Back to results
US 4,382,304 AGranted
Device for automatically maintaining toilets clean
OwnerHerbert G. Lehmanninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
OwnerHerbert G. Lehmanninventor
Estimating the term…
A new article of manufacture, comprising a capsule intended to be dropped into the water tank of a toilet, to dispense metered amounts of a chemically active cleaning agent into the water over a long interval of time. At the end of such interval, the entire capsule has been substantially completely disintegrated and flushed away whereby its removal is not required, notably when a new capsule is to be dropped into the tank. The capsule comprises a container made of material which could be metal containing aluminum, that very slowly disintegrates under the action of the chemical cleaning agent contained therein at such time that the chemical becomes mixed with water. The capsule has one or more stoppers for water access openings, or has other means to enable water to enter it for acting on the cleaning agent. If stoppers are provided, these are removed prior to dropping the capsule into the tank. The chemically active cleaning agent can comprise the hypochlorite of an alkaline metal such as sodium or calcium.
As a new article of manufacture, a device for maintaining toilets in a sanitary condition, said device being adapted to become completely disintegrated after immersion for an extended period of time in water, and said device comprising, in combination:
The method of maintaining in clean and sanitary condition a toilet water tank and bowl, which includes the steps of dissolving, in running water within the tank and at a controlled rate, granules of a corrosive salt of an alkaline metal, said granules being contained in a pervious container immersed in the tank and constituted of a material which is slowly disintegrated when in an aqueous solution of said granules, and simultaneously disintegrating said container at a controlled rate by the solution resulting from the controlled dissolution of said granules, with massive corrosion of the container to effect a major opening thereof occurring only after a major portion of said granules has become completely dissolved and carried off from the tank to the bowl.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.