Articles for cooling beverages
OwnerRandall S. Marshallinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An article for cooling a beverage includes a container of plastic material for containing a phase-change medium such as water. The cooling article is used by freezing the phase-change medium and immersing the article in the beverage. The article is preferably weighted to compensate for its positive buoyancy so that it is either generally suspended within the beverage or at the bottom of the beverage. Preferably, the article has projections thereon which increase its surface area, and the article may include internal metallic fins to increase the rate at which heat is transferred from the surface of the article to the interior thereof. If desired, the article may be configured to provide a secondary meaning, and it may include a phosphorescent medium so as to glow in areas of little or no light.
Claims14
An article for cooling beverages retained in a glass, cup or the like having a predetermined height substantially less than that of the glass, cup or the like, the article comprising:
- a container having a wall of plastic material completely enclosing a space and a height substantially less than that of the glass or cup;
- a phase-change medium confined within the space by the wall, the phase-change medium changing phase from a solid state to a liquid state at approximately the point at which ice melts to water, and
- weight means attached to the container to compensate for positive buoyancy thereof, whereby the container does not float at the top of the beverage being cooled thereby but sinks in the beverage.
An article for cooling beverages and the like, the article comprising:
- a container having walls of plastic material completely enclosing a space, the walls including an upper wall having tactile projections thereon and a lower wall disposed opposite the upper wall;
- a phase-change medium confined within the space by the wall, the phase-change medium changing phase from a solid state to a liquid state at approximately the point at which ice melts to water;
- and
- weight means attached to the lower wall of the container to compensate for positive buoyancy of the container, the weight means being of sufficient weight to orient the article in the liquid with the upper wall facing upward, but of insufficient weight to sink the article entirely whereby the tactile surfaces are available for touching.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.