This invention relates to smoker's aids and more specifically, apparatus for assisting pipe smokers in filling and cleaning pipes.
A pipe smoker finds himself in a difficult and frustrating situation when he attempts to fill or empty a pipe with tobacco while driving a motor vehicle or operating equipment. A driver finds himself attempting to balance a tobacco pouch in one hand while simultaneously holding a steering wheel, and filling the pipe with his other hand while keeping his attention and his vehicle on the road.
After he has finished smoking, his frustration is compounded. It is generally impossible to knock the ash out of the bowl of a pipe into a vehicular ashtray. If he attempts to dig the dottle out of the pipe bowl he must, while driving, fish around for a pipe tool or a knife and then, keeping his eye on the road, scrape the bowl clean, hopefully not spilling the contents of the pipe bowl into his lap. This is obviously an impossible task, and the pipe smoker is often distracted.
There have been previous apparatus for pipe smokers to aid in the filling or cleaning of a pipe.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,362,416 to Jackson discloses a motor driven reaming device, surrounded by a flexible bellows, for reaming the interior of the bowl of a pipe. Please note that the collar is folded and flexible to permit the pipe to push it down, exposing the reamer. Under the bellows is a pressure switch which turns on the cleaner when the pipe depresses the bellows. The reaming blade is spring mounted so as to conform to the downward pressure of the pipe, preventing damage to the bowl of the pipe. A centrifugal fan mounted axially below the wheel blows the pipe debris into a chamber at the bottom of the cleaner. This fan also blows air from within the pipe through an odor reducing filter. The entire apparatus must be disassembled to remove the pipe debris.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,757,673 to Lazar discloses a tobacco container which contains a lower chamber having an internal tamping plunger for tamping tobacco into the bowl of a pipe.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,085 to Nimer discloses a "semi-automatic pipe loader" for automotive use. A tobacco container is mounted under the dashboard of a car. It contains a first opening for emitting tobacco and a spring-loaded trigger which, when activated, ratchets a paddle wheel within the tobacco container causing tobacco to fall through a bottom opening into the bowl of the pipe. The trigger mechanism is shaped like a tamper so that with a separate motion the tobacco can be tamped into the bowl of the pipe.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,306,622 to Gordon discloses another form of electric motor driven pipe cleaner, comprising a thin disc like brush or buffer wheel mounted transversely to the rotary axis of a small electric motor so that the wheel is spun within the bowl of the pipe for cleaning. This cleaner also shows a fan and a collection chamber for removing and disposing of the residue from the pipe bowl.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,594 to Keller discloses a pipe smoking or break in apparatus in which the pipe is held in a cradle and a supply of fan driven air is blown into the bowl of the pipe.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,535 to Dundore discloses a tobacco container having an internal pipe charging apparatus. The tobacco chamber has a lower end into which tobacco falls and against which the bowl of the pipe is placed. A finger operated, spring loaded plunger, internal to the tobacco chamber, then presses the tobacco into the bowl of the pipe. Note that, as with the previous pipe loading invention, the amount of tobacco which is loaded with a single charge is a function of how densely the tobacco falls from the bottom of the tobacco container. This device also must be held against the pipe.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,927,092 to Howard discloses a tobacco container and pipe filler in which the tobacco container is held vertically above the bowl of the pipe and a vertically disposed plunger is used to push tobacco into the bowl of the pipe. The plunger is not of the size as would normally be expected for pipe tamping; rather, a spiral mechanism on the plunger causes the device to rotate within the tobacco causing the tobacco to fall into the bowl of the pipe. The patent explicitly states that the primary purpose of the plunger is to agitate the tobacco into the bowl. The disclosed mechanism would not tamp the tobacco properly.
U.S. Pat. No. 997,974 to Drucklieb discloses an independent tobacco cartridge for carrying a charge of tobacco for loading into a pipe. These cartridges have independent finger operated plungers and lack an self-centering mechanism that allows the cartridges to be aligned by feel with the pipe.
U.S Pat. No. 779,095 to McInnis shows an early form of tobacco box having an internal tamper for dropping and tamping tobacco into a pipe.
U.S Pat. No. 1,001,242 to Berg discloses an alternate form of tobacco pouch with an internal tamp.
None of the disclosed devices show a combined loading and cleaning apparatus which can be easily used by one hand and by feel. None show a device which will load a pipe with a measured, consistent charge of tobacco.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds