CA1270103A - Seat and cover combination for a toilet - Google Patents
Seat and cover combination for a toiletInfo
- Publication number
- CA1270103A CA1270103A CA000513382A CA513382A CA1270103A CA 1270103 A CA1270103 A CA 1270103A CA 000513382 A CA000513382 A CA 000513382A CA 513382 A CA513382 A CA 513382A CA 1270103 A CA1270103 A CA 1270103A
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- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- seat
- cover
- boss
- combination
- face
- 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.)
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Abstract
Abstract of the Disclosure A cover (32), adult seat (14), and child's seat (22) are pivotably connected to each other and to a toilet bowl (4). Seat (14) has an adult sized opening (16). Seat (22) has a smaller child sized opening (24). The inner face (34) of cover (32) has a stepped boss (36) with a center portion (38) that is received into and fills opening (24), Boss (36) has a lip (46) that spaces cover (32) from seat (22) when hey are nested together to enable them to be quickly and easily separated.
Description
~Z7~ 3 Description SEAT AND COVER COMBINATION FOR A TOILET
Technical Field _ This invention relates to seats and covers for toilets and, more particularly, to a seat and cover combination having an adult seat and a child's seat which meshes with the cover to form a flat surface and, when so meshed, is spaced from the cover to allow easy separation.
sackground Art Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, there have been a number of proposals for providing a multiple seat arrangement for a water closet or toilet having an adult sized seat and a separate child sized seat. In some of the-proposed arrangements, when the child sized seat is in a vertical nonuse position, the opening in such seat is highly visible and forms an abrupt indentation in the vertical surface facing an adult using the adult sized seat. Thus, the child sized seat in this orientation is not only unsightly, but also prevents an adult using the adult sized seat from comfortably leaning back. In order to overcome these problems, a number of the proposed arrangements provide for the nesting of the child sized seat with the cover to form a flush surface when the child sized seat is raised into a vertical position. In such proposed nested arrangements, the seat and the cover fit closely together so that separating the two can be relatively difficult, especially for a young child. In addition, the proposed nested arrangements -tend to be unduly complicated and cumbersome.
Toilet seat assemblies having multiple seats are disclosed in the following U.S. Pats.: No. 54,480, issued May 8, 1866, to L. Alexander; No. 426,287, issued April 22, 1890, to F. P. ~arkin; No. 522,163, issued June 26, 1894, to U. G. Johnson; ~o. 548,367, issued October 22, 1895, to F. G. High; No. 683,421, issued September 24, ~tP --1--. .
. . .
, ' )3 1901, to R. R. Cowles, No. 1,196,427, issued August 29, 1916, to F. H. Brandenburg; No. 1,701,114, issued February 5, 1929, to W. H. McKinney, Jr.; No. 2,43~,889, issued January 20, 1948, to R. R. Sacia; ~o. 2,692,992, issued November 2, 1954, to G. E. Thimmes et al; and No.
4,461,046, issued July 24, 1984, to Harold D. Adams.
Each of the arrangements disclosed in these patents, except the one disclosed by ~lexander, includes a regular seat for adults and an auxiliary seat with a smaller opening for children. In each of the arrangements, except the one disclosed by McKinney, Jr., the cover and the child's seat, or in the case of -the Alexander arranyement, the multiple seats, are nested together. In the Cowles patent, the cover has a projection thereon that fits into the opening in the child's seat. The child's seat and the cover are held together by a spring loaded catch carried by the cover that engages a plate carried by the child's seat.
The fla-t surfaces of the cover and child's seat fit tightly together.
The above patents and the prior art that is discussed and/or cited therein should be studied for the purpose of putting the present invention into proper perspective relative -to the prior art.
Disclosure of the Invention The subject of the invention is a seat and cover combination for use with a toilet bowl. ~ccording to an aspect of the invention, the combination comprises a first seat, a second seat, and a cover. The first seat has a central opening dimensioned for use by adults. The second seat has first and second opposite generally flat faces, and a central opening extending between such faces and dimensioned for use by children. The cover has a generally ~lat inner face, and a stepped boss projecting outwardly from such inner face. The boss has a center portion with a generally flat outer surface, and a lip portion extending laterally from the center portion. The cen-ter portion is .
~Z'7~ 3 dimensioned and positioned to be received into and substantially fill the opening in the second seat with such outer surface essentially flush with the first face of the second seat . The lip portion is positioned to engage the second face of the second seat -to space the cover from t'ne second seat. This permits the fingertips of a person -to be inserted between the cover and the second seat to quickly and easily separate the cover and the second seat. Hinge means is provided for pivotably connecting the first and second seats and the cover to each other and -to the toilet bowl.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the lip portion of the boss includes a generally flat annular surface which extends laterally from the center portion of the boss and engages the second face of -the second seat.
The lip portion also includes an edge surface that ex-tends inwardly from the annular surface to the flat inner face of the cover. This preferred configuration of the lip portion has the advantages of being relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture, of maintaining accurate positioning of the cover and the second seat relative to each other to insure that the outer surface of the boss is accurately flush with the first face of the second seat, and of providing a solid stop for the second seat that can support the weight of a person leaning back on the second seat and that evenly distributes the weight of a person sitting on the cover when the cover and both seats are in a horizontal position.
A feature of the invention is the provision of retaining means carried by the boss for frictionally engaging a sidewall of the opening in the second seat.
This retaining means provides resistance to separation oE
the cover and the second seat that is sufficient -to prevent accidental separation of the cover and the second seat but is not great enough to prevent quick and easy separation when fingertips are inserted between the cover and the second seat.
w -3-., , . : , ~7~LC)3 The seat and cover combination of the invention solves the problems discussed above in relation to previously proposed multiple toilet seat arrangements. When the cover and the child sized seat are raised in~o a vertical position, they present a -tidy, essentially continuous surface that may be leaned against with comfort. The stepped boss of the combination keeps the cover and the child's seat spaced from each other when they are in their nested configuration so that even a small child can easily separate them in order to position -the child's seat into a use position. The overall configuration of the combination is compact and neat in appearance, and the relatively simple structure of the combination allows it to be manufactured easily and inexpensively.
These and other advantages and features will become apparent from the detailed description of the best mode Eor carrying out the invention that follows.
Brief Description _ the Drawings In the drawings, like element designations refer to like parts throughout, and:
Fig. 1 is a pictorial view of the preferred embodiment of the invention installed on a conventional toilet, showing the child's seat in a horizontal use position.
Fig. 2 is like Fig. 1 except that it shows the child's seat raised into a vertical nonuse position.
Fig. 3 is like Figs. 1 and 2 except that both sea-ts and the cover are raised into vertical positions.
Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the toilet and seat and cover combination shown in Figs. 1-3, with both seats and the cover lowered into horizontal positions.
Fig. 5 is like Fig. 4 except that the cover has been raised into a vertical position.
Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6-6 in Fig. 4, with portions of the toilet bowl cut away.
Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line 7-7 in Fig. 2, wi-th the toilet tank omitted.
~7~
Fig. 8 is a fragmen-tary side view of the cover and child's seat in their nested configuration, showing fingertips inserted into the space between them preparatory to separating -them.
B _ Mode for Carrying out the Invention The drawings show a seat and cover combination 12 that is constructed according to the invention and that also constitutes the best mbde of the invention currently known to the applicant. The combination 12 is shown in use on a toilet 2 which is of a conventional type and has a bowl 4 and a tank 6. The toilet 2 is shown and described herein solely for the purpose of illustrating a typical use environment for the seat and cover combination of the invention. It is of course to be understood that the combination of the invention may also be used to advantage with other types of toilets.
The seat and cover combination 12 of the invention includes an adult seat 14, a child's seat 22, and a cover 32. A pair of hinges 20 of a conventional type pivotably connects the adult seat 14 to the toilet bowl 4. The combination 12 incluaes two other pairs of hinges 30,52 that pivotably connect the adult seat 14 to the child's seat 22 and the child's seat 22 to the cover 32, respectively. As shown in the drawings, the hinges 30,52 are aligned with each other and are positioned laterally outwardly of the hinges 20. This configuration of the three sets of hinges and the relative size of the hinges may, of course, be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
The adult seat 14 of the combination 12 is best seen in Figs. 2, 3, and 6. The seat 14 is of a conventional shape and has a central opening 16 dimensioned for use by adults.
Preferably, harcl rubber feet 18 are attached to the underside of the seat 14 to minimize the contact between the seat 14 and the toilet bowl 4 to in turn help keep the )3 seat 14 clean and pro-tect the bowl 4 from being marred.
The fee~ 18 shown in Figs. 3 and 6 are of a conventional type and are arranged in a conventional manner.
The child's saat 22 is best seen in Figs. 1, 2 and 5-7.
The seat 22 has opposite faces 26,28. These faces 26,28 are generally flat but may be sli~htly contoured to improve the comfort of users of the toilet 2 and/or to improve the appearance of the combination 12. The seat 22 has a central opening 24 extending between its faces 26,28. Tnis opening 24 is smaller than the opening 16 in the adult seat 14 and is dimensioned for use by children. As shown in Figs. 2 and 6, the inner face 26 of the seat 22 may be provided with rubber feet 27, which function in a manner similar to the rubber feet 18 on the adult seat 14. The feet 27 help prevent the seats 14,22 from soiling each other and the seat 14 from becoming marred. The feet 27 also prevent a child's fingers from being pinched between the seats 14,22 when the child lowers the seat 22 into its horizontal use position. As shown in Figs. 2 and 6, the feet 27 are preferably positioned near the side edges of face 26 to keep them out of the way of an adult user of the toilet 2.
The cover 32 has a ~onventional outer or top surface and an opposite generally flat inner face 34. A stepped boss 36 projects outwardly from the inner face 34. The boss 36 includes a center portion 38 and a lip portion 46.
The center portion 38 has a generally flat outer surface 40 and an annular sidewall 42 tha-t is essentially perpendicular to the flat outer surface 40 and extends inwardly therefrom. The lip portion 46 extends laterally from the sidewall 42 of the center portion 38. In the preferred embodiment, the lip portion includes a generally flat annular surface 48 that is subs-tantially parallel to the flat surface 40 of the center portion 38 and extends laterally from the sidewall 42 of center portion 38. An annular side edge 50 extends inwardly from the flat annular surface 48 to the inner face 34 of the cover 32.
~, .
3LZ~ 3 The stepped boss 36 allows the cover 32 and the child's seat 22 to nest toge-ther in a tidy and compact configuration and to be easily separated from each other when the child's seat 22 is to be used or the combination 12 is being cleaned. The centar portion 38 of the boss 36 is dimensioned and positioned to be received into and substantially fill the opening 24 in the child's seat 22 with the other surface 40 of the center portion 38 essentially flush with ~he inner face 26 of the seat 22.
This nested, nonuse conEiyuration is bes-t shown in Figs. 2, 6, and 7. The lip portion 46 of the boss 36 is posi-tioned - to engage the outer face 28 of the seat 22 when the seat 22 and the cover 32 are nested together, to space the cover 32 and the second seat 22 from each other. In the preEerred embodi~nent, the generally flat annular surface 4~ of the lip 46 engages the outer face 28 of the seat ~2. The filling of opening 24 by the center portion 38 of boss 36 and the engagement of lip surface 48 wi-th face ~8 are best shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
As noted above, the spacing of the cover 32 and the child seat 22 enables a person, whether a child or an adult, to quickly and easily separate the cover 32 and the seat 22. In order to accomplish the separation, the person need only insert his or ~er fingertips in t'ne space between the cover 32 and seat 22 and exert a small amount of pressure on one of the members 22,32 to move it away from the other member. This procedure is illustrated in Fig. 8.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the combination 12 is provided with retaining means for retaining the seat 22 and cover 32 in their nested configuration. Preferably, the retaining ~neans takes the form of a spring loaded button 44 that is carried by the center portion 38 of the boss 36 and Erictionally engages a sidewall of the opening 24 in -the child's seat 22. Such a button 44 is shown in Fig. 1. The button 44 may take a variety of conventional forms but should provide a specific , :~
~27U~3 amount of friction bet~een -the boss 3G and the seat 22 -to in turn provide a desired amount of resistance to separation of the cover 32 and seat 22. The amount of resistance is chosen to be sufficient to prevent accidental separation of the cover 32 and seat 22 but not to be ~reat enough to prevent quick and easy separation of the cover 32 and seat 22 when a person, child or adult, inserts his or her fingers between the cover 32 and seat 22.
The drawings illustrate the several use and nonuse positions of the combination 12 of the preEerred embodiment of the invention. Figs. 1 and 5 show the cover 32 in a vertical position and the child's seat 22 lowered in-to a horizontal use position ready for use by a child. Fig. 2 shows the child's seat 22 raised into a vertical ncnuse position in which it is nested with -the cover 32, and the adult seat 14 in a horizontal use position ready for use by an adult. Fig. 3 shows the cover 32 and both se~ts 14,22 in a raised vertical position to enable the toilet 2 to be used as a urinal. Figs. 4 and 6 show both seat~ 14,22 and cover 32 in horizontal positions to cover the toilet bowl 4 when the toilet 2 is not in use.
It will be obvious to those skilled in -the art to which this invention is addressed that the invention may be used to advan-tage in a variety of situations. Therefore, it is also to be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, and omissions in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
`
Technical Field _ This invention relates to seats and covers for toilets and, more particularly, to a seat and cover combination having an adult seat and a child's seat which meshes with the cover to form a flat surface and, when so meshed, is spaced from the cover to allow easy separation.
sackground Art Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, there have been a number of proposals for providing a multiple seat arrangement for a water closet or toilet having an adult sized seat and a separate child sized seat. In some of the-proposed arrangements, when the child sized seat is in a vertical nonuse position, the opening in such seat is highly visible and forms an abrupt indentation in the vertical surface facing an adult using the adult sized seat. Thus, the child sized seat in this orientation is not only unsightly, but also prevents an adult using the adult sized seat from comfortably leaning back. In order to overcome these problems, a number of the proposed arrangements provide for the nesting of the child sized seat with the cover to form a flush surface when the child sized seat is raised into a vertical position. In such proposed nested arrangements, the seat and the cover fit closely together so that separating the two can be relatively difficult, especially for a young child. In addition, the proposed nested arrangements -tend to be unduly complicated and cumbersome.
Toilet seat assemblies having multiple seats are disclosed in the following U.S. Pats.: No. 54,480, issued May 8, 1866, to L. Alexander; No. 426,287, issued April 22, 1890, to F. P. ~arkin; No. 522,163, issued June 26, 1894, to U. G. Johnson; ~o. 548,367, issued October 22, 1895, to F. G. High; No. 683,421, issued September 24, ~tP --1--. .
. . .
, ' )3 1901, to R. R. Cowles, No. 1,196,427, issued August 29, 1916, to F. H. Brandenburg; No. 1,701,114, issued February 5, 1929, to W. H. McKinney, Jr.; No. 2,43~,889, issued January 20, 1948, to R. R. Sacia; ~o. 2,692,992, issued November 2, 1954, to G. E. Thimmes et al; and No.
4,461,046, issued July 24, 1984, to Harold D. Adams.
Each of the arrangements disclosed in these patents, except the one disclosed by ~lexander, includes a regular seat for adults and an auxiliary seat with a smaller opening for children. In each of the arrangements, except the one disclosed by McKinney, Jr., the cover and the child's seat, or in the case of -the Alexander arranyement, the multiple seats, are nested together. In the Cowles patent, the cover has a projection thereon that fits into the opening in the child's seat. The child's seat and the cover are held together by a spring loaded catch carried by the cover that engages a plate carried by the child's seat.
The fla-t surfaces of the cover and child's seat fit tightly together.
The above patents and the prior art that is discussed and/or cited therein should be studied for the purpose of putting the present invention into proper perspective relative -to the prior art.
Disclosure of the Invention The subject of the invention is a seat and cover combination for use with a toilet bowl. ~ccording to an aspect of the invention, the combination comprises a first seat, a second seat, and a cover. The first seat has a central opening dimensioned for use by adults. The second seat has first and second opposite generally flat faces, and a central opening extending between such faces and dimensioned for use by children. The cover has a generally ~lat inner face, and a stepped boss projecting outwardly from such inner face. The boss has a center portion with a generally flat outer surface, and a lip portion extending laterally from the center portion. The cen-ter portion is .
~Z'7~ 3 dimensioned and positioned to be received into and substantially fill the opening in the second seat with such outer surface essentially flush with the first face of the second seat . The lip portion is positioned to engage the second face of the second seat -to space the cover from t'ne second seat. This permits the fingertips of a person -to be inserted between the cover and the second seat to quickly and easily separate the cover and the second seat. Hinge means is provided for pivotably connecting the first and second seats and the cover to each other and -to the toilet bowl.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the lip portion of the boss includes a generally flat annular surface which extends laterally from the center portion of the boss and engages the second face of -the second seat.
The lip portion also includes an edge surface that ex-tends inwardly from the annular surface to the flat inner face of the cover. This preferred configuration of the lip portion has the advantages of being relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture, of maintaining accurate positioning of the cover and the second seat relative to each other to insure that the outer surface of the boss is accurately flush with the first face of the second seat, and of providing a solid stop for the second seat that can support the weight of a person leaning back on the second seat and that evenly distributes the weight of a person sitting on the cover when the cover and both seats are in a horizontal position.
A feature of the invention is the provision of retaining means carried by the boss for frictionally engaging a sidewall of the opening in the second seat.
This retaining means provides resistance to separation oE
the cover and the second seat that is sufficient -to prevent accidental separation of the cover and the second seat but is not great enough to prevent quick and easy separation when fingertips are inserted between the cover and the second seat.
w -3-., , . : , ~7~LC)3 The seat and cover combination of the invention solves the problems discussed above in relation to previously proposed multiple toilet seat arrangements. When the cover and the child sized seat are raised in~o a vertical position, they present a -tidy, essentially continuous surface that may be leaned against with comfort. The stepped boss of the combination keeps the cover and the child's seat spaced from each other when they are in their nested configuration so that even a small child can easily separate them in order to position -the child's seat into a use position. The overall configuration of the combination is compact and neat in appearance, and the relatively simple structure of the combination allows it to be manufactured easily and inexpensively.
These and other advantages and features will become apparent from the detailed description of the best mode Eor carrying out the invention that follows.
Brief Description _ the Drawings In the drawings, like element designations refer to like parts throughout, and:
Fig. 1 is a pictorial view of the preferred embodiment of the invention installed on a conventional toilet, showing the child's seat in a horizontal use position.
Fig. 2 is like Fig. 1 except that it shows the child's seat raised into a vertical nonuse position.
Fig. 3 is like Figs. 1 and 2 except that both sea-ts and the cover are raised into vertical positions.
Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the toilet and seat and cover combination shown in Figs. 1-3, with both seats and the cover lowered into horizontal positions.
Fig. 5 is like Fig. 4 except that the cover has been raised into a vertical position.
Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6-6 in Fig. 4, with portions of the toilet bowl cut away.
Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line 7-7 in Fig. 2, wi-th the toilet tank omitted.
~7~
Fig. 8 is a fragmen-tary side view of the cover and child's seat in their nested configuration, showing fingertips inserted into the space between them preparatory to separating -them.
B _ Mode for Carrying out the Invention The drawings show a seat and cover combination 12 that is constructed according to the invention and that also constitutes the best mbde of the invention currently known to the applicant. The combination 12 is shown in use on a toilet 2 which is of a conventional type and has a bowl 4 and a tank 6. The toilet 2 is shown and described herein solely for the purpose of illustrating a typical use environment for the seat and cover combination of the invention. It is of course to be understood that the combination of the invention may also be used to advantage with other types of toilets.
The seat and cover combination 12 of the invention includes an adult seat 14, a child's seat 22, and a cover 32. A pair of hinges 20 of a conventional type pivotably connects the adult seat 14 to the toilet bowl 4. The combination 12 incluaes two other pairs of hinges 30,52 that pivotably connect the adult seat 14 to the child's seat 22 and the child's seat 22 to the cover 32, respectively. As shown in the drawings, the hinges 30,52 are aligned with each other and are positioned laterally outwardly of the hinges 20. This configuration of the three sets of hinges and the relative size of the hinges may, of course, be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
The adult seat 14 of the combination 12 is best seen in Figs. 2, 3, and 6. The seat 14 is of a conventional shape and has a central opening 16 dimensioned for use by adults.
Preferably, harcl rubber feet 18 are attached to the underside of the seat 14 to minimize the contact between the seat 14 and the toilet bowl 4 to in turn help keep the )3 seat 14 clean and pro-tect the bowl 4 from being marred.
The fee~ 18 shown in Figs. 3 and 6 are of a conventional type and are arranged in a conventional manner.
The child's saat 22 is best seen in Figs. 1, 2 and 5-7.
The seat 22 has opposite faces 26,28. These faces 26,28 are generally flat but may be sli~htly contoured to improve the comfort of users of the toilet 2 and/or to improve the appearance of the combination 12. The seat 22 has a central opening 24 extending between its faces 26,28. Tnis opening 24 is smaller than the opening 16 in the adult seat 14 and is dimensioned for use by children. As shown in Figs. 2 and 6, the inner face 26 of the seat 22 may be provided with rubber feet 27, which function in a manner similar to the rubber feet 18 on the adult seat 14. The feet 27 help prevent the seats 14,22 from soiling each other and the seat 14 from becoming marred. The feet 27 also prevent a child's fingers from being pinched between the seats 14,22 when the child lowers the seat 22 into its horizontal use position. As shown in Figs. 2 and 6, the feet 27 are preferably positioned near the side edges of face 26 to keep them out of the way of an adult user of the toilet 2.
The cover 32 has a ~onventional outer or top surface and an opposite generally flat inner face 34. A stepped boss 36 projects outwardly from the inner face 34. The boss 36 includes a center portion 38 and a lip portion 46.
The center portion 38 has a generally flat outer surface 40 and an annular sidewall 42 tha-t is essentially perpendicular to the flat outer surface 40 and extends inwardly therefrom. The lip portion 46 extends laterally from the sidewall 42 of the center portion 38. In the preferred embodiment, the lip portion includes a generally flat annular surface 48 that is subs-tantially parallel to the flat surface 40 of the center portion 38 and extends laterally from the sidewall 42 of center portion 38. An annular side edge 50 extends inwardly from the flat annular surface 48 to the inner face 34 of the cover 32.
~, .
3LZ~ 3 The stepped boss 36 allows the cover 32 and the child's seat 22 to nest toge-ther in a tidy and compact configuration and to be easily separated from each other when the child's seat 22 is to be used or the combination 12 is being cleaned. The centar portion 38 of the boss 36 is dimensioned and positioned to be received into and substantially fill the opening 24 in the child's seat 22 with the other surface 40 of the center portion 38 essentially flush with ~he inner face 26 of the seat 22.
This nested, nonuse conEiyuration is bes-t shown in Figs. 2, 6, and 7. The lip portion 46 of the boss 36 is posi-tioned - to engage the outer face 28 of the seat 22 when the seat 22 and the cover 32 are nested together, to space the cover 32 and the second seat 22 from each other. In the preEerred embodi~nent, the generally flat annular surface 4~ of the lip 46 engages the outer face 28 of the seat ~2. The filling of opening 24 by the center portion 38 of boss 36 and the engagement of lip surface 48 wi-th face ~8 are best shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
As noted above, the spacing of the cover 32 and the child seat 22 enables a person, whether a child or an adult, to quickly and easily separate the cover 32 and the seat 22. In order to accomplish the separation, the person need only insert his or ~er fingertips in t'ne space between the cover 32 and seat 22 and exert a small amount of pressure on one of the members 22,32 to move it away from the other member. This procedure is illustrated in Fig. 8.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the combination 12 is provided with retaining means for retaining the seat 22 and cover 32 in their nested configuration. Preferably, the retaining ~neans takes the form of a spring loaded button 44 that is carried by the center portion 38 of the boss 36 and Erictionally engages a sidewall of the opening 24 in -the child's seat 22. Such a button 44 is shown in Fig. 1. The button 44 may take a variety of conventional forms but should provide a specific , :~
~27U~3 amount of friction bet~een -the boss 3G and the seat 22 -to in turn provide a desired amount of resistance to separation of the cover 32 and seat 22. The amount of resistance is chosen to be sufficient to prevent accidental separation of the cover 32 and seat 22 but not to be ~reat enough to prevent quick and easy separation of the cover 32 and seat 22 when a person, child or adult, inserts his or her fingers between the cover 32 and seat 22.
The drawings illustrate the several use and nonuse positions of the combination 12 of the preEerred embodiment of the invention. Figs. 1 and 5 show the cover 32 in a vertical position and the child's seat 22 lowered in-to a horizontal use position ready for use by a child. Fig. 2 shows the child's seat 22 raised into a vertical ncnuse position in which it is nested with -the cover 32, and the adult seat 14 in a horizontal use position ready for use by an adult. Fig. 3 shows the cover 32 and both se~ts 14,22 in a raised vertical position to enable the toilet 2 to be used as a urinal. Figs. 4 and 6 show both seat~ 14,22 and cover 32 in horizontal positions to cover the toilet bowl 4 when the toilet 2 is not in use.
It will be obvious to those skilled in -the art to which this invention is addressed that the invention may be used to advan-tage in a variety of situations. Therefore, it is also to be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, and omissions in form and detail may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
`
Claims (4)
1. A seat and cover combination for use with a toilet bowl, comprising:
a first seat with a central opening dimensioned for use by adults;
a second seat having first and second opposite generally flat faces, and a central opening extending between said faces and dimensioned for use by children;
a cover having a generally flat inner face, and a stepped boss projecting outwardly from such inner face;
said boss having a center portion with a generally flat outer surface, and a lip portion extending laterally from said center portion; said center portion being dimensioned and positioned to be received into and substantially fill the opening in the second seat with said outer surface essentially flush with the first face of the second seat;
and said lip portion being positioned to engage the second face of the second seat to space the cover from the second seat to in turn permit the fingertips of a person to be inserted between the cover and the second seat at substantially any point around the periphery of the second seat, to quickly and easily separate the cover and the second seat; and hinge means for pivotably connecting the first and second seats and the cover to each other and to the toilet bowl.
a first seat with a central opening dimensioned for use by adults;
a second seat having first and second opposite generally flat faces, and a central opening extending between said faces and dimensioned for use by children;
a cover having a generally flat inner face, and a stepped boss projecting outwardly from such inner face;
said boss having a center portion with a generally flat outer surface, and a lip portion extending laterally from said center portion; said center portion being dimensioned and positioned to be received into and substantially fill the opening in the second seat with said outer surface essentially flush with the first face of the second seat;
and said lip portion being positioned to engage the second face of the second seat to space the cover from the second seat to in turn permit the fingertips of a person to be inserted between the cover and the second seat at substantially any point around the periphery of the second seat, to quickly and easily separate the cover and the second seat; and hinge means for pivotably connecting the first and second seats and the cover to each other and to the toilet bowl.
2. The combination of claim 1, further comprising retaining means carried by the boss for frictionally engaging a sidewall of the opening in the second seat, said retaining means providing resistance to separation of the cover and the second seat that is sufficient to prevent accidental separation of the cover and the second seat but is not great enough to prevent quick and easy separation when fingertips are inserted between the cover and the second seat.
3. The combination of claim 1, in which said lip portion of the boss includes a generally flat annular surface that extends laterally from said center portion and engages the second face of the second seat, and an edge surface that extends inwardly from said annular surface to said face of the cover.
4. The combination of claim 3, further comprising retaining means carried by the boss for frictionally engaging a sidewall of the opening in the second seat, said retaining means providing resistance to separation of the cover and the second seat that is sufficient to prevent accidental separation of the cover and the second seat but is not great enough to prevent quick and easy separation when fingertips are inserted between the cover and the second seat.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US75601485A | 1985-07-17 | 1985-07-17 | |
| US756,014 | 1985-07-17 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1270103A true CA1270103A (en) | 1990-06-12 |
Family
ID=25041657
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000513382A Expired CA1270103A (en) | 1985-07-17 | 1986-07-09 | Seat and cover combination for a toilet |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1270103A (en) |
-
1986
- 1986-07-09 CA CA000513382A patent/CA1270103A/en not_active Expired
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| MKLA | Lapsed |