Patent Application
20100218517
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1. Field of the Invention
The subject matter of this application pertains to ice luges, particularly ice luges used for cooling and serving beverages.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98.
Ice luges have been in popular use for rapid chilling of beverages at parties and gatherings of people where beverages, typically containing alcohol, are served. Two types of ice luges, large sculpted ice blocks and small molded ice blocks, have been in use for serving rapidly chilled beverages. The first type of ice luge consists of a large block of ice several feet long sculpted so that the luge contains channels or lanes. The upper surface of the ice luge slopes downward. A drink is poured at the elevated end of the luge, and the liquid travels through its lane and emerges from the lower end of the luge thereby dispensing the liquid into a glass or other receptacle that is placed to receive the chilled beverage. This type of ice luge features a long transit path. Fabricating a large block of ice requires freezing in a commercial walk-in freezer which most individuals do not have access to. Long transit path ice luges also require skill to sculpt the ice block and significant labor costs can be incurred. Furthermore transporting large ice luges is inconvenient because of cumbersome size and heavy mass of the objects. Some advantages of long transit path ice luges are that they add ambiance to a party and produce drinks with superior quality.
Ice luges prepared from a single plastic mold, small enough to be accommodated by a typical household freezer, have also been used. An advantage of fabricating ice luges from a small mold is that a walk-in freezer is not required. The ice luges produced from this type of apparatus are characterized by a short transit path. Since the degree of cooling depends upon the amount of time that the beverage is in contact with the ice surface, slower transit speed is required with a short path ice luge. Slower transit speeds are achieved by reducing the angle of incline. A disadvantage of shorter transit speed is increased dilution of the drink, which adversely affects the quality of the drink that is dispensed.
In accordance with the subject matter of this application the inventive concept of the invention includes ice luges, methods, and apparatuses and variations thereof for preparing ice blocks with preformed lanes or channels, and which provide for stable placement of the ice blocks in stepwise configuration on a supporting scaffold. The ice blocks so arranged forming a cascading ice luge which can be used for cooling of drinks, inter alia, under optimal conditions for serving.
The ice luges known in the related art fall into two categories. Prior ice luges had lanes that were either pre-formed or sculpted. Large ice luges feature a long transit path and are fabricated from a large block of ice which is subsequently sculpted to form a frozen declined plane with lanes for serving beverages. The Ice luges with pre-formed lanes have been made with an apparatus which is a moderately small grooved tray in which water is frozen. Ice blocks thereby produced have pre-formed lanes to accommodate a flow of beverage or liquid. The tray can be inverted and used to support the ice block for use in chilling and dispensing drinks. Luges produced from smaller trays, although more convenient to fabricate than long transit path luges, have a shorter transit path and consequently produce chilled drinks of inferior quality. As noted above, long transit path ice luges require a walk-in freezer to prepare large and very heavy blocks of ice, which subsequently must be laboriously sculpted. It remained for the present inventor to recognize that an apparatus for making a cascading ice luge would provide ice luges possessing the benefits of a long transit path ice luge and the convenience of preparing smaller ice luges from small freezer trays.
Ice blocks are prepared by filling the trays with water. Subsequently the trays are placed in a freezer until solid ice is formed. After freezing, the ice blocks are placed on the scaffold shelves as shown in
The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention. For example a cascading ice luge can be manufactured with a spiral cascading ice bed. Additionally spiral ice luges can be fabricated that are stackable thereby increasing the length of the luge.
In another embodiment, a housing or scaffold holds a series of ice-block holders or retaining members (20) that are affixed to the scaffold. Retaining members are affixed in a descending stepwise arrangement. Each retaining member is affixed to a dowel or cross-member (22) such that it can pivot about the axis defined by each cross-member. The free end of each retaining member has an upturned tab (24). Ice blocks can be placed on each retaining member. The lower end of each retaining member rests on each successive ice block, with the exception of the lowest retaining member. The retaining members are oriented with a decline angle relative to horizontal so that applied liquid will flow from uppermost ice blocks to the lower ice blocks.
It thus will be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous alternative arrangements that, while not shown or described herein, embody the principles of the invention and thus are within its spirit and scope.
