US1319264A - And brewster c - Google Patents

Description

Patented Oct. 21, I919.

T. E. BARNES AND B. c. SHETTER.

DISPENSING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 6| I919. 1,319,264. 516.1.

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THOMAS E. rams, or once, NEwYoax. AND BREWSTER o. SHET'IER, or

. LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

DISPENSING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 21, 1919.

Application filed March 6, 1919. Serial No. 280,973.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, THOMAS E. BARNES and BREWSTER C. SHE'rrER, citizens of the United States, and residents, respectively, of Utica, in the county of Oneida and State of New York, and Lancaster, 'in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dispensing Devices; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to which 7 it appertain's to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the reference-numerals marked thereon, which form part of this specifica- .tion.

Our present invention relates to a dispensing device whereby paste or other semiliquid material may be discharged from a receptacle as required. Our device is especially adapted to and is illustrated and described herein as being used as a dispensing device for tooth-paste and is used in connection with a tooth brush. It will be understood, however, that our invention is not limited to use with toothpaste but .may be used in-a great variety of ways such as, for shaving cream, semi-liquid soap, ointments and various other toilet and medicinal preparations. While our article is here illustrated in connection with a tooth brush it will be noted that it may be readily used without the tooth brush attachment and is a complete article without the tooth brush. The purpose of our invention is to provide a dispensing device of the class described .which is simple in construction and operation, durable and sanitary in use and capable of being applied to many uses.

Another object of our invention is to provide a dispensing device wherein a yielding back of the material in the receptacle toobtain a spring pressure tending to gently force the material from the receptacle; and furthermore to provide in connection with said spring and plunger such a combination and arrangement of the parts as are well adapted to provide an improved dispensing device; a still further purpose isto provide in connection with the coiled spring and plunger means whereby the tension of the spring may be readily varied at will obviating excessive pressure when the receptacle is full and maintaining suflicient pressure to force all material from the receptacle in proper manner.

Further purposes and advantages of our invention will appear from specifications and claims herein.

Figure '1 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in longitudinal section of a dispensing device embodying our invention in aform adapted for use separate from any other article.

Fig. 2 is a side view of a tooth brush equipped with a tooth-paste dispensing device embodying our invention.

Fig. dis a view of the same mostly in a longitudinal section and showing the piston in retracted position.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional View on an enlarged scale of the second form of our ing the paste-receiving receptacle on a similarly enlarged scale.

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectional View of the casing housing the coiled spring on the same scale as Figs. 23.

Fig. 7 is a side View of a portion of said casing ,on an enlarged scale with its interior-screW-threaded arrangement shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 8 is a side view of the piston.

Figs. 9' and 10 are front end and side views respectively of the sleeve to which is attached the rear end of the coiled spring.

Fig. 11 is a side view of the shaft piece.

Referring to the drawings in a more particular description it will be seen there is provided a receptacle cylindrical in form and hereinafter call the paste-receiving cylinder 15, provided with a forward openin 16 of reduced diameter and with its rear end open for the full interior diameter of the cylinder. The outside of the cylinder'15 is knurled at its extreme rear end 17 for a purpose to be hereinafter described and forward thereof or -to the left as shown in the drawings is provided wit-ha. screw-threaded portion 18 of slightly larger diameter than the knurled portion 17.

Removably and slidably mounted in the bore of the cylinder 15 is provided the piston 19 of such diameter as to closely fit said cylinder and force material in said cylinder forward and out of its forward opening 16 as the piston 19 is moved forward.

To the rear of said piston 19 is attached the forward'end of a coiled spring 20 as by means of the forward coil of said spring being made of reduced diameter so as to hold itself in the annular recess 21 provided on theside of a projection 22 upon the rear face of the iston 19.

n A ho low casing'23 is provided adapted to house the coiled spring in the cavity of said casing. The forward end of this casing 23 is secured preferably in a detachable'manner to the cylinder 15 as by the forward end of said casing being provided with internal screw threads 24 adapted to engage the external screw-threaded portion 18 on cylinder 15. Slightly back from its front end or left end as seen in the drawings and close to the extreme rear end of the cylinder 15 the casing 23 is provided with an inwardly extended projection adapted to cooperatively engage one of the coils of the coiled spring 20. Preferably this inwardly extending projection will be formed as an inwardly extending ring 25 provided on its inner surface with a groove 26 spirally disposed to form a screw-threadin through which will play a coil of the coi ed spring 20 as the said spring is rotated. The cavity 27 in said casing to the rear of the screw-threading 26 is of a diameter to contain the coiled spring arranged longitudinally in the casing and said chamber cavity 27 is of sufficient length to house substantially all of the spring when it is in retracted position as appears from Fig. 3 of the drawing. It will be understood of course that the rear end of the'coiled spring is held within the casing 23 and that rotative movement is imparted to said coiled spring by, means engaging the rear end of the spring and operated from without the casing. These means include a sleeve 28, a shaft 29 and a disk 30. The sleeve 28 is rotably mounted in the central aperture provided in the right end 31 of the casing 23 and is provided at its forward or left end portion with the flange 32 adapted to bear against the inner face of said casing end.

Through the sleeve 28 extends the shaft 29, the two parts being secured to rotate with each other aS by means of a pin 33 extending through said two parts. The rear end. of the shaft 29 projects beyond the sleeve 28 I and the rear end of the-casing 23 to receivethe disk 30 which is fixed to said projecting end of the shaft by any proper means such as a pin 34 extending through said disk and shaft. The flange 32 upon the sleeve 28 is provided with a longitudinal extending recess 35. Beyond the flange 32 of the sleeve 28 the shaft 29 has a short and slightly enlarged portion 36 and therebeyond is provided with a further enlargement 37 preferably of sufficient length to extend merely to the screwthreaded inward projection 25 of the casing 23. This enlargement 37, preferably hollow as indicated in Fig. 11 for the sake of lightness, serves as a guide inside that portion of the spring 20. that may at any time be in the cavity 27. The rearmost coil of spring 20 is formed .with a reduced diameter fitting into the recess provided outside the portion .slot 35 in the flange 32 of sleeve 28.

It will now be seen that rotation of the knurled disk 30 in one direction will operate to screw the coiled spring 20 forwardly through the screw-threading 26 and that thereupon the portion of said spring forward of said screw-threading will tend to expand and will exert a spring pressure against the piston 19 tending to force said piston forward and therefore forcing the paste or other semi-liquid material from the cylinder 15 out through the forward opening 16.

It will also be seen that rotation of the knurled disk 30 in the opposite direction will operate to screw the coiled spring 20 back through the screw-threading of the casing 23 gradually withdrawing the piston 19 to the right as the parts are shown in the drawing and finally withdrawing the said piston entirely from the cylinder 15 to the position shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings with substantially all of the coiled spring housed under compression in the cavity 27 of the casing.

With the piston in this retracted position the casing 23 may be readily detached from the cylinder 15, exposing to view the open rear end of the cylinder 15 which may be readily re-filled with a fresh supply of paste or other semi-fluid material. Thereupon the casing 23 will be again attached to the cylinder and the rotation of the knurled disk 30 will operate to have the piston 19 again enter the bore of the cylinder 15.

It will now be seen that we have provided a dispensing device of improved form and well adapted to attain the purposes pointed out earlierin the specification and having the advantages above mentioned. It will be particularly noted that the pressure communicated to the piston 19 and thereby to the ing pressure and that the extent of said pressure may be regulated with great nicety.

For this reason the device is well adapted to obtain a gentle flow ofthe material from the forward opening of the cylinder instead of the positive squirt that results where a positive ressure is imparted to semi-liquid materia And this yielding and regulated tension is also well adapted to overcome any clogging of the paste in the receptacle with-' out breaking the device or wasting the material,

It will also be noted that the device described is fool-proof at both extreme positions. When the piston has been forced for-' ward to the full extent there will be no danger of breaking the device through furtherrotation of the disk 30 under ordmary conditions for the reason that under these circumstances the disk will rotate backward under the spring tension from the spring as soon as the operator releases his hold upon the disk for the purpose of further rotating the disk. Similarly when the piston has been entirely retracted, the continued rotation of the disk 30 will do no damage as the disk- 30 will rotate in a reverse direction as soon asthe operator removes his hand from the disk.

It will be noted that we have so far described our device without reference to the particular material that is used in the device ancl entirely without reference to the tooth brush shown in the drawings as attached to the dispensing device. It will be seen therefore that our device is entirely operative as a dispensing device as already described, it being; understood simply that when used as a separate dispensing device a cap or other proper closure will be provided for the forward opening 16 of the device in order to prevent the material from leaking or drying out.

-The dispensing device herein shown may.

be readily used in connection with a tooth brush to provide a magazine supply of tooth paste. For such use we provide a forward case 39 adapted to inclose the cylinder 15 except for the forward end 16 of said cylinder. The rear end of this casing 39 is provlded with interior screw threading, fitting the screw threaded portion 18 of the cylinder 15. Upon this casing 39 may be pivotally mounted the handle 40 for a tooth brush 41. The tooth brush may be swung out of line with the cylinder to receive paste from the cylinder as shown in Fig. 3 and then may be swung back into line with the cylinder as shown in Fig. 2 presenting the tooth brush for actual use with the case 39 and casing 23 forming a long handle for the brush.

As the details of construction and operation of this brush have formed the subject matter of a co-pending application further description thereof herein is deemed unnecessary.

The purpose of the knurling uponthe rear end 17 of the cylinder 15 is toafford ready means for unscrewing the cylinder 15 from the outer casing 39 afterthe casing 23 and piston 19 have been detached from the device. The cylinder 15-will be thus removed from the outer casing 39 where a fresh supply of material is provided already packed in another similar cylinder 15. Our dispensing device is well adapted to be used in conjunction with tubes of tooth-paste or the like packed in cylinders similar to the cylinders 15. It will be seen that the cylinder 15 is similar to the commercial form of tubes containing paste and requires only the addition of the threaded portion 18, a removable stopper for the open rearend of the cylinder and preferably a knurled section at the extreme end of the cylinder beyond the threaded portion.

Where ready packed tubes of paste are not available in the formof cylinders 15, the cylinder 15 of our device will be retained as a permanent partof the article and re-' filled when desired from a suitable source of supply by-removing the casing 23 and cylinder as already decoiled spring attac ed at its forward end to the rear of the piston and adapted to enter said cylinder, a hollow casing secured to the rear end of the cylinder and housing-said (coiled spring ''and provided. with an inwardly extending projection near its forward endto engage said coiled spring and means operated from without the casing for rotating said spring whereby longitudinal spring pressure is imparted to the piston.

2. In a device for dispensing paste or the like, the combination of a paste-holding cylinder having a discharge opening at'its forward end, a piston adapted to slide in said cylinder and force the material forward therefrom as the piston moves forward, a coiled spring attached at its forward end to the rear of the piston and adapted to enter said cylinder, a hollow casing secured to the rear end of the cylinder and housing said coiled spring and interiorly-screw-threaded near its forward end to engage said coiled spring and means operated from without the casing for rotating said spring whereby longitudinal spring pressure is imparted to the piston.

3. In a device for dispensing paste or the like, the combination of a paste-holding cylinder having a discharge opening at its forward end, a piston adapted to slide in said cylinder and force the material forward therefrom as the piston moves forward, a coiled spring attached at its forward end to the rear of the piston and adapted to enter said cylinder, .a hollow casing detachably secured to the rear end of the cylinder and housing said coiled spring and provided with an inwardly extending projection near its forward end to engage said coiled spring and means operated from without the casing for rotating said spring whereby longitudinal spring pressure is imparted to the piston.

4:. In a device for dispensing paste or the like, the combination of a paste-holding cylinder havingan open rear end and a discharge opening at its forward end, a piston adapted to slide in said cylinder and force the material forward therefrom as the piston moves forward, a coiled spring attached 7 at its forward end to the rear of the piston and adapted to enter-the rear of said cylinder and move forwardly therein, a hollow casing detachab-ly secured to the rear end of the cylinder and housing said coiled spring and interiorly-screw-threaded near its forward end to engage said coiled spring and means operated from without the casing for rotating said spring whereby longitudinal spring pressure is imparted to the piston and the piston may-be withdrawn from the cylinder.

In witness whereof we have aflixed our signatures this 1st day of March, 1919.

THOMAS E. BARNES. BREWSTER C. SHETTER.

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