US3472240A - Cigarette snuffers for ashtrays - Google Patents

Description

. 0a. 14, 1 969 A. BIRDSALL 3,472,240

CIGARETTE SNUFFERS FOR ASHTRAYS Filed March 14, 1968 INVENTOR C/ay A. B/Pasd ATTORNEY United States Patent O US. Cl. 131235 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Made as an attachment for ashtrays, the present device is particularly intended for use with motor vehicle ashtrays and is made of foraminate material such as wire mesh screen to grind the fire from cigarettes to drop harmlessly through the screen to the bottom of the ashtray, separate from cigarette butts therein to prevent setting the latter on fire, and includes a foraminate wall member extending upwardly from the bottom of the tray near one end wall to a position below the top edge, the wall member has an upwardly inclined foraminate extension forming an extinguishing surface and an inclined sieve, the upper end of the extension being supported by the upper end portions of opposite side walls adjacent to the end wall of the tray.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Motor vehicle ashtrays, however mounted in the vehicle dash, are provided with extinguishers or snuffers comprising rearwardly extending elements including a circular snuffer having an opening of substantial size therethrough so that fire from a snuffed cigarette can drop through to the bottom of an ashtray and set fire to cigarette butts in the ashtray. Present extinguishers of this type are not only impractical but they are diflicult to locate accurately when driving at night, as in the case of the driver who must keep his eyes on the road and grope for the extinguisher.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A wire mesh screen is mounted in the rear end of the ashtray and is bent intermediate its ends to provide a forward wall and an upper wall inclined upwardly and rearwardly and forming the cigarette extinguisher per se. The side edge portions of the upper wall are provided with integral screen tabs adapted for connection with the ashtray in a manner depending on the type of vehicle ashtray. The vertical wall extends downwardly into contact with the bottom of the ashtray and has cutaways through which the ashes in the compartment beneath the upper wall may flow into the main compartment of the ashtray when the latter is removed and tilted for dumping. The vertical wall forms a partition providing a receptacle for receiving ashes and any crumbs or sparks falling from the upper wall of the device and the vertical wall prevents live coals from coming into contact with any of the cigarettes in the main compartment of the ashtray. The device extends from side to side of the vehicle ashtray and thus presents an extinguisher of substantial width, thus making it relatively easy for the driver to extinguish the cigarette without accurately having to locate the present type of extinguisher.

The wire cloth from which the device is made is preferably made of the type which is tinned or galvanized after being woven so that all of the joints of the wire are encased in an integral metallic coating to stiffen the wire so that it can withstand the pressure exerted against the wall in extinguishing a cigarette. The vertical wall of the device is cut away, as stated, and the intervening Wire parts of the bottom of such wall engage solidly against ice the bottom part of the ashtray to brace it against pressure exerted against the upper wall when extinguishing a cigarette.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURE 1 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view through one type of motor vehicle ashtray showing the device in position therein;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view, a portion of the ashtray being broken away;

FIGURE 3 is a section on line 33 of FIG. 1; and

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to FIG. 3 showing the device mounted in a ditferent type of vehicle ashtray.

Referring to FIGURES 1, 2 and 3, the numeral 10 designates the vehicle ashtray as a whole having a bottom wall 12, rear and front walls 14 and 15, respectively, and side walls 16. In one type of commonly used vehicles ashtrays the upper extremities of the side walls 16 are turned outwardly as at 18 and then bent back upon themselves as at 20 with the portions 18 and 20 spaced from each other as at 22 (FIGURE 1), such outwardly extending side wall portions being adapted to slide in stationary guides (not shown). The device in this case is in the form of a drawer and the rear wall 14 is provided with a handle 24 for pulling the drawer outwardly.

The device forming the subject matter of the invention is indicated as a whole by the numeral 26. This device is formed of a foraminate sheet, preferably relatively stifi screen wire tinned or galvanized to lock the wire joints together and stiffen the sheet. The wire is bent transversely of the ashtray as at 2-8 to form a top wall 30 and a vertical wall 32. The edges of the screen element adjacent the wall 14 are provided with laterally extending tabs 34, the extremities of which are extended into the spaces 22 to support the edge of the wall 30 adjacent the wall 14. The bottom of the vertical wall 32 is cut away as at 36, leaving downwardly extending tabs 38 seating against the bottom wall 12 of the ashtray. These tabs support the upper wall 30 of the screen element when pressure is applied thereagainst. It will be noted that the wall 14 is provided with a conventional cigarette snufier 40, the disadvantages of which have been noted above. The present device is installed with the upper wall 30 above the conventional extinguisher 40. The screen device divides the ashtray into a pair of compartments 42 and 44, the latter of which will contain cigarette butts for reasons described below.

Some types of vehicle ashtrays (FIGURE 4) have side walls 46 which frictionally engage stationary walls 48 to be held in position thereby. This type of tray has its side walls 46 provided with upper flanges 50 turned over the top of each wall 48. When used with this type of ashtray, the tabs 34 will be crimped over the flanges 50.

OPERATION The person in the motor vehicle when smoking a cigarette may slide a tray 10 to an open position and knock ashes from the cigarette from time to time against the screen wall 30. When the cigarette is to be extinguished, the lighted end thereof will be rubbed back and forth over the screen portion 30. This will extinguish most if not all of the fire and the screen is sufiiciently coarse to permit ashes, shreds of tobacco and any remaining fire to fall into the compartment 42. The smoker will then drop the cigarette into the compartment 44. It will be noted that the screen 30 slopes forwardly of the compartment 44 so that if the smoker drops the cigarette onto the screen portion 30, the butt will gravitate and fall into the compartment 44. Any cigarettes accumulating in the ashtray therefore will always be in the compartment 44, while ashes will accumulate in the compartment 42 and will be kept out of contact of cigarettes or any small pieces of trash, paper, etc., which may be in the compartment 44.

As previously stated, a conventional extinguisher 40 usually has a relatively large opening therethrough and live coals of cigarettes may fall through such opening and start a fire in cigarettes in the bottom of the ashtray. It is diffcult at night to accurately locate the conventional extinguisher and very often substantially the entire lighted end of the cigarette will be knocked off and fall into the ashtray to ignite cigarette butts in the bottom of the tray. With the present device, the screen wall 30 extends from side to side of the ashtray and in extinguishing a cigarette the smoker does not have to locate any particular spot to extinguish the cigarette, the wall portion 30 being of substantial area. A cigarette rubbed over any portion of the wall 30 will extinguish the cigarette and drop the ashes into the compartment 42, kept separate from the compartment 44 by the wall 32. The wire employed preferably is approximately of /s mesh, thus permitting ashes, fire and cigarette shreds to fall easily into the compartment 42. The wire is relatively stiff and the end of the wall 30 adjacent the wall 14 is effectively supported by the tabs 34. These tabs may extend into the groove 22, as shown in FIGURE 2, or they may be crimped over the flanges 50 in the form of the ashtray shown in FIGURE 4.

When the tray is to be emptied, it will be withdrawn and tilted downwardly toward the wall 15, in which case ashes in the compartment 42 will flow through the cutaways 36 into the compartment 46, whereupon the tray may be dumped.

While the device is particularly intended for use with vehicle ashtrays and has been so described, it will be apparent that it is not limited to such use but may be designed for use with other types of ashtrays to form separate compartments for fire and ashes on the one hand and extinguished cigarette butts on the other.

The device accordingly is a safety device for use with ashtrays generally.

From the foregoing it will now be seen that there is herein provided an improved cigarette snuffer for ashtrays which accomplishes all of the objects of this invention and others, including many advantages of great practical utility and commercial importance.

As various embodiments may be made of this inventive concept, and as many modifications may be made in the embodiment hereinbefore shown and described, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted merely as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. A cigarette snulfer for an ashtray comprising a foraminate upper wall portion having one end anchored to the ashtray adjacent one wall thereof, and means for supporting the other end of said foraminate wall at a point spaced substantially from a wall of the ashtray opposite said first-named wall thereof to provide a cigarette butt receiving compartment separate from the space heneath said forminate wall, said means for supporting the foraminate wall comprising a vertical foraminate wall having spaced portions seating against the bottom of the ashtray.

2. A device according to claim 1 having means adjacent said one wall of said ashtray to connect opposite sides of the snuifer to opposite sides of said ashtray, said means for supporting said other end of said foraminate wall comprising a vertical foraminate wall fixed to said first-named foraminate wall and having spaced portions engaging the bottom of the ashtray.

3. A device according to claim 1 wherein said foraminate walls are formed of a unitary woven wire body bent transversely intermediate its ends to form said foraminate walls.

4. A device according to claim 3 wherein the lower edge of said vertical foraminate Wall provided with spaced extensions engaging the bottom of the ashtray to support said first-named foraminate wall provides spaces between said extensions for the flow of ashes from the space beneath said first-named foraminate wall to said compartment when the ashtray is tilted downwardly toward said compartment.

5. A device according to claim 4 wherein the ashtray is in the form of a drawer having longitudinal edge portions bent to form guide flanges each having a groove opening inwardly of the tray, the wire screen at the lateral edges of said first-named foraminate wall adjacent said Wall of said ashtray extending upwardly and laterally outwardly of the tray into the spaces of said flanges.

6. A device according to claim 4 wherein the ashtray is provided with laterally opposite parallel walls, the up per edges of which are extended outwardly of the tray to form longitudinal flanges, the wire screen adjacent said one wall of said ashtray having laterally extending tabs projecting upwardly and crimped over said flanges.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 146,267 1/1947 Quigley. 1,143,159 6/1915 Zwickle. 1,964,388 6/ 1934 Simpson 13l235 2,307,645 1/ 1943 Smith. 2,574,813 11/1951 Cadrain. 2,591,113 4/1952 Ajdukovich. 2,645,229 7/1953 Stillman. 3,404,693 10/ 1968 Chapman 131-235 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,104,299 6/1955 France.

JOSEPH S. REICH, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 13 1-240

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