US2209192A - Medication appliance - Google Patents

Description

I ATTORVEY.

23, 1940- M. E. DEMSEY MEDICATION APPLIANCE Filed Aug. 12, 1939 4 w v\\% a n H M Patented July 23, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE I MEDICATION APPLIANCE Michael E. Demley, Cleveland, Ohio Application August 12. 1939, Serial No. 289,886

"Claims.

My invention pertains to a medication appliance and more particularly to a combination with a syringe of a cup-shaped member adapted for detachable connection around the top of a bottie (preferably exteriorly though alternativelyinteriorly) and of another cup-shaped member enclosing the first and as an eye'guard intended to be pressed against the skin around an inflamed or infected area-the whole thing being a unitary structure.

Experience with the use of eye cups, to be pressed against the face around an eye while partially fllled with a medication fluid for bathing any affected part of the enclosed tissue, has taught their inconvenience and attendant waste of excess fluid. Conventional eye droppers are often inefi'ective if wielded by unskilled hands and incidentally wasteful either because of an unsteady or misdirected manipulation-or because of nervousness on the part of the patient upon approach of the discharge tip.

According to one form an eye guard provided with venting means, preferably one or more lateral apertures between the bottom and rim of the guard, has a syringe attached to and adapted to discharge dropwise not only through the guard. but through a guard-enclosed conventional screw cap for a bottle. Another form comprises a yieldable stopper having its one side intended 30 to wedge in the neck of a bottle and its other side frictionally inserted into a collapsible rubber bulb. Optionally a glass nozzle may line the stopper-functioning side of the stopper. For individual home use a small amount of the medication fluid (sometimes a thin salve) is segregated in the screw cap by inversion of the bottle, then a few drops syphoned into the syringe, the surplus permitted to flow back into the bottle and thereafter the guard pressed ardjund the eye and the few drops ejected with certainty, with safety and without waste.

A general object has been inexpensively to combine several units hitherto separated, whereby to facilitate use, to provide a convenience- 45 serving novelty of compact and unitary structure as well as to improve upon performance of the required treatment, because an inversion of the entire assembly may segregate the small amount required in the hollow cap preparatory to syphoning it into the syringe reservoir while only a very short, if any, nozzle on the latter is needed. The unitary assembly of the three parts insures proper connection thereof, and prevents displacement or loss while collectively adapted to be carriedby, as a closure for the bottle.

It is to be realized that the scope of my invention comprehends many equivalent constructions. The showings of the drawing and the de- .0 scription are merely specific exemplifications of a plurality of mechanical embodiments and arrangements.

Adverting to the drawing:

Figure 1 is a vertical section of an all-featureincluding embodiment of my invention applied to a fragmentary neck of a bottle.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a bottom plan view of Figure 1'.

Figure 4 is a view, similar to Figure 1, of a modified form of my invention.

Figure 5 is a broken, vertical sectional view of another modification.

A bottle neck I is fashioned with external screw threads 2. A screw cap 3 of concavo-convex form is formed with a conically surfaced hole 4 located centrally of the head portion of the cap, and the latter comprises a depending annular flange 5 which is interiorly fashioned with complementary screw threads 8 adapted for feasible cooperation with the bottle-neck threads 2.

Enveloping the cap 3 is a larger, concavo-convex eye-guard 1 provided with a flat central area 8 conforming to and secured in any appropriate manner to the outer or upper side of the head of the cap 3. The area 8 is provided with-a hole defined by a complementarfly surfaced wall 9. Opposite sides of the guard are shown provided with venting apertures III which are intended to preclude air-pressure resistance to dropwise discharge when the guard is tightly pressed against the face and may be as large as possible without lessening the rigidity of the guard in order to economize in the material of which it may be composed, for instance, a suitable plastic, glass or metal, or hard rubber. The lower annular or elliptical margin of the guard is shown curled at II for comfort and safety when pressed against the face around a human eye.

A nipple l2 includes a head l3 fitted within the cap 3. The nipple may be of rubber or other yielding material and includes also an upward extension ll, exteriorly defined by a conical surface, which is wedge-seated in the margins of the openings 4 and 9 in the cap and guard respectively. Frictionally enclosing in turn a projecting upper end of the extension I4 is a rubber bulb l5 which also seats against the fiat, annular portion of the guard and which is intended to serve the function of a syringe or dropper. Optionally, a glass or lining tube It, of any other suitable material may be inserted through the nipple and flanged as at H interiorly of the bulb.

A convenient unitary assembly is thus provided, with the somewhat perishable bulb, if of rubber, readily replaceable by mere loosening of the close mechanical fit. When detached from a bottle a small amount of the medicant may be supplied to the cap while the bulb is collapsed whereupon release of the latter will syphon the dropwise discharge when the bottle-detached guard is applied around the eye. The frictional or wedge-fit seating 01 the nipple i4 within the conically-su'ri'aced margins of the holes in the cap 3, guard I and bulb ll serves to hold the named parts clamped together while permitting their convenient and expeditious separation for cleaning as well as their economical original sembly.

In the modification of Figure 4, a bottleneck it isexternally plain and adapted to receive interiorly a somewhat yielding stopper it having a small'central duct2t and integral with a guard 2| provided only with a pair of oppositely disposed vent holes 22. Above the central portion there is another tapered extension 22 intended to be frictionally insertible or slipped oil of a rubber bulb.2l having the hole 25. A shoulder .on-the reinforced lower end of the bulb abuts at 26 the upper surface of the integral eye cup and stopper.

Figure 5 illustrates a bottle or container neck 21 as again externally threaded at 28 for screwthreaded envelopment by a molded hard rubber or suitable plastic composition cap 29 integral with a flaring eye-surrounding guard 3| while the hollow cap 28 is interiorly threaded at 3|. Centraliy,'the unitary cap and guard is provided with a screw-threaded opening 22 in which may be detachably fitted any type of screw plug 32. Gaskets 24 and may be interposed between the rim of the bottle neck and head of the cap and between the upper margin of the hole 32 and plug shoulder respectively. This modification embodies one of the primary features of my origination, namely, the advantageous unitary assembly of ascrew cap and eye'cup or guard, both by themselves long since known and used separately, but never to my knowledge so combined for cooperative association with a bottle and coaction its either witha syringe or eye dropper with the discharge nozzle of either projected through theopening 32 when theplug 23 has been removed. I claim: a 1. The combination of a hollow internally threaded cap for a bottle top, a larger eye guard having its central portion secured to the headoi' said cap and in its entirety enclosing the latter in spaced relation thereto and a syringe structure provided with a nozzle projecting through both cap and guard, said structure further provided with flanges respectively abutting the relatively remote sides of the attached portions of said cap and. guard. I

2." In combination, an eye cup, a rubber nipple extending therethrough and provided with diflerently directed projections. a syringe detachably secured to one of said projections and a bottle cap comprising a head surrounding and abutting the other-one of said projections, said cap further comprising'one annular-flange projecting toward the open end of said eye cup and interiorly provided withscrew threads for attachment around the neck of a bottle. 1

3.1 In combination as. an appliance adapted to be carried by a container, an eye cup having; a perforated flat bottom and a cap for said container, said cap having a flat head interiorly secured to the bottom of said guard and the concave sides of both guard and closure being similarly directed.

4.1n'an appliance adapted to be attached to a'bottle having an exteriorly threaded neck, the

combination of ashell-like guard intended-for momma pressure application around an eye and a hollow screw cap adapted for cooperation with said bottle neck, the head of said cap conforming and being secured to. the bottom of said guard interiorly of the latter, the concave, sides of both guard and cap being correspondingly directed and the cap considerably spaced from the margin of the guard, 'said guard and cap being provided centrally with registering apertures and means for closing the latter, comprising a'flange exteriorly abutting the' outer side of the bottom of the guard and another flange interiorly abutting the inner side of the head of said cap.

-5. In combination, a bottle cap, an eye cup and a bulb having registering holes respectively deflned by walls which are merging portions of the same frusto-zconical surface and a nipple fric tionallyseated in all of said holes, said cap and eye cup having their openends facing in the'same direction with the former the latter. I I i 6. In combination, an eye cup having a bottom provided with an opening, a structure comprising a nipple occupying said opening and provided with a flange larger than said opening and in -teriorly of said-eye .cup', said structure further comprising a rubber bulb located exteriorly of said eye cup and having a margin abutting the bottom of the latter whereby relative movement between cup and structure in both axial directions is prevented.

7. In combination, an eye cup having a flat bottom provided with an opening, a structure comprising .a nipple occupying said opening and provided with a flange larger than said opening and interiorly of said eye cup, said structure further comprising a rubber bulb located exteriorly of said eye cup and having a flat margin abutting the latter whereby'relative 'movement in both axial directions is prevented, and a lining tube extending through said nipple and provided with a flange within said bulb which flange is larger than the opening in the nipple.

8. In combination, a bottle having an exteriorly threaded neck, an eye cup fashioned with a central opening, an interiorlythreaded and centrally perforated bottle cap fitted to said bottle neck and communicating through said opening, a flanged ip le projecting-through both cup and cap and asyringe attached to a projecting end of said nipple and cooperating with said nipple flange to clamp said cup and cap therebetween.

. .9. In combination, for coaction with a container. having an exteriorly threaded entry, a

complementarily screw-threadedand centrally apertured cap for said entry, a concave-convex guard adapted to enclose the human eye and enclosing said cap, said guard being provided with a central apertureresistering with said cap aperture and a syringe closing said registering apertures when the entire combination is carried by a container, said syringe being adapted to com-' municate through both cap and guard.

' 10. The combination of a structurecomprising a hollow internally threaded cap to serve asan' MICHAEL E. pmssnr.

within the confines of

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