Illumination – With liquid container
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-28
2001-05-15
O'Shea, Sandra (Department: 2875)
Illumination
With liquid container
C362S156000, C362S394000, C004S661000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06231203
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to night-lights for use in bathrooms, and more specifically to small, low-luminosity lights adapted to illuminate the toilet bowl and adjacent areas. Many, commercially-available, night-lights contain small, neon bulbs that emit a substantially orange light. Many other night-lights contain small, incandescent bulbs, such as are used in Christmas tree lighting. Nearly all such night-lights plug directly into a wall-mounted electrical outlet. It is commonly the case, however therein adequately illuminates the bathroom's toilet bowl. And thus arises, so to speak in mid-stream, the “male aiming problem”, which, during the night, is aggravated by the desire not to turn on a brilliant light. An attempt is often made to make do with the poor illumination, or with the poorly-placed illumination, provided by customary night-lights, with the consequence, sometimes unnoticed until the morning, of splatter. Small children, who cannot reach the bathroom-wall switch, often leave behind similar “mistakes.” Wives and mothers generally do not find any of this endearing.
Many night-lights intended to illuminate a conventional toilet bowl have been patented. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,136,476 and 5,150,962 and 5,513,397 all disclose devices which have in common their engagement with the toilet-bowl rim, using it as a support. These devices, though they illuminate the bowl well, share the disadvantage of being located, so to speak, next to the flight-path, and will soon show signs of buildup-soiling. Because they do not have many plane surfaces, and may not be glossy, they will be harder to keep clean than the toilet-bowl rim itself.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,364, discloses a device located at the rear of the toilet bowl, rather than along the bowl's side, and thus shares the same soiling problem.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,860,178 and 5,263,209 and 5,664,867 disclose devices intended to be mounted on the bottom, toroidal member of a conventional toilet seat, and in fact substantially, if not entirely, on the bottom surface thereof. Somewhat more slowly, perhaps, but with equal certainly, these devices will soil. They will be harder to keep clean than the toilet seat itself, especially around seams and lines of contact.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,736,471 and 5,276,595 disclose devices intended to be mounted to the under-side of the lid of a toilet seat. Although these devices will soil much-less readily than the devices discussed so far, they cannot be terribly comfortable to lean back against, as when reading the sports pages or the funnies, two happy bathroom pastimes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,982,288 and 5,611,089 disclose devices which cleverly embed their lighting elements within a clear, or transparent material used to fabricate the bottom member of a toilet seat. Apart from the possibility that these devices may shed somewhat more light on the subject, particularly afterwards, than is exactly wanted, they will be relatively expensive to make and, thus, to purchase. U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,089 furthermore places its switch and power pack in the hinge area of the toilet seat, a location quite exposed to the aforesaid “male aiming problem”.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,096 discloses a device which audibly prompts the user to return the toilet seat to the horizontal position in order to turn off the illumination. This seems a rather fussy and intrusive, not to say imperious, device to have in a bathroom, and with which to be greeted, when all that one wants to do is to attend to a midnight urgency. The device furthermore requires a sensor to detect the position of the seat, which sensor is shown to be a switch that must be mounted with respect to the seat and bowl so that the one or the other holds it. This device will soil rather quickly.
Common to all of the devices discussed above is a switch-mechanism which requires some sort of action on the part of the user to ensure that the toilet illumination is switched off. Common as well is close proximity to the toilet bowl, the aforesaid devices never being father from it than the underside of the toilet-seat lid. All of these positions invite soiling, and do not particularly invite touching.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a bathroom night-light that does not entail any of these drawbacks.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention locates the light source in the one component of a conventional toilet that every user basically has to touch, namely the flush handle. Furthermore, the present invention shuts off the source of light automatically. After the user has turned on the illumination, no subsequent action is required of him to turn it off—he can go sleepily back to bed.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, this automatic function is accomplished by means of a semiconductor circuit containing an N-channel, power MOSFET and a lithium battery. The duration of the illumination could, of course, be made adjustable by means of a mini-potentiometer, but is probably best left fixed at around 75 seconds or so. The power drain resulting from one use is so insubstantial that many hundreds of uses will intervene before the battery must be replaced. It is envisioned, in any case, that the handle assembly itself will be made easily and simply replaceable—whole unit replacement—and, hopefully, recyclable.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,475,881 discloses a means for decorating the flush handle of a toilet, but does not disclose a handle containing electronic components of any sort. U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,513 discloses a flush handle with an internal mechanism with which to control the amount of water released on each use, but this mechanism is mechanical and does not contain electronic components of any type.
With the foregoing in mind, it is an important object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive, night-light, particularly adapted to illuminating a toilet bowl, which is neither fussy nor intrusive, and which requires no action on the part of the user in order to shut off.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an approximate, softened, lighting of the toilet-bowl area, as may be formed by a combination of direct, reflected, and scattered illumination, rather than lighting which is aimed and thus may be a bit harsh and/or concentrated.
It is yet another object of the present invention to preserve the dark adaption of the user and to intrude as little as possible on his sleepy state.
It is yet another object of the present invention to remain clean while in use, and to be easily cleaned.
It is still another object of the present invention to be relatively simple to manufacture from standard components, using standard methods, among them injection molding.
The above and still further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed specification, drawings, and appended claims.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5276595 (1994-01-01), Patrie
patent: 5926867 (1999-07-01), Buchanan
O'Shea Sandra
Ton Anabel M
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