Patent Application
20140348974
This invention is in the field of methods and devices for keeping breakfast dry cereal crispy while eating that cereal with milk and fruit or just with milk.
When having a morning meal that includes dry breakfast cereal, a person usually adds fruit and milk to the cereal bowl. This addition of milk results in the cereal becoming soggy and not as tasty as when the cereal is dry and crispy. Although the eater typically tries to keep some cereal above the level of the milk and fruit, there is always some cereal, at least toward the bottom of the bowl, which cereal becomes soggy as it is soaked in the milk. It would be desirable to have a special bowl that would allow all the cereal in the bowl to remain dry and crispy while it is being eaten with milk or with milk and fruit.
The present invention is a cereal bowl consisting of two separate parts: a first section that contains the dry cereal with no milk that is separated by a continuous, centrally located dividing wall from a second section that contains at least the milk and usually also contains some fruit such as blueberries, raspberries, cut-up pieces of banana, cut-up pieces of apple, etc. By first taking a spoonful of cereal and then picking up some milk and fruit in that same spoon, each and every separate spoonful of the cereal that is eaten by the eater will remain crispy up to and including the very last spoonful of cereal, milk and fruit that is eaten.
The design of the present invention is distinctly different from the design of M. L. Roberts as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 8,337,073. The Roberts patent teaches (1) a partial dividing wall instead of a continuous dividing wall; (2) a cereal section that is much higher than the milk section as opposed to a cereal section that is slightly lower than the milk section; (3) the cereal is eaten by dumping it into the milk section as opposed to placing the dry cereal in a spoon and then placing that spoon with cereal into the milk, and (4) a very high outer wall that precludes using a generally horizontally placed spoon to pick up the last of the milk and cereal as opposed to a comparatively low height for the outer wall for the present invention that allows a spoon to be in an essentially horizontal position when taking up the last of the cereal and milk from a milk and fruit section that is actually not quite as deep as the cereal section.
To help assure that any tablespoon can capture every last amount of cereal and milk and fruit, both the cereal section and the milk and fruit section have rounded interior corners whose radii of curvature are somewhat greater than essentially any radius of curvature at the tip of any typical spoon that would be used for eating the dry cereal, i.e., none of the interior surfaces should be made with a sharp corner. The optimum position for the bowl will be when the rounded end of the milk and fruit section is facing the eater. In this orientation, the cereal section is situated furthest from the eater. It is then most natural for the eater to place the spoon furthest from himself or herself and pick up some cereal and then bring the spoon toward the eater and into the milk and fruit section and then still closer to put the spoon into the eater's mouth
The cereal section optimally has a flat bottom that lies onto the typically flat surface of a table. This provides the maximum volume of the cereal section for containing the cereal. The present invention includes a unique inclined plane for that part of the dividing wall that faces the cereal section. By having this inclined plane with a downward slope having an angle of about 135 degrees relative to the flat bottom surface of the cereal section, all of the cereal in the cereal section will be clearly visible to the eater. This would not be the case if the dividing wall would be vertical (i. e., 90 degrees relative to the flat bottom surface) on the side facing the cereal section because there would then be some cereal at the bottom of the cereal section and against the dividing wall that could not be readily seen or as easily accessed by the eater. The dividing wall's inclined plane on the side facing the cereal section is in contradistinction to the vertical surface of the dividing wall as described in the prior art Fischell et. al. U. S. Patent Application Publication No. US2008/0290097.
Since the milk and fruit section is situated closest to the eater, the amount of milk and fruit that is situated at the bottom of a vertical dividing wall on the side of the milk and fruit section facing the eater will be clearly visible to the eater. This is a different situation compared to the cereal section of the cereal bowl where a vertical dividing wall would make the last of the cereal on that side of the dividing wall more difficult to see by the eater.
An important novel feature of the cereal bowl is that the milk and fruit section has several sloped bottom surfaces that slope downward from each and every vertical boundary wall that encloses the milk and fruit section. These boundary walls include the centrally located dividing wall as well as all the outer walls of the milk and fruit section. The sloped bottom surfaces of the milk and fruit section all terminate at their lowest point at a horizontally placed outer boundary line of a curved bottom section that is located at the lowest region of the milk and fruit section of the cereal bowl. The separate curved bottom section is designed to be the place where the last of the milk and fruit can be readily picked up by a conventional tablespoon. It is important that this curved bottom section has an area that is comparatively small compared to the area of the bottom surfaces of the entire milk and fruit section so that the milk has some substantial height in that curved bottom section when the last spoonful of cereal and milk is to be eaten. The sloped surfaces of the milk and fruit section cause the last of the remaining milk to move into the curved bottom section where the last spoonful of the milk and fruit is to be taken up by the eater. To accomplish that goal, the curved bottom section should have a central cylindrical section with a length that is between 60% and 80% of the width of the milk and fruit section at that location. The cylindrical section should have a radius of curvature in its transverse direction that is slightly larger than the radius of curvature of the transverse cross section at the center of the spoon of a typical tablespoon that is used to eat dry cereal. The curved bottom section should have at each of its end a curved portion that has a radius of curvature that is somewhat larger than the curvature at the end of a typical tablespoon. The shape of this curved portion at each end of curved bottom section is a sector of a torroid. This unique shape is not noted in any prior art cereal bowl patent.
The total width of the outer boundary line at the top of the curved bottom section should be approximately 10% to 30% smaller than the maximum width of the milk and fruit section at that location. The dimension of the curved bottom section in a direction perpendicular to its width should be less than 50% of the length of the milk and fruit section in that direction. Ideally, the area of the entire milk and fruit section (including the curved bottom section) should be approximately two and one-half to three times the area of the outer boundary line of the curved bottom section. These ratios provide the a good high height of the milk within the curved bottom section for the last to be eaten of the cereal and milk.
It is also important that this curved bottom section is at a position in the bowl that is between the dividing wall and the opposite end of the milk and fruit section to make it optimally situated for the eater to pick up the last of the cereal, milk and fruit. That would be the location that is optimally situated for the eater to collect the last spoonful(s) of cereal and milk and fruit. The direction of the long axis of the curved bottom section should be parallel to the dividing wall and its ends should extend nearly to touch the interior wall of the milk and fruit section. With this configuration, a left handed eater could approach with his spoon from the left side of the curved bottom section and a right handed eater could approach the curved bottom section from the right side. This design is in contradistinction to the design taught by C. Celaya in U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,826 which has a curved bottom section that is too large a diameter on one end and too small at the other end to readily pick up the last spoonful of cereal with milk and fruit.
In US Patent Application Publication US2008/0290097, Fischell, et. al. teach a cereal bowl 10 that has an inclined section 19 within the milk and fruit section 12 that connects to a curved bottom section 16 that is situated against the center divide 18 of the cereal bowl 10.
Another novel feature of the present invention is a unique cover for a bowl that has two separate sections. The portion of the cover that covers the milk and fruit section of the cereal bowl has a liquid tight seal against the interior surface of that section of the cereal bowl so that a liquid (such as milk) would not leak out of that section even if the bowl was significantly tilted or even if it were turned upside down. This cover with a liquid tight seal prevents a child from accidently spilling the milk when, for example, the cereal bowl with cereal and milk was to be removed from a refrigerator where it would have been placed the prior evening by the child's mother in preparation for the child's breakfast. The seal of the cover over the cereal section of the cereal bowl would only have to be in contact with the outer edges of the cereal section because dry cereal would not fall out of the cereal section even if it did not have a pressure tight seal. The cover would ideally have an outwardly extending flap located as far away from the milk and fruit section as possible, which flap could be used for easy removal of the cover when the cereal bowl was to be opened.
The design of the cover of the present invention is distinctly different from that described by V. Schafer III in U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,348. The Schafer patent teaches a round bowl with two different covers, one for the cereal section and a second cover for the milk section. The single cover design as disclosed herein is obviously easier to apply and it is able to be removed with a single tab at the end of the cereal section of the bowl as opposed to the two cover design of the Schafer invention.
It is also conceived that the cereal bowl as described herein could be made in a variety of colors so that each person who uses such a bowl could have his or her favorite color. For a busy mother with several children, bowls of a different color could be used for each child that would have that child's favorite cereal in that particular bowl.
Another reason for having the novel design of a cereal bowl with a cover that includes a liquid tight seal for the milk and fruit section is that there are many workers who go to work early and would like to have a breakfast of cereal with milk and fruit that they take from home to be eaten at their place of employment. Having an easily removable single cover as taught herein makes it possible for such a worker to prepare his or her favorite cereal with milk and fruit at home, then place the cover with a liquid tight seal onto the top of the cereal bowl and then take the covered cereal bowl to work. One aspect of the present invention is a cereal bowl with such a cover that provides this useful and novel capability.
For the present invention it should be understood that the use of the word “milk” can also mean any liquid that might be eaten with dry cereal such as cream, water, soy milk, lactose free milk, coconut milk, almond milk, rice milk, hemp milk, sunflower seed milk oat milk, chocolate milk, non-fat milk, 1% butterfat milk, 2% butterfat milk, etc.
Thus one object of the present invention is to have a two section bowl that separates by a continuous dividing wall the dry cereal from the milk and fruit so that all the dry cereal can be eaten while it is still crispy.
Another object of this invention is to have an inclined surface at the dividing wall on the cereal section side of the cereal bowl to provide assurance that all the cereal is clearly visible for the eater.
Still another object of this invention is to have multiple downward sloping surfaces at the bottom of the milk and fruit section of the cereal bowl each downward surface terminating at the outer boundary line of the curved bottom section within the milk and fruit section of the cereal bowl thereby assuring that the last of the milk to be eaten will be situated in that curved bottom section.
Still another object of this invention is that the curved bottom section is of limited area and limited volume as compared to the entire area and volume of the milk and fruit section of the cereal bowl.
Still another object of this invention is that the curved bottom section terminates at each end with a curved surface to optimize picking up of the last to be eaten of the milk and fruit with the curved end of a spoon.
Still another object of this invention is that the curved bottom section terminates at each end with a curved surface that is situated close to an interior wall of the milk and fruit section, the curved bottom section having its long axis parallel to the dividing wall to optimize picking up of the last of the milk and fruit with the curved end of a spoon for either a left handed eater or a right handed eater.
Still another object of this invention is to have all the curved interior surfaces of the cereal bowl's outer walls having a somewhat greater radius of curvature compared to the curvature at the tip of a conventional tablespoon so that even the last of the cereal and the last of the milk and fruit can be readily picked up on such a spoon.
Still another object of this invention is to have a special cover for the cereal bowl that provides a liquid tight seal for the milk and fruit section and that same cover also covering the cereal section of the cereal bowl with a seal that is more easily removable by not being a liquid tight seal.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become obvious to a person of ordinary skill in this art upon reading the detailed description of this invention including the associated drawings as presented herein.
As seen in
As best seen in
As indicated in
The second flat, downward sloping surface of the milk and fruit section 14 is the surface S2 (as seen in
As seen in
The horizontal outer boundary line 11B is the termination at the bottom of the downward sloping surfaces S1, S2, CON1 and CON2. This unique design causes all the last of the milk to go into the curved bottom section 11A and allows the eater to have the greatest height for the milk within that curved bottom section 11A. This design allows the eater to easily pick up the last of the milk with still crispy cereal. It should be noted that the imaginary lines 17 and 18 in
An important novel feature of the curved bottom section 11A is that the radius of curvature R4 at its bottom is slightly larger than the radius of curvature at the center of the spoon of a typical tablespoon and the radius of curvature R3 at the end curved sections of the outer boundary line 11B are somewhat greater than the radius of curvature at the tip of a typical tablespoon. This design assures that the typical tablespoon will be able to efficiently go into the curved bottom section 11A to pick up the last to be eaten of the cereal and milk.
It should be understood that this method for eating a dry cereal with milk and fruit and keeping that dry cereal crispy would be accomplished in an optimum manner when the milk and fruit section 14 is placed closest to the eater. It is also important that the area “A1” of the outer boundary line 11B of the curved bottom section 11A is approximately 20% to 40% of the area “A2” of the entire milk and fruit section 14 that includes the outer boundary line 11B. This minimization of the area “A1” compared to the area “A2” of the entire milk and fruit section 14 allows the height of the last of the milk and fruit to be maximized so that the last remaining volume of milk can be easily picked up onto a spoon to be eaten by the eater without wasting essentially any of the milk.
It should be understood that the bowl 10 and/or the cover 20 could be molded from any one of the several plastics that are now used for making bowls of various designs. Typical plastics that could be used are as follows: polypropylene, polycarbonate, high impact polystyrene, polyurethane, Nylon, etc. An optimum plastic for the bowl 10 would be BPA-free polypropylene. Still further, it should be understood that the bowl could be made in various colors such as a cream color, light red color or any acceptable shade of green, yellow, orange or blue. The bowl could also have designs or a company name placed on its surfaces. Still further, a high end of the cereal bowl could be made from a ceramic material.
Each one of the figures herein shows that the outer boundary line 11B or 31B is essentially a comparatively sharp line connection between two surfaces. Alternatively, it should be understood that any part or all of the upper boundary between the curved bottom section 11A or 31A and the surfaces that are contacted by the outer boundary line 11B or 31B could, in fact, be a curved surface to allow for a smoother transition between the outer boundary line 11B or 31B and the surfaces that join to it. A radius of curvature for such a curved surface at the top of either curved bottom section 11B or 31B would optimally lie between 0.05 and 0.20 inches.
Various other modifications, adaptations and alternative designs are of course possible in light of the teachings as presented herein. Therefore it should be understood that, while still remaining within the scope and meaning of the appended claims, this invention could be practiced in a manner other than that which is specifically described herein.
