444276A CA1229321A (en) 1983-12-23 1983-12-23 Dispenser

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1229321A true CA1229321A (en) 1987-11-17

Family

ID=4126822

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA000444276A Expired CA1229321A (en) 1983-12-23 1983-12-23 Dispenser

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CA (1) CA1229321A (en)

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