US2380629A - Food serving device - Google Patents

Description

July 31, 1945. ZOIA 2,380,629

FOOD SERVING DEVICE Filed July 18, 1944 I N V EN TOR. fiecfor 6. Z ofa Patented July 31, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 6 Claims.

This invention relates to the art of rings and covers to be placed upon plates or other dishes of food for the purpose of keeping the food warm. Such devices are in quite extensive use in hotels and restaurants. Besides keeping the food warm, they serve also as a means of enabling the user to stack one plate or dish of food upon another in nesting arrangement.

In the past such a device has been made of one piece 01 light sheet metal either by stamping or spinning; but, with the present curtailment of metal for such purposes, it is not now possible to follow this practice in the manufacture of such devices.

It is therefore the object of this invention to devise such a ring or cover that can be made of metal but will not require the use of one integral piece of metal as has been the case in the stamping or spinning process of manufacture.

More specifically, it is the object of my present invention to provide such a device that can be made in the form of a skeleton metal frame; and to which sections of metal may be applied to serve as an enclosing wall.

Another object is to devise such a ring or cover in which there are depending feet so arranged that the device may have operative engagement with plates or other dishes of food, even when the plates or other dishes may be of different dimensions; and also in which such feet may be made laterally adjustable so as to still further increase the latitude of use of such a device with plates or other dishes of diiferent sizes.

Other objects will appear from the following description and claims when considered together with the accompanying drawing.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a ring in skeleton form;

Fig. 2 isa perspective view of a. ring in which enclosing walls are applied to a skeleton frame;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a modified form of leg which is provided with means of lateral adjustment; and

Fig. 4 is a plan view of such adjustable form of leg.

It is to be understood that the present form of disclosure is merely for the purpose of illustration andthat there might be devised various modifications thereof without departing from the spirit of my invention as herein set forth and claimed.

In the present form of illustration I have shown an oval-shaped skeleton frame, indicated in Fig. 1, consisting of a lower oval ring I of relatively rigid wire and an upper smaller oval ring 2 of the same material, these two rings being connected at the ends and sides thereof by the members 3 of the same material.

The lower end of each member 3 may continue outwardly, as indicated at t, and then downwardly as indicated at 5, so as to provide feet. Each of these feet may be braced by means of the still wire 6 with its ends connected to the lower ring i and converging laterally towards the foot and thence downwardly and angularly to the lower end of the foot to which the wire 6 is connected.

The four feet are of suitable lateral extent to permit the same to engage about the edge of a plate or other dish even through the plates or other dishes may be of different sizes; and these feet have sufficient downward extent to ensure effective lateral engagement with the dish to which the device is applied.

The several parts, above described, may be secured together by welding. This skeleton construction alone may be used as a means of stacking a. number of plates or other dishes of food one above another in nesting fashion. This skeleton frame may be made of wire or other suitable material of any desired cross section.

Instead of forming the skeleton frame in the manner just described, it may be formed as a onepiece casting which may be used in the same way as herein explained for the welded wire frame.

In Fig. 2 I have shown the same skeleton form of construction as in Fig. 1, with the addition of a side wall member or members for closing the same, as indicated by reference numeral 1. The wall 1 may consist of one or more pieces of light weight sheet metal which may be welded to the lower and upper rings 1 and 2 and the side members 3. The upper and lower edge portions of the side wall I may be turned inwardly about the upper and lower ring members when welded or they may be applied in any other suitable manner.

In both of the forms shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the legs or feet are of fixed form. But in Figs. 3 and 4 I have shown means whereby these legs or feet may be laterally adjustable so as to render the device still better adapted for use with dishes of different sizes. In this case all four legs and their bracing means will be constructed alike; and the bracing means 6 will each be provided with intermediate straight portions 6 extending parallel to the laterally extending portion 4' of the leg or foot itself. Then the downwardly extending portion 5 of the leg or foot and the corresponding part of the bracing means will be providedwith parallel portions 5" and 6 which have adjustable frictional telescoping engagement with the corrrespondlng parallel oortions of the foot or leg and bracing means a and ii, respectively. With this arrangement, the feet can be adjusted so as to more exactly fit the size of dish to which the device is to be applied in any given instance, and the frictional engagemerit may be suiiioient to hold the feet or legs in adjusted position.

From the above it will be seen that my present form of device can be made of metal but with out requiring the use of a single comparatively large piece of sheet metal; and hence it is well suited not only to present-day conditions but it will mean a decided saving in the metal required in the manufacture of this class of devices at any time.

The skeleton form of device, (Fig. 1), is capable of use for the purpose of stacking a plurality of dishes of food in nesting fashion, while the form of device shown in Fig". 2 is capable of per forming all of the usual functions of any other such device.

The adjustability of the feet or legs permits engagement of the device with the plate or other dish in a more accurate manner in any given instance, thereby increasing its eiiective adapt ability to dishes of different sizes.

The idea of enclosing the skeleton form of device may be carried still further by providing a depressed top or partial top member of sheet metal which might have its edge portion welded to the top edge portion of the device so as to produce a cover, I i to be understood that the depth of depression in such an. added'top will be suificient to accommodate the bottom part of the plate or other dish which is to be supported thereupon in the regular manner of use that is followed in this class of devices.

While my present device is here shown of oval form, it may be made of any form desired.

What I claim is:

1. A food-serving appliance consisting of a plurality of rings arranged about the same vertical axis, the top ring being substantially smaller than the bottom ring, upwardly and inwardly inclined spaced members connecting said rings, the space between said rings being otherwise open, and feet arranged at spaced intervals upon the bottom ring, said feet having downwardly projecting portions adapted to be positioned aboutthe outer edge of the dish upon which the appliance is placed.

2. A food-serving appliance consisting oi only an upper ring and a lower ring arranged about the same vertical axis, said upper ring being substantially smaller than said lower ring, upwardly and inwardly inclined spaced members connect is said rings, the space between said gs being ,cth ise open, and feet arranged spaced inter; upon said lower ring, said having outwardly extending port-ions between said 1" being otherwisaopen, and a foot arranged at the lower end of each of said connecting memhers, each of said having outwardly extending portions terminating in downwardly extending portions so as to afford means of engaging the edge portion of the dish to which applied and thereby prevent accidental dislodgement oi the appliance.

A food-serving appliance consisting of only an upper metal ring and a lower metal ring arranged about the same vertical axis, said upper ring being substantially smaller than said lower ring, upwardly and inwardly inclined spaced members connecting said rings, said rings and inclined members constituting a skeleton frame, and sheet metal attached to said frame so as to constitutean enclosing wall for the space between said rings.

5. A food-serving appliance consisting of only an upper metal ring and a lower metal ring arranged about the same vertical axis, said upper ring being substantially smaller than said lower ring, upwardly and inwardly inclined spaced members connecting said rings, said rings and inclined members constituting a skeleton frame, sheet metal attached to said frame so as to con stitute an enclosing wall for the space between said rings, and outwardly extending legs arranged at spaced intervals about the bottom of said enclosing wall and having their outer ends extending downwardly so as to afiord means of engaging the edge portion of the dish to which applied and thereby prevent accidental dislodgement of the appliance.

6. A food-serving appliance consisting of an annular body adapted to rest upon the marginal portion of a dish and having its top of smaller size than the bottom so as to receive the bottom of the same size of dish in nesting fashion, and

a plurality of legs spaced about the bottom edge of said annularbody, each of said legs having inwardly and outwardly extensible portions so as to vary the length of the legs for, dishes of different sis-es, and said extensib nortions having downwardly projecting portions adapted to be positioned about the outer edge of the dish so as to prevent accidental dislodgement of the appliance.

HECTOR G. ZOIA.

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