Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Process disinfecting – preserving – deodorizing – or sterilizing – Deodorizing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-08
2004-09-21
Warden, Sr., Robert J. (Department: 1744)
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Process disinfecting, preserving, deodorizing, or sterilizing
Deodorizing
C422S001000, C422S292000, C422S297000, C034S104000, C034S202000, C034S218000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06793881
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This device and method relates to the field of hunting, and more specifically to the challenge hunters face in avoiding detection by game due to certain scents the hunter may unavoidably or unwittingly carry with them to the hunt. For thousands of years, the hunting of big game has commanded the utmost cleverness on the part of the hunter to avoid detection by highly developed senses of his or her prey.
Complementing their natural fitness, strength, swiftness and instincts, animals enjoy keenly developed senses among their primary protection devices. Besides their exceptional sight and hearing capacities, many say that an animal's most powerfully protective ally lies in its remarkable olfactory sense. Long ago, hunters knew that simply striving to remain downwind of their prey would be insufficient to avoid detection.
This has brought about great numbers of techniques by hunters to remove or obfuscate the odors they bring to the forest. These include artificially developed, odor-hiding sprays applied repeatedly while on the hunt, washing the hunter's garb in unscented detergent, wearing odorless clothing liners that prevent the emanation of scents, and even applying animal lure scents to attract the game to the hunter.
This problem of detection has become exacerbated in more recent times when unnatural chemicals, especially those with the very purpose of creating new odors, have become a large part of the typical hunter's life. Deodorants, breath mints, special coffee blends, car interior scents, shaving lotions, perfumes, toothpaste, hair gels, alcohol, hand lotions, cold medications, fabric softeners, food odors, scented tissues, gasoline and oil traces—the list is endless. Ever day, chemical industries develop still newer scents to add to the mix, and complicate the hunt.
For hundreds of years, hunters have awaited the development of a simple, inexpensive, and easy to use method and device for countering the scent-detection problem.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the years, many attempts have been set forth to address the problem of human associated scent detection by wild game. Among those many who have recognized the problem is Maples, U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,008, with a rubber overshoe to insulate the odor-emitting boot from contacting the ground. Rubber, however, carries its own human-associated odor. Whitlock, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,324 brings an improved form of odorless footwear, but this does nothing to address the more overwhelming problem of general odors emanating from the hunter.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,277, Floyd notes the problems associated with the application of scented oils to the hunters' clothing prior to a hunt, specifically pointing out that the added scent wears out or otherwise dissipates. Floyd addresses this issue through the introduction of scented fabric to be carried by the hunter. This material, while offering more lasting cover for the hunter, requires the hunter to carry more gear, and risks inappropriateness of a pre-selected scent. Besides, this covering-scent approach often leaves the clothes with an unpleasant odor at the conclusion of the hunt.
An invention to remove human associated scents from hunting clothing is set forth by Vickers in U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,107. This requires the acquisition of a sheet of material impregnated with activated carbon to be stored with the clothes overnight. Not all the scents can be removed in this manner, and the typical hunter does not have ready access to the materials needed for the process.
A similar approach, with similar shortcomings, is found in Fore's U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,391, involving the use of a garment bag arrangement holding a granular material which can adsorb the human odor from the clothing. The bag may be tumbled in a clothes dryer, permitting the granular material to be ground into a powder that treats the fabric to take up the human odors. This approach, unfortunately suffers from added complication that the dryer treatment leaves yet another unnatural odor, even if it were to remove all human-emitted odors.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,790, Berg recognizes the need to place scent-source materials, including broken leaf substances that are naturally aromatic, in discrete containers located within a container where clothing to be conditioned is confined. While there are similarities to the approach taken in the subject invention to be disclosed herebelow, the Berg invention itself is wholly inapplicable to the problem at hand. In fact, Berg's invention adds some of the very scents to be avoided in game hunting.
In a device for adding scents to hide human-associated odors, Knight presents an enclosed compartment in which a perforated shelf divides the compartment into upper and lower spaces. Clothing to be conditioned is placed in the upper space. A fan circulates air that picks up an odor from a strategically placed scent cartridge, moving the scented air through the shelf and in contact with the clothing. Supplied with battery power, the device can be used in the field.
The Knight device has definite drawbacks. While the apparatus will impregnate the hunter's clothing with the cartridge-borne scent, it requires substantial mechanical and electrical apparatus to do so. Fan motors carry scents of their own, as do batteries and wiring. Additionally, scents from cartridges, at best, are not natural. They may be inappropriate to the environment of the intended hunt scene. Additionally, they may be emitted under the pressure of other odor-bearing gas. Besides, hunters will surely face discomfort and exposure while conditioning their clothing at the hunt scene.
A similar, though simpler device is shown in the 2001 Cabela's Archery Catalogue. This disclosure, recently published as an advertisement, describes a locker for keeping hunting clothes scent free. Vented compartments of waxed corrugated construction avoid the intrusion of outside odors. A center storage holds leaf bags or scent bars; a waffled bottom elevates clothes to permit scent saturation. This disclosure includes nothing about any internal passages for facilitation of scent transfer. The construction is temporary and not durable, rendering it inadequate to the task at hand. Additionally, the wax substance, cardboard materials and glue carry tell-tail odors of their own, which odors will prove problematic in the field. Finally, with regard to the Cabela disclosure, the invention described more fully herebelow pre-dates this publication, rendering it inapplicable under the terms of Title 35, Section 102 of the United States Code.
Forbes, et al. address the problem of maintaining hunters' clothing scent free during transportation. This invention is to avoid the addition of more scents from such temporary storage media as garbage bag and plastic garment bags. While, compared to the approach taken by the invention to be described below, Forbes' invention involves adding still more gear to the typical hunt.
These are but a few of the thousands of “solutions” to hunter scent detection problems appearing in the literature as prior art. However, none approaches the problem in the simple, elegant manner described below. And none is as inexpensive, easy to use, portable, and adaptable as the invention claimed herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A clothing conditioning apparatus and method employ a container means, referred to herein by the trademark HUNTER'S TRUNK™ and designed as a box-like structure. An upper hinged lid, a bottom surface and four walls essentially define the container means, in its preferred embodiment. Within discrete chambers of the box-like structure, scent-source materials are confined so as to be adjacent to, but not touching, a hunter's clothing articles and associated gear to be conditioned. In anticipation of a hunting event, the hunter's clothing will be stored in the container means where they will be subjected to odor treatment or preconditioning by the natural scent-source material.
Within the bott
Conley Sean E.
Kelly Donald Grant
Warden, Sr. Robert J.
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