Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Tubs – With movable closure
Patent
1997-05-20
1998-12-08
Walczak, David J.
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Tubs
With movable closure
4559, 4607, A47K 308
Patent
active
058453440
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
It is well known and widely practised to fit a shower over a bath in a bathroom in order that a user of the bathroom can take a shower by standing in the bath and turning the shower on. In such circumstances, however it is necessary to provide some sort of screen or curtain to prevent the shower water from overspilling the edge of the bath and for ensuring that the shower water drains back into the bath well and out of the drain hole in the bath.
The simplest method of providing a shower arrangement over a bath is to suspend a curtain of waterproof material from the ceiling and so as to hang down into the bath. Whilst this arrangement does function, it is extremely unsatisfactory, and because of the flexible nature of the curtain, it tends to billow and move under the air induction effect created by the flowing shower. It also becomes wet and needs to be taken down to be cleaned by laundering. When wet it tends to cling to the inner side of the bath, and in general it is not particularly satisfactory.
Other arrangements have involved the provision of rigid, front shower panels which are much more aesthetically pleasing than a shower curtain.
These bath panels may either be fixed or movable. Fixed panels are mounted on the top edge of the bath and extend to a suitable height above the bath but they have the disadvantage that cleaning of the bath is difficult and entry to the bath is also awkward because the user has to enter the bath from the end remote from that end where the shower is positioned. The shower is usually positioned at the drain plug end of the bath, and the other end of the bath is provided with a sloping face which means that entry is difficult.
The movable rigid bath panels provide a solution to these difficulties, and these panels can be stacked by folding or sliding and may be hinged away to a stored position in which they lie parallel to the adjacent walls of the bathroom when they are not in use. When the shower is to be used, the user can enter the bath and then position the panels accordingly prior to the taking of a shower.
In each case, the bath panels stand on the top edge of the bath, and although some attempts are made at forming a seal between these panels which stand on the side of the bath, invariably there is still leakage of water past the underside of the panels and over the edge of the bath onto the floor in the bathroom. It is also known to provide end or ancillary panels which extend across the bath and co-operate with the front panels to form a shower enclosure, these end panels being provided in cases where mains pressure showers are provided (the extent of use of mains pressure showers is increasing rapidly in view of recent legislation allowing stored water at mains pressure and combination systems).
Various bath/shower screen combinations are shown in the following patent specifications.
The idea in the Howarth specification is that the screen should be capable of swinging over the edge of the bath to an outwards position. It is furthermore movable to a stored position along another part of the bath and between the stored and operational positions the screen does not experience any up and down movement. It is imperative that a lower edge on the screen is movable to and away from the upper edge of the bath to enable the outward swinging to take place.
As regards U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,129, this is concerned simply with a deflector skirt on the bottom of the bath panels.
In the International application, the disclosure concerns the formation of a cage above the bath, and the panels forming the cage being notched so as to sit part on the top of the bath and part on the inner edge.
As far as the European application is concerned, the panels overhang the inside of the bath, and therefore they cannot be swung outwardly, but they hang freely to the inside of the bath.
The present invention seeks in its general aspect to provide a simple and effective means for providing an effective over the bath shower screen arrangement which is more effective than the known screen panels
REFERENCES:
patent: 1664491 (1928-04-01), Siegel
patent: 2048909 (1936-07-01), Woodworth
patent: 3500481 (1970-03-01), McKwane
patent: 3896508 (1975-07-01), Doan
patent: 4542545 (1985-09-01), Johnson et al.
patent: 4903433 (1990-02-01), Baus
patent: 4974269 (1990-12-01), Baus
patent: 5097543 (1992-03-01), Oille
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