Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Pool type – Adjustable bottom
Patent
1987-09-28
1989-09-12
Phillips, Charles E.
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Pool type
Adjustable bottom
4580, 128 65, E04H 318
Patent
active
048646660
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention pertains to private and commercial bathing. It is a bathing apparatus employing a bathing bag containing a small amount of bathing fluid that is pressed against the bather inside the bag by surrounding water in the apparatus. Thus, it provides sanitary protection from previous bathers by means of a replacable bathing bag, isolating the bather from the surrounding volume of water.
BACKGROUND ART
There is no known device or apparatus sold commercially that is similar to the the bathing apparatus described herein. There is no known United States patent granted that resembles the subject invention. There are special applications of fluid containment bags in the administration of medical fluids by physicans to the skin of burn victims, however, these are not similar to the subject invention. Medical use of bags for fluid containment in various treatment modalities is different from the subject invention in two ways: (1) Application is na integral part of a medical protacol and is usually administered while the subject is in a bed, thus there is no fluid surrounding the outside of the bag to exert pressure on the bag and its contents; (2) There is no connection between the medical use of bags and any patient handling apparatus similar to the subject invention.
Historically, and presently, persons wishing to bathe inside of a bag in a manner that provids fluid pressure from external water on the contents of the bag have been limited to ordinary pools or containers having a suitable depth. These bathers must then use a flotation coller or mechanical device to support the top of the bag. Flotation rings are known to be used in bag-bathing in some European spas. Such applications, however, do not employ an apparatus to protect the bather and bathing fluid from possible microbiological or chemical contamination in waters of the surrounding pool or container. Such applications also do not provide bathers an actuated hydraulic apparatus for immersing and removing the bather and bathing bag from the surrounding waters of a pool or bathing container.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A bathing apparatus that includes a cylindrical-rigid bathing container that is filled with water and fitted with a piston-like platform on which the bather stands. The platform moves up or down hydraulic action of water, when the water is circulated in the bathing container through inlets and outlets at the top and bottom of said container. The bather stands on the platform inside of a thin-walled bathing bag. When the platform is in its top position the bather places a bathing bag in the center of the platform, steps upon it, and fastens the top of the bag to the top of the bathing container. The bather actuates a control device and the platform is lowered. Prior to or during platform lowering, a bathing liquid is poured into the bathing bag. As the platform lowers to the cylinder bottom, the water flows into the top of the cylinder and above the platform, thereby pressing the bathing liquid against the bather. On completion of bathing, the bather (or an attendant) actuates controls that reverse the flow of water in the cylinder causing platform, bather, and bathing bag enclosing the bathing liquid to return to the top. The invention permits fluid-isolation bathing, whereby any bather can bathe in a relatively small volume of a bathing liquid that is isolated by means of a thin-walled bathing bag from the larger volume of water in the bathing container. The bendifts of this invention are: (1) Economies of bathing in costly bathing liquids through the containment of the bathing bag; (2) Sanitary bathing through isolation by disposable thin-walled bathing bags.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an illustration of the invention installed with its top flush with the floor level. The bather is illustrated stepping onto the top of the piston-like platform that is covered with a thin-walled bathing bag fitted to the top of the bathing container. Numeral 1 identifies the locking ring that holds the top of the
REFERENCES:
patent: 3670343 (1972-06-01), Gansloser
patent: 3760432 (1973-09-01), Glorisi
patent: 4648392 (1987-03-01), Cartier et al.
Sebastian Carlos F.
Vind Gerald H.
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