GB2192639A

GB2192639A - A buoyant soap

Info

Publication number: GB2192639A
Application number: GB08617127A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Paul Costas Hadjinicolaou
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-07-15
Filing date: 1986-07-15
Publication date: 1988-01-20
Anticipated expiration: 2006-07-15
Also published as: GB8617127D0; GB2192639B

Abstract

A buoyant soap tablet (2) is in solid form and has buoyancy means (4) which enables the soap (6) to float on water. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Buoyant soap This invention relates to buoyant soap.

As is well known, soap is produced in solid and liquid forms. As is aiso well known, soap in its solid form is not buoyant and it sinks in water. Persons bathing often drop the soap in their bath water and they often have difficulty in retrieving the soap.

It is an aim of the present invention to obviate or reduce the above mentioned problem.

Accordingly, this invention provides buoyant soap which is in solid form and which has buoyancy means which enables the soap to float on water.

Preferably, the buoyancy means is covered by the soap. Thus the buoyancy means will usually be centrally positioned in the soap but it is to be appreciated that the buoyancy means may be other wise positioned in the soap if desired.

Generally, the buoyancy means may be any material that is sufficiently buoyant to enable the soap to float on water. Thus, for example, the buoyancy means may be a plastics material, cork or balsa wood. Various types of plastics material may be used such for example as polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride or polystyrene.

The buoyancy means may be in the form of a block. A block is generally easier to handle during the manufacture of the buoyant soap but, if desired, the buoyancy means may be a particulate material.

The block may be a solid block. Alternatively, the block may be a hollow block. With a hollow block the surface of the block will thus be uninterupted by the hole or holes which are in the block and which render it hollow. In a further alternative, the block may have one or more holes which interupt the surface of the block.

Preferably, the block has a smooth surface so that it does not abraid the surface of the skin during washing, for example as the soap wears off the block. Because it is preferred to have the block with a smooth surface, it will be appreciated that it is also best to have the block such that its surface is continuous and is not interupted by holes or the like.

The buoyant soap may be produced in any shape. Thus, for example, the soap may be produced in any desired shape from the known conventional bar shapes to the known conventional shapes of figures.

The actual type of soap may be any of the known types of soap. Thus, for example, the soap itself may be a cheap or an expensive soap, it may be a soft or a hard soap, and it may be perfurmed or not perfumed. It is to be understood that the invention relates not to the provision of new soap material in itself but relates to the ability to render this soap material buoyant.

The buoyant soap may be produced in any desired size so that it may be produced in large, medium and small sizes and even in the very small gift sizes that are commonly found in hotels. The buoyant soap may be wrapped and/or packaged in the same manner as for known types of soap which is in solid form.

The soap material may be made in any known manner, it then only being necessary to ensure that the buoyancy means is present.

The soap material can be pressed onto or around the buoyancy means. Alternatively, the soap material can be allowed to solidify on or around the buoyancy means. If the soap material is to be allowed to solidify around the buoyancy means, then it may be desirable to support the buoyancy means away from the bottom of a container for the soap in liquid or paste form so that the liquid or paste soap can run underneath the buoyancy means in order to allow the buoyancy means to become totally covered by the soap when the soap has solidified.

The buoyancy means could be supported on a very thin pin member or a similar device which would only leave a very small hole in the solidified soap. This small hole could then be covered with a label or with an embossed design which might be stamped on the soap to show, for example, the maker's name or the name of the soap.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a top plan view of buoyant soap in accordance with the invention; and Figure 2 is a side view of the buoyant soap shown in Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown buoyant soap 2 which is solid in form and which is in the general shape of a tablet as can be seen from Figs. 1 and 2. The buoyant soap 2 comprises buoyancy means 4 which is centrally positioned inside the buoyant soap 2 and which is thus totally covered by solid soap material 6. The soap material 6 may be initially in liquid or paste form which is allowed to set around the buoyancy means 4 or, alternatively, the soap material 6 may be compressed around the buoyancy means 4.

It will be seen that the buoyancy means 4 is generally of the same shape as the outside of the buoyant soap 2. The buoyancy means 4 has-rounded edges as shown so that, in the event of the soap material 6 wearing away, there will be no sharp edges on the buoyancy means 4 to possibly abraid a person's skin.

Also in order to help to avoid abraiding a person's skin, it will be noted that the surface of the buoyancy means 4 is smooth and continuous.

The buoyant soap 2 is able to float on water due to the presence of the buoyancy means 4. Thus, persons taking a bath do not have the annoyance of endeavouring to find soap that has been dropped into the bath water because the buoyant soap 2 will always float on top of the bath water. It will thus be appreciated that the use of the buoyancy means 4 provides a simple, cheap and yet effective way of overcoming an age old problem. The buoyant soap 2 may be especially convenient for mothers when they are bathing their babies. Also, the buoyant soap 2 is economical to use because the buoyancy means 4 in the centre of the buoyant soap 2 provides a sufficient hand grip that a user can use all of the soap material 6, instead of having to throw away the last little bit of the soap material 6 because it is too small to grasp, as occurs with known solid soap.

The embodiment of the invention described above with reference to the accompanying drawings has been given by way of example only and modifications may be effective. Thus, for example, the shape of the soap material 6 and the shape of the buoyancy means 4 may be varied as desired. Also, any suitable type of soap material 6 and any suitable type of buoyancy means 4 may be employed.

Claims

1. Buoyant soap which is in solid form and which has buoyancy means which enables the soap to float on water.

2. Buoyant soap according to claim 1 in which the buoyancy means is covered by the soap.

3. Buoyant soap according to claim 2 in which the buoyancy means is centrally positioned in the soap.

4. Buoyant soap according to any one of the preceding claims in which the buoyancy means is a plastics material, cork or balsa wood.

5. Buoyant soap according to any one of the preceding claims in which the buoyancy means is in the fornl of a block.

6. Buoyant soap according to claim 5 in which the block is a solid block.

7. Buoyant soap according to claim 5 in which the block is a hollow block.

8. Buoyant soap according to claim 7 in which the surface of the block is uninterrupted by a hole or holes which are in the block and which render it hollow.

9. Buoyant soap ,according to claim 7 in which the hollow block has one or more holes which interrupt the surface of the block.

10. Buoyant soap according to any one of claims 6 to 9 in which the block has a smooth surface so that it does not abraid the surface of the skin during washing.

11. Buoyant soap substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.