Dual condiment mill

Abstract

A condiment mill has a pair of separate compartments each for containing a different condiment, such as peppercorns and salt crystals. At the bottom of each compartment, a grinder is installed for grinding the condiment. A shaft is provided for rotatably driving each of the grinders, each such shaft extending upwardly through its associated compartment and having a spur gear fixedly attached to the upper end thereof. A pivotally supported gear drive mechanism is provided at the top of the compartments which engages the gear of one of the grinders when rotated in one direction and the gear of the other of the grinders when rotated in an opposite direction to enable the alternative grinding and dispensing of one or the other of the condiments. A cover is provided for the top of the compartments, this cover being spring-urged into its closed position over the compartments. This cover can be manually raised against the spring action and rotated to permit the filling of the compartment with condiment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.