Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Drip catcher
Patent
1987-02-25
1990-03-27
Hail, III, Joseph J.
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Drip catcher
4253, A47K 1310
Patent
active
049108107
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to toilet seats of the kind which are arranged automatically to lift from the toilet bowl when not in use, to facilitate maintaining the seat in a sanitary condition.
The prior art contains examples of mechanisms proposed for this purpose. Thus U.S. Pat. No. 2,812,522 of Wilson discloses a spring mechanism which is adapted to lift the seat unless the seat is held down by use or by the weight of the toilet seat cover, and a mechanism having a similar function is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,814,049 of Mercur.
Mechanisms such as these suffer from the disadvantage that the seat must be manually held in the lowered position until the user is seated, and furthermore the seat tends to lift immediately the user rises. As has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,353,133 of Sperzel et. al., the inconvenience resulting from these characteristics has prevented the wide employment of such mechanisms. The U.S. patent of Sperzel et. al. offers an improved arrangement incorporating a latch feature, but this arrangement does not provide a mechanism which overcomes the problem of the tendency of the seat to move towards its raised position immediately the user rises.
The object of the present invention is to provide a toilet seat mechanism which overcomes these disadvantages. In one form the invention comprises a toilet seat assembly comprising a seat provided with mounting means for hinged mounting on a toilet bowl, and a seat cover provided with mounting means for hinged mounting on said toilet bowl such that said lid may be raised independently of said seat, means biasing said seat to its raised position, said biasing means being inoperative to raise said seat when said cover is in its lowered position, and means releasably engaging the seat with the bowl for a predetermined time delay after release of other restraint on upward movement of the seat, said means being actuated into such engagement by the weight of said cover when said cover is in its lowered position.
In the accompanying drawings, a presently proposed embodiment of the invention is described by way of example.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a toilet seat mechanism incorporating the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the arrangement illustrated in FIG. 1; and
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken on the line 3--3 of FIG. 1.
The illustrated assembly comprises a toilet seat 10 mounted on a bowl 11 by means of a mounting plate 12.
The seat 10 is attached by means of lugs 13 to a pair of shafts 14 which are journalled at 15 on the mounting plate 12, the lugs 13 being fastened to the shafts 14 by means of screws 25 so that the seat 10 rotates with the shaft 14.
Freely journalled on the shaft 14 outwardly of the lugs 13 is a cover 16.
Extending rearwardly from and fixed to the outer ends of the shafts 14 are a pair of arms 17 each of which is provided with a weight 18. The length of the arms 17 and the mass of each of the weights 18, are chosen such that the weights 18 will raise the seat 10 by rotating the shaft 14, unless the cover 16 is lowered onto the seat 10, the weight of the cover being sufficient to prevent raising of the seat 10.
Mounted on the underneath surface of the seat 10, in a position to overlie the upper surface of the front of the toilet bowl 11, is a mounting plate 19 provided with a pair of spaced parallel downwardly directed walls 20. Mounted on the lower surface of the plate 19 is a suction cup 21 which is provided with an air bleed pipe 22 communicating with the space between the suction cup and the bowl 11, when the seat is in its lowered position.
A length of flexible tubing 23 is attached to the pipe 22, and passes through one of the walls 20 where it is contacted by the inner end of a grub screw 24 so that the rate of bleed of air from atmosphere to the suction cup 21, may be controlled by adjustment of the screw 24.
As will be appreciated, when the seat is lowered and pressed against the bowl 11 by the weight of the user, the suction cup 21 will be pressed firmly against the upper surface of t
REFERENCES:
patent: 2772422 (1956-12-01), Knudsen
patent: 2814049 (1957-11-01), Mercur
patent: 3395408 (1968-08-01), Weber et al.
patent: 4469358 (1984-09-01), Abbott
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