CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
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Not applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
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Not applicable
REFERENCE TO SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING COMPACT DISC APPENDIX
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Not applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
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This Preserver invention is the manifestation for preservation, storage, and easy retrieval of bar soap and is inspired by problems arising from the sloughing nature of water-wet bar soap. At the onset of wetting bar soap with water an intended result is put in motion where the wet bar soap easily sloughs allowing the sloughed soap to wet surfaces for washing. After using the soap the problem arises, along with associated problems, as to what to do with the sloughing soap bar. Convention provides that after use the soap goes horizontally flat, large side down on a resting place until needed again. Often the resting place is a drain board or a dish of sorts close by a sink. Other times racks or a grid-covered box provides a resting place on which wet soap drains and dries reading for reuse. Sometimes a closed box like holding device provides the resting place. The problem with water wet bar soap resting in this manner is the sloughing soap remains wet for an extended time with its largest surface area in contact with pooled water and water trapped under the soap often together with a water-laden atmosphere. Naturally the result is more soap sloughing, wasting of soap slough by being deposited on the resting place, unsightliness, difficulty with gripping slippery wet sloughing soap, excess sloughing of soap on the next use, and a hazard to surroundings as with contact of the sloughing soap with garments, towels or curtains and the like. As the soap and deposited slough dries the bar becomes more tightly attached to the resting place and becomes more difficult to retrieve and often requires extensive measures even chipping. Therefore recognizing these problems with water-wet bar soap an invention resulted entitled Water-Wet Bar Soap Preserver that through a sequence of events provides for the preservation, storage, non-intrusive sticking, and easy retrieval of water-wet bar soap. Specifically with the Water-Wet Bar Soap Preserver, the soap user has a robust highly functional device for depositing water wet bar soap consisting of two open-top cups or chambers vertically assembled with the top cup nesting into the lower cup to an extent that there remains a space between the bottoms of the two cups. The bar goes into the top cup where the shape of the soap is generally rectangular, square or oblong. Yet for the most part the Preserver functions are advantageous with cube or sphere shaped bar soap or any bar soap that fits into the preserver. On depositing the embodiment example new first time used rectangular shaped wet bar soap into the top chamber, the bar automatically assumes a general vertical position to rest slightly leaning from vertical and interfaces with the device only at slight line areas across the bar bottom and at the bar corner side edges at the top with the top of the bar extending beyond the top of the preserver. With a short new bar or a somewhat used soap bar which do not extend above the cup top a slight line area across the top of the bar rests against the inside top of the preserver. The vertically positioned soap drains well and the drainage immediately separates from the deposited soap collecting in the space between the two nested cups. Specially placed holes in the top cup combined with the open top of the top cup allows for drainage as well as evaporation of volatile from the drainage and from the held soap. Any attached casual water and slough remaining on the deposited soap quickly dries reverting the soap bar to its original hard finish at all air exposed surfaces with slightly slower drying at the soap/device interfaces. Thus the bar soap is preserved and is safely stored. There is no persistent wetting and sloughing or resting in pools of water of bar soap deposited in the Preserver. Also the opportunity of contact of sloughing soap with the surroundings is very minimal and short lived when held in the Preserver. Further the soap bar resting in the Preserver has minimal surface interface contact with the Preserver and that combined with the polyethylene construction of the preserver eliminates any tight adhesion problems giving easy soap bar retrieval. The net result is preserved soap stored in an attractive preserver, easy to retrieve, ready for the next use free of the problems initiated with soap sloughing. For extended use in mind the Preserver is robust and highly portable for use in and out of the shower or with a lid popped on as a travel kit with a slightly used or short soap bar inside or with other modifications.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
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The purposeful sloughing property of water wet bar soap inherently presents the problem of what to do with the wet sloughing soap after use. Recognizing that this problem needs a better solution than with conventional measures, the objective of this invention entitled Water-Wet Bar Soap Preserver is a device for retaining, preserving, storing, and easy retrieval of water wet bar soap. The device forestalls the problems with the unsightly wasteful convention of depositing water wet bar soap usually large side down in a horizontal position at sundry places where the soap imbibes and wastes in its own water and slough making the soap difficult and slippery to grasp, often abrades on being retrieved, often excessively sloughs on the next use, and is rife for mutual contamination with its surroundings as with towels and the like and when the soap finally dries it often sticks to its resting place and sometimes needs chipping to remove. In summary the Water-Wet Bar Soap Preserver is a robust stable vertical device consisting of two 3 3/16″ high tapered open-top polyethylene cups with a ½″ shoulder around their tops. The top designated cup nests into the bottom cup with its shoulder resting on the top of the bottom cup. About ½″ clear space results between the bottoms of the nested cups as well as some clear space between the sides of the nested cups. The top cup is fitted with five drain holes in its bottom and four vent/drain holes around its sides at the bottom. Virtually any soap that fits into the device can be deposited and using rectangular shaped bar soap as an example the device enables the deposit soap bar to automatically assume a vertical position in the device. In the vertical position water-wet bar soap quickly drains of some of its casual water and some of its slough into the separate lower space or cavity away from the soap and there the drainage evaporates and ventilates its moisture up through the open top of the Preserver. The cavity of the test device holds about 29 grams of separated drainage but in practice only about up to 3 to 4 grams of drainage collects before it normally gets flushed out. The stored soap does not rest in pooled water or in a water-laden atmosphere. The slough and water remaining on the soap quickly dries reverting the soap to its original hard surface preserving the soap and keeping it from contaminating the surroundings as with towels and the like and precludes excessive slough removal from the bar on the next use. Moreover, retrieval of the bar for the next use is easy. The quick draining, rapid drying, and the vertical positioned of the bar makes the bar easy to grip and retrieve. Further, because of the vertical set-up contact between surfaces of the soap and the device is minimal, so sticking between the surfaces is minimal assisting easy retrieval. Also, the test preserver is of polyethylene construction and that also prevents any tight adhesion of the bar to the device and makes for easy retrieval. Continuing with the advantage with the overall vertical Preserver design, any unsightliness with draining, soap slough, warn soap, or soap stalactites are hidden out of sight behind the sides of the preserver and there is ample visible surface to move in the direction of artistic enhancement of the Preserver. Overall water-wet bar soap is preserved, attractively stored, and easy to retrieve using the Preserver. And with extended use in mind the Preserver is robust and highly portable for use in and out of the shower and with a cover snapped on converts to a travel kit with a slightly used or short bar inside or with modifications.
DETAILED DESCRIPTON OF THE INVENTION
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The above and other important objects and advantages of the invention will become evident from the following detailed description here in paragraph “[0003]”, “[0004]”, and “[0005]” constituting a specification of the same when considered in conjunction with the annexed full scale drawings of an existing model, wherein
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FIG. 1 is a side view of the assembled two-chamber preserver including a full-scale side view of the bottom chamber with its shoulder and a side view of the shoulder on the top chamber.
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FIG. 2 is a side view of the top chamber and referred to as the second chamber.
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FIG. 3 is a top view of the inside bottom of the second chamber.
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Referring to the drawings in more detail, two open-top, cup shaped chambers assemble vertically as shown in FIG. 1 with the first chamber at the bottom and the second chamber FIG. 2 inserted, bottom first, into the first chamber. Both chambers have the same overall dimensions which are about 3 3/32″ outside top diameter including a 5/32″ wide ⅛″ high outward curled lip circling the top of the chamber, and a 2¾″ inside top diameter, with a ½″ high 1/16″ wide vertical shoulder circling the chamber top just under the lip, and a 2 5/16″ outside diameter bottom, tapered sides being 1/32″ thick tapering at a rate of 0.1/1″ and having 2⅝″ outside vertical height from the base up to the shoulder, and with a single chamber height of 3¼″. A common commercial bar of hand soap measuring about 3¾″ long by 2 1/16″ wide and 1¼″ thick and weighing 4.5 ounces fits nicely into the top chamber in a vertical position with good stability and portability provided by the assembly with or without the soap. Where as the example described here is with rectangular shaped bar soap the objects and advantages with the invention apply to oblong or square shaped soap and for the most part with cube, sphere, and other shaped bar soap. Therefore for example rectangular bar soap goes into the top chamber and automatically rests vertically with the top edge or topside edges, depending on the length of the soap bar when new or as used having minimum contact with the chamber. The bottom edge of the bar rests with minimum contact against the bottom of the chamber and can position at the bottom of the chamber anywhere from just straight down from the top on one side to a position most of the way across the bottom on the opposite side or any spot between those two positions. When the soap bar is mostly used at about 2¼″ long, ½″ wide and ⅛″ thick, it often just rests on the bottom of the Preserver and gets the benefits of the Preserver from that position. Further the assembled preserver has space between the sides and bottoms of the chambers. The space results because of the important shoulder feature of the top chamber. That shoulder rests on the lip of the first chamber limiting the entry of the second chamber into the first and controls the amount of space between the chambers depending on the height of the shoulder. FIG. 1. Shows a shoulder on the first chamber and of course a shoulder on the first chamber is not necessary for the preserver function, but it does reduce manufacturing tooling by making both chambers the same in regard to the shoulder feature. About a ½″ deep space exists between the chamber bottoms of the assembled model as depicted in FIG. 1. Further the first chamber, although having the same overall dimensions as the second chamber differs in configuration from the second chamber by being closed-in on the sides and bottom. The second chamber has five ⅜″ round holes cut in the bottom FIG. 2 and four around the bottom of the sides FIG. 3 for the purpose of allowing fluid drainage from the second chamber into the space between the two chambers of the assembled preserver and allowing evaporation, and ventilation aided evaporation of volatile from the drainage and wet soap back up through the bottom and side holes and out of the top of the second chamber. Additional ventilation holes could be cut in the sides of either or both chambers, but the device as shown exhibited adequate ventilation in test use. Also the holes could be either larger or smaller if desired, but at ⅜″ as shown and tested were adequate for draining, evaporation, ventilation and drying the water wet bar soap, the drainage and the device. Concerning ventilation and evaporation of volatile from the chamber, some might want to disregard some of this feature associated with the open top design of the model and install a cover with or without ventilation features in the cover. The cover could be a friction fit or screw on type or the like. But probably some addition of side ventilation in either chamber would be required for rapid drying of wet bar soap with either a ventilated cover or not. With the test model the open top assists ventilation of the entire device and in conjunction with the holes functions very well.
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In describing the operation of the preserver using the previous example with rectangular shaped bar soap, the water-wet bar soap goes vertically into the top chamber of the preserver through its open top and remains stored there to drain on all sides, dry, be preserved, and be easy to retrieve at the next use. The small amount of water and soap drainage that collects in the space between the two chambers quickly dries through water evaporation and ventilation in a short time and any residue remains. In the event, that excessive drainage collects in the space between the two chambers and needs removing, the user can just grip the preserver on the side and hold the soap in with a finger or two and tip the preserver over slightly and by slightly slipping apart the cups drain the excess in less than a second. For cleaning the preserver the user can remove the soap and water flush while the preserver remains assembled or is disassemble. The user drains the preserver, wipe dries it, and replaces the soap or alternately lets the preserver air dry with the soap back in. Regarding excess drainage such an event did not occur in over nine months continuous daily use with the model and the users ranged in age from 3 to 72 years. There is plenty of extra collecting space. About 29 grams of residue can collect between the bottoms of the chambers, but only up to 3 or 4 grams normally collects in continuous use. Also before a half a dozen or less use cycles, the preserver normally gets flushed out with fresh water while the soap is out of the preserver during hand washing with the soap in hand. The preserver is drained for less than a second and immediately put back in use without drying. To retrieve soap from the preserver, the user needs only to reach into the preserver through the open top with the retrieving hand and encompass the bar with the fingers and extract the soap. Alternately the user can hold the preserver with one hand and drop the soap bar into the receiving hand. If the soap fails to fall into the receiving hand by gravity force only, the user can lightly tap the preserver on the bottom to assist the soap out of the preserver or flick the soap out using a finger of the receiving hand. Occasionally a small chip of soap needs to be removed in this easy way with a flick of a finger. After use the soap can be placed back into the preserver for its preservation sequence or be substituted with another bar or the device can be left empty and serve as a decoration.
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The invention has important other related individual or combined objects. The combination of diameter, and vertical measurements, the chambers tapered sides, and the minimum area of contact between the chamber sides is an important combination object of the invention and assists in a most convenient and easy assembly and disassembly operation with the chambers Just a minimum amount of lining-up is required for assembly of the chambers. The top chamber noses directly and unobstructed into the bottom chamber. Disassembly requires that the chambers just need easy slipping apart. Easy disassembly results as little or no friction or seizing exists between the sides of the chambers. Only gravity together with the position of the chambers and the slight shoulder/lip contact between the chambers holds the chambers together. Another combination of features important to the invention is with the chambers shape, and the depth to which top chamber enters the bottom chamber. The result is a device with a low center of gravity that gives the device excellent stability, and robustness, and overhead (or vertical) space savings. The overall preserver height is only ½″ higher than a single chamber for a total of 3¾″. Further with this design, low cost, light weight, thin material can be used to fabricate the preserver. Even so a very sturdy device results. With the test model Preserver the wall thickness of the sides and bottom is 1/32″ and weighs 22.5 grams, 5% of a pound. Yet bar soap can be slammed in and out repeatedly without harm to the Preserver. Continuing on, the diameter measurement of the device is singularly important because it causes the soap bar to be stored vertically and conserve counter top space. Other combined features of the vertical design, and drain and ventilating holes together provide for the quick soap drying, but more than that provide a limited amount of soap surface area and limited timeframe in which the soap is vulnerable to contamination from surrounding debris and is an important invention object. Another important object of the preserver relates to esthetics. With the preserver any soap drainage residue, as well as most of the soap bar is hidden from view. As the soap gets used and reduces in size, and shape and its good appearance decreases less of the soap is in view. The reduced sight of the soap at some point in its useful life is an advantage as is the hiding of the unsightly drainage residue. At the same time the sides of the preserver can be embellished as desired for the best possible apperance. Because of its vertical shape and relatively large side area, extensive appealing embellishment possibilities exist with this invention including embossing, sculptured side art work, and so on. Finally, mobility is an important object of the invention. The test Preserver is easily carried for use in the shower, or other place and can suffer related damage free banging around. With complete mobility, a somewhat used soap bar or short bar can remain in the Preserver and with a cover snapped on, dropped in a travel case for a trip.
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Having presented the preferred embodiment of the invention along with drawing descriptions, specifications, intended use, composition, and desired results, the following description on what is conventional and old is in almost complete contrast to the embodiment of the Water-Wet Bar Soap Preserver. Convention provides a casual unstructured approach as to the placement of water wet bar soap after use. The user is provided often with nothing but a counter top. At other times provision is made that range from sundry open dishes, hanging open grid racks or hanging dish type devices to grid covered open boxes or even closed boxes. There is little thoughtful purpose to these devices other than to just having an area on which to place the soap bar while it is not being used rather than throwing away the soap. The specific devices provided do limit the intended area where the soap bar could and should be placed. But, many of these devices are mainly for decoration and are not used for one reason or another. One reason might be that the user does not want to cover the decoration with the sloughing bar of soap. Sometimes the devices are not used because they are not portable and, or are not in a convenient place. So the purposeful sloughing property of water wet bar soap inherently presents these and other problem associated with the proper management of wet bar soap after use. The vertically designed Preserver is a device for the proper management of wet bar soap being a robust, designated, portable, decorative place in which to unobtrusively safely store and preserve sloughing wet bar soap between uses. Further with convention the placed water wet sloughing soap bar lays displayed in its sloughing deteriorating state spread out horizontally in open view to imbibe and waste in its own water and slough. In this wasting condition it looses some of its value, can easily accumulate debris and cross contaminate with towels, curtains and other surroundings, and be slippery and difficult to handle on reuse and wastefully slough excessively on its next use. The Preserver vertically held soap bar quickly drains of its casual water and slough and dries to its original hard surface to be preserved and not waste, and only exposes the narrowest area of soap bar end and is wet only for a short time in which possible contamination could occur reflecting savings of the soap and the soap is in good condition for reuse in stark contrast to the results with the conventional mismanagement of wet soap. Retrieval of conventionally held soap can be doubly difficult. On the one hand the wet imbibing slough persists for a long time and comes off in the hand making the soap slippery to handle. On the other hand when the soap and slough finally dries the soap can stick to the surface where it is placed and require extensive force and sometimes chipping to retrieve. In contrast, with the soap in the Preserver water and slough immediately drain away from the soap into a separate chamber. There is no imbibing of the soap in water or slough keeping the soap soft and slippery and the soap dries quickly enough that the users hand grip on the soap is sure. And, because the bar is in a vertical position it is additionally easy to grip. Moreover because of the good draining of slough and water from the bar, the little surface area contact of the bar with the device, and because the device is of polyethylene construction, the bar does not stick tightly to the Preserver and is easy to retrieve at all times. Again this is in stark contrast with the unmanaged haphazard conventional horizontally placed water wet bar soap. With convention the soap dries in extensive slough with its largest surface in contact with the placement area tightly bonding to that area making it difficult and inconvenient to retrieve. Regarding esthetics, with convention the slough and sloughing soap bar covers over most of any artwork on the face of any of the dish soap holders, and there is meager side space for design work. Now with the vertical Preserver quite the opposite exists. With the vertical designed Preserver there is ample side area to express artistic concepts behind which sloughing bar soap can be unobtrusively preserved and safely stored. Then, there is the mobility question. The conventional soap holding device might be too fragile for moving, some are permanently located, or just not suitable for much relocation and not suitable at all for travel. The preserver on the other hand is not likely to be damaged on being relocated as in being moved to the shower or other place. Moreover, it can travel. Just by leaving the slightly used bar or short bar in the Preserver and snapping on a lid it become a travel kit. Even if additional provisions are needed on specific occasions for travel the Preserver travels. So, the conventional measures of managing wet bar soap is wanting and the Preserver can manage wet bar soap quite well.
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Finally, it will of course be understood that the embodiment of the invention aside from use with water wet hand, body and scrubbing bar soap apply to an array of wet items included but not limited to sponges, scouring pads of organic or metal composition, scrapping tools, utensils, brushes and the like. In some instances the items could be wet with water, organic solvent or a mixture or solution of the two liquids. Of course for use with an array of items the dimensions in the embodiment would be altered to fit the items, but a device of the same general description outlined in the embodiment here would be fitting. Also a device as in the embodiment could be devised having provision for creating separation between the chambers and thus a drain space that did not rely on a shoulder but on some there means of causing separation and a drain space between the chambers. Diameter restrictions in the inside of a bottom chamber at some level in that chamber could limit the entry of a top chamber to create separation and a drain space. Vertical bottom supports could provide chamber separation by restricting the amount of entry of a top chamber into a bottom chamber resulting in a drain space. A taller bottom chamber compared to a top chamber could provide a drain space. What is in the embodiment is means of producing space for drainage separation necessary for drying of water wet bar soap. That space could be produced in a number of ways but would be in the spirit of the embodiment. Moreover a number of different sizes and configurations of preservers could be fabricated using several different materials all of which would conform to the intent embodiment of the invention. The possible different sizes and different materials of construction more easily come to mind than different configurations so more specific references to some possible configurations are in the following. Holding to the two chamber design with or without concentric fitting chambers, devices can be imagined that would conform to a hexahedron, modified tetrahedron with the pinnacle cut off parallel to the base end, rectangular prism, regular right pyramid, and other shapes. The top chamber would be of a proper dimension as to fit into the lower chamber or be so constructed as not to be so assembled but would rest with its own lip, shoulder or bottom on the top edge of the bottom chamber with or without provisions for holding the two chambers together. With a device that assembles with the top chamber inserted into the bottom chamber the depth at which the top chamber enters the bottom chamber could vary. In a like manner the drains and ventilator openings could vary in size, shape, position, number, and location in either chamber. For devices that join one inside the other the separation between the sides of the assembled chambers would be adequate as to prevent the chambers from holding together or seizing and thus not prevent the separation of the chambers when their separation is desired. Enough free space between the bottoms of the assembled chambers would provide for proper drainage. However our concern here is with the two-chamber preserver in the embodiment above.
