Gas and liquid contact apparatus – Fluid distribution – Pumping
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-22
2001-12-11
Bushey, C. Scott (Department: 1724)
Gas and liquid contact apparatus
Fluid distribution
Pumping
C261S084000, C446S015000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328286
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is directed to an apparatus that is capable of simultaneously blowing a plurality of streams of bubbles from liquid bubble solution.
Various apparatus for generating bubbles from liquid bubble solution have been described in prior patents and commercially marketed. For example, a bubble-generating apparatus, the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,184, that was commercially marketed under the trademark “Bubba Billions” more than one year prior to the filing of this patent was provided with a housing having a central aperture, a handle attached to the housing, a rotatable fan disposed in the central aperture of the housing, an electric motor coupled to drive the fan, a battery power source that provided power to the motor and a bubble-generating structure that was attachable to the housing. The bubble-generating structure included six generally circular bubble-wand structures positioned over the central opening of the housing so that when the fan was rotating, air would be simultaneously blown through all six bubble-wand structures to generate six separate streams of bubbles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,218 to Tao discloses a bubble-making apparatus for generating a connected chain of bubbles, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 of the Tao patent. The bubble-making apparatus of the Tao patent is in the form of a gun and is provided with an electric motor, a source of battery power, a rotatable fan driven by the motor, and two separate internal airflow conduits through which airflow generated by the fan passes. One of the airflow conduits is disposed directly above the other airflow conduit. Air passing through the upper airflow conduit is used to generate a connected chain of bubbles, and air passing through the lower airflow conduit is used to generate a stream of air below the connected chain of bubbles. The Tao patent states that the connected chain of bubbles is supported by the stream of air generated by the lower airflow conduit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is directed to a bubble-blowing apparatus that may simultaneously produce a plurality of bubble streams from liquid bubble solution. The bubble-blowing apparatus may be provided with a housing, a rotatable fan associated with the housing, an electric motor operatively coupled to rotatably drive the fan, a battery power source coupled to provide electric power to the motor, an airflow-directing member coupled to the housing that causes air blown by rotation of the fan to be directed predominantly to a peripheral area, and a plurality of bubble-forming tubes operatively coupled to the airflow-directing member at a plurality of points in the peripheral area. Each of the bubble-forming tubes is capable of generating a stream of bubbles and may include a hollow central portion, a base portion, and an end portion that is spaced from the base portion by a distance in a direction parallel to the central diameters of the bubble-forming tubes.
The bubble-blowing apparatus may also include a plurality of air passageways located in the peripheral area, each of the air passageways generating a stream of air by causing air blown by the fan to be directed from an interior portion of the housing to outside of the housing. A plurality of internal members may be disposed in the hollow central portion of each of the bubble-forming tubes so as to form a plurality of bubble-solution-holding cavities within the hollow central of each of the bubble-forming tubes.
Each of the bubble-forming tubes may be conical in shape, with the base portion of each of the bubble-forming tubes having an inner diameter that is greater than the inner diameter of the end portion of each of the bubble-forming tubes, and each of the internal members may have a height that varies in a direction parallel to the central diameters of the bubble-forming tubes.
The fan may have a central hub with a hollow interior portion and a plurality of fan blades attached to the central hub, and the motor may be disposed in the hollow interior portion of the central hub. The bubble-blowing apparatus may be provided with one or more handles, the power source may comprise a plurality of batteries, and the batteries may be located in one or more hollow interior portions of the handles.
The features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is made with reference to the drawings, a brief description of which is provided below.
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OddzOn/Cap Toys, Inc. instruction sheets for Bubba Billions, 1997, 3 pages.
Cap Toys, Inc. instruction sheets for Big Bubba, 1996, 2 pages.
Pending U.S. Patent Application, including drawings entitled “Bubble Maker Toy”, U.S. application No. 09/183,815 filed Oct. 30, 1998, inventors G. Peter Albert Jr., Ronald Rich, Donald A. Marini, Bill James Cajka, which describes prior art Bubba Billions product sold more than one year prior to May 22, 2000.
Boyle Ron
Cajka Kevan M.
Cajka, Jr. William J.
Sanchez Terry J.
Seifert Daniel
Bushey C. Scott
Cajka Kevan M.
Marshall Gerstein & Borun
OddzOn, Inc.
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