Stoves and furnaces – Stove shelves – Oven shelf or rack
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-09
2001-03-27
Lazarus, Ira S. (Department: 3743)
Stoves and furnaces
Stove shelves
Oven shelf or rack
C126S339000, C211S181100, C211S153000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205997
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The convenience of free delivery often makes ordering a pizza a more attractive alternative than making one at home. The availability of gourmet and professional equipment, such as pizza stones, however have made preparing an authentic pizzeria-style pizza at home a possibility. A pizza stone cooks the pizza evenly providing a continuous source of heat and the stone absorbs moisture to provide a crispy crust.
Pizza stones are flat having no lip or edge to grab when removing the stone from the oven. Thus, in order to remove a stone, or any other flat item, from an oven, it is necessary to pull the rack out of the oven, reach behind the stone and push the edge of the stone over the lip of the oven rack, and then push the rack back into the oven before grabbing the stone. When the rack is pulled out of the oven, it is only partially supported and can tilt either falling from the oven or dumping its hot contents onto the floor. Additional safety concerns arise when, at home, children and animals are underfoot.
Oven shelves have been designed to address a number of problems encountered in cooking and baking in an oven. For example, Ogg et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,968) describe a retractable shelf for a microwave oven to assist the cook in accessing foods which have to be turned or stirred while cooking. Slaughter (U.S. Pat. No. 2,806,467) describes an oven shelf with an insulated handle so the rack can be removed without donning an oven mitt. Hanson etal. (U.S. Pat. No. 1,941,301) describe a tray holder which facilitates withdrawal of a tray from the oven and allows the raising an lowering of that tray within the oven. Each of these racks, although useful for its intended purpose, do not address the problem of removing flat items safely from an oven rack.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is an oven rack which has a notch along its peripheral surface. Items placed into the oven, on the rack, with an edge extending over that notch can be easily removed from the oven without having to slide the rack out of the oven. In a preferred embodiment, this notch is placed on the front ofthe rack toward the door, near the center and is approximately 4½ inches wide by 4½ inches deep allowing adequate room for a hand covered by an oven mitt to reach into the notch and access items on the rack.
REFERENCES:
patent: 737671 (1903-09-01), Spicer
patent: 1398725 (1921-11-01), Kneier
patent: 1445459 (1923-02-01), Streda
patent: 1941301 (1933-12-01), Hanson et al.
patent: 1997432 (1935-04-01), Replogle
patent: 2189240 (1940-02-01), Burr
patent: 2751486 (1956-06-01), Evans
patent: 2806467 (1957-09-01), Slaughter
patent: 3450025 (1969-06-01), Fleming
patent: 4476848 (1984-10-01), Protas
patent: 5938968 (1999-08-01), Ogg et al.
patent: 15228 (1915-10-01), None
patent: 10-238964 (1998-09-01), None
Cocks Josiah C.
Lazarus Ira S.
Saliwanchik Lloyd & Saliwanchik
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