US3735768A

US3735768A - Method and means for treating filaments of hair, or the like

Info

Publication number: US3735768A
Application number: US00185329A
Authority: US
Inventors: C Burney
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1971-09-30
Filing date: 1971-09-30
Publication date: 1973-05-29
Anticipated expiration: 1990-05-29

Abstract

An improved method and means for curling hair uses relatively slidable combs to apply lateral forces to the hair as the teeth are drawn through the hair.

Description

451 May 29, 1973 United- States 1 Burney References Cited METHOD AND MEANS FOR TR S T m M P S E m T S w H N U M w m E UK AI L m T R 0 1,955,405 4/1934 Bove....................................132/138 2,562,465 7/1951 Kassel 19 Charles F. Burney, Tulsa, Okla.

; a part interest Sept. 30, 1971 Primary Examiner-L0uis G. Mancene Assistant Examiner-Gm Attorney-A. C. Smith gory E. McNeill [22] Filed:

[211 App]. No.: 185,329

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9 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENIELHRYZQIQTS 5,768

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METHOD AND MEANS FOR TREATING FILAMENTS OF HAIR, OR THE LIKE BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION which apply lateral forces to the filaments as they are drawn through the teeth. A lever provides the means for manually controlling the location and degree of curling along the lengths of the hair filaments.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of the comb apparatus of the present invention;

FIG..2 is a bottom view ofthe apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional'view of the relatively movable teeth of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partial side sectional view of the apparatus of FIG. 1; and j FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the parts of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to' the side view of FIG. 1 and to the bottom view of FIG. 2, there is shown the apparatus of the present invention which includes a body 9 having a handle portion 11 and comb portion 13. A manuallyactuatable lever l4 is pivotally mounted within the han- -dle portion 11 and an adjustment knob is disposed at the rear end of the handle portion 11. A slidable comb 17 is disposed within the comb portion 13 of the body 9 and includes teeth which are spaced therealong at corresponding intervals to mate with teeth 19 of the comb portion 13. This slidable comb 17 is mechanically coupled to the lever 14 for longitudinal movement thereof within the comb portion 13 of the body 9 in response to manual actuation of the lever 14. Thus, in the normalposition the teeth of the slidable comb 17 are disposed adjacent the fixed set of teeth 19 of the body 9 and are moved toward the back sides of the forwardly adjacent teeth 19 in response to actuation of lever 14.

As the present apparatus is drawn through the hair, the user actuates the lever 14 to move the teeth 17 of the slidable comb forward, thereby squeezing filaments of hair 23 between the

facing edges

21, 22 of the teeth of the'slidable comb l7 and the forwardly adjacent stationary teeth 19 of the body 9, as shown in FIG. 3. This has a tendency to alter the cross-sectional shape of the hair filaments 23, thereby causing thefilaments to curl after the tensile and lateral forces on the filament are relieved. The bottom view of FIG. 3 shows a preferred embodiment of the invention in which the. stationary teeth 19 include a recessed-forward region into which the teeth 17 of the slidable comb are positioned in their normal or rest position. The forward edges 21 of the teeth 17 of the slidable comb include cross-sectional contact areas which are substantially smaller than the mating contact surfaces on the backs of the stationary teeth 19. This aids in producing a substantial amount of force per unit area on the filaments of hair 23 as the present apparatus is drawn down the length of the hair filaments 23. As in curling decorative ribbon by drawing the ribbon under tension across an edge, this operating motion of the present apparatus along the length of the hair filaments also causes the hair to curl in regions along the length of the hair at which pressure is applied to the filaments by sliding the teeth 17 of the slidable comb forward toward the mating face of the stationary teeth 19. The hair filaments 23 may thus be curled at desired locations along the length of the hair filaments 23 simply by manually squeezing the lever 14 into the handle portion 1 1. It should be understood that the slidable comb may also be actuated to slide rearwardly from a rest position in which the teeth 17 are recessed into the back surfaces of the stationary teeth 19 to an actuated position in which the contact edges of the teeth 17 are positioned near the forward surfaces of corresponding rearwardly adjacent stationary teeth 19. Also, other arrangements of small-area contact edges abutting broader-area contact faces may be used. For example, small-area contact edges may be disposed on the stationary teeth to mate with broader-area surfaces of the teeth on the slidable comb. Additionally, both the stationary teeth 19 and the teeth 17 of the slidable comb may carry mating contact edges of small cross-sectional area for enhancing the amount of lateral force applied to the hair filaments 23.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown a partial sectional view of the apparatus of the present invention. The handle portion 11 is recessed sufficiently to receive the manually-actuatable lever 14 which is pivotally mounted in the socket 39 of the body 9. The lever 14 also carries an actuating arm 25 which engages the shaft 27 of the slidable comb in a transverse slot 28 through the shaft 27. A spring 29 is disposed between the actuating arm 25 and a collar 31 disposed on the shaft 27 of the slidable comb. This spring 29 limits the amount of lateral force that may be applied to hair filaments substantially independently of the position of the lever 14. The handle portion 11 also carries an adjustment knob 15 whichincludes an eccentric cam surface 33 which thus limits the upward travel of the lever 14 as a function of the angular rotation of the knob 15 about its rotational axis 35. The lever 14, and hence, the slidable comb engaged therewith through shaft 27, slot 28 and actuating arm 25 may be held in the rest position by suitable resilient means such as a resilient foam rubber or plastic block 37 or rubber band 38.

In operation, the user simply draws the apparatus of the present invention down the lengths of the hair filaments and, at selected locations along the lengths of the filaments, squeezes the manually-actuatable lever 14 substantially to the stop position determined by the adjustment knob 15. This causes the lever 14 and the actuating arm 25 carried thereby to pivot within the socket 39 and produce translational motion along the length of the body 9 at the actuating arm 25. This translational motion is transferred through the resilient means 29 to the collar 31 and shaft 27 of the slidable comb. The teeth 17 of the slidable comb are thereby urged from the first position (ie recessed within the forward faces of the stationary teeth 19) toward the second position abutting the back side surfaces of the stationary teeth 22. The filaments of hair 23 disposed between the forward edges 21 of the slidable teeth 17 and the back side surface 22 of the stationary teeth 19 are thereby squeezed and simultaneously drawn under tension through the apparatus of the present invention.

This action on the hair filaments 23 thus alters their cross-sectional shape, thereby causing them to curl as the tensile and lateral forces on the filaments are released upon drawing the present apparatus beyond the ends of the filaments. The resilient means 29 assures that only sufficient lateral force is applied to the filaments 23 that are squeezed between the forward edges 21 and the back surfaces 22 of the relatively slidable teeth to assure proper curling without unnecessarily pulling the filaments, substantially independently of how forcefully the user may squeeze the lever 14. Also, the adjustment of knob limits the upward travel of the lever 14 to limit the extent to which the resilient means 29 may be compressed, thereby limiting further the amount of force that may be applied laterally to the filaments of hair 23.

Therefore, the hair combing method and apparatus of the present invention applies tensile and lateral forces to the filaments of hair to alter their crosssectional shape and thereby enhance the curling quality of the hair filaments.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for treating filaments of hair, or the like, the apparatus comprising:

a-body member having a plurality of teeth positioned in substantially parallel, spaced relationship along a portion of the length thereof for receiving filaments to be treated therebetween;

a slide member carried by said body member and mounted for slidable movement along a portion of the length thereof, said slide member having a plurality of teeth positioned in substantially parallel, spaced relationship along a portion of the length thereof with each of the plurality of teeth of said slide member being slidably movable from a first position adjacent a corresponding tooth of the body member to a second position adjacent the next tooth of the body member which is spaced away from said corresponding tooth along the length of the body portion; and

means coupled to said body member and to said slide member for imparting relative movement thereto to carry the teeth of said slide member from the first position toward said second position for exerting lateral force on filaments to be treated disposed between the teeth of said slide member and the teeth of the body member which correspond thereto with the slide member in said second position.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein a portion of the length of at least one of the mating faces of the teeth on the slide member and on the body member includes a contact surface which imparts lateral force to filaments in contact therewith and which has a contact area that is smaller than the area of the mating face of the teeth on the other of the slide member and body member.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the plurality of teeth of the slide member are substantially recessed within the corresponding teeth of the body member for the slide member in said first position.

4. Apparatus as in claim 3 wherein the teeth of said slide member include filament-engaging contact edges on the surfaces thereof remote from the surfaces recessed into the corresponding teeth of the body member, said contact edges being disposed along portions of the lengths of the teeth of the slide member to engage mating surfaces of the teeth of the body member with said slide member in said second position.

5. Apparatus as in claim 4 wherein each of said contact edges is formed as an abrupt transition in the surface contour of the surface of the tooth of the slide member which mates with the surface of a corresponding tooth of the body member when said slide member is in said second position.

6. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein:

said body member includes a handle portion; and

said means includes a lever pivotally mounted on said body member in the handle portion thereof which is coupled to said slide member for imparting thereto longitudinally sliding motion within the body member from said first position to said second position in response to manual actuation of said lever.

7. Apparatus as in claim 6 comprising resilient means having ends coupled between said lever and said slide member for applying to said slide member a longitudinally sliding force in a direction from said first position to said second position in response to manual actuation of said lever, said resilient means determining the longitudinally sliding force applied to the slide member as a function of the displacement between the ends thereof as manual force is applied to said lever.

8. Apparatus as in claim 6 wherein said means includes a stop member operably disposed between said body member and said lever for selectably limiting the pivotal movement of said lever with respect to said body member to limit the longitudinally slidable movement of said slide member in the direction from the first position toward the second position in response to manual actuation of said lever.

9. The method of treating a plurality of filaments of hair, or the like, to enhance the propensity of the filaments to curl, the method comprising the steps of:

introducing into the plurality of filaments first and second sets of relatively slidable teeth which are disposed in substantially corresponding spaced, parallel relationship; and

simultaneously drawing the sets of teeth along the lengths of the filaments and slidably urging the first and second sets of teeth together for applying to the filaments disposed therebetween lateral compressive forces. from substantially aligned locations on opposite sides ofthe filaments.

Claims

1. Apparatus for treating filaments of hair, or the like, the apparatus comprising: a body member having a plurality of teeth positioned in substantially parallel, spaced relationship along a portion of the length thereof for receiving filaments to be treated therebetween; a slide member carried by said body member and mounted for slidable movement along a portion of the length thereof, said slide member having a plurality of teeth positioned in substantially parallel, spaced relationship along a portion of the length thereof with each of the plurality of teeth of said slide member being slidably movable from a first position adjacent a corresponding tooth of the body member to a second position adjacent the next tooth of the body member which is spaced away from said corresponding tooth along the length of the body portion; and means coupled to said body member and to said slide member for imparting relative movement thereto to carry the teeth of said slide member from the first position toward said second position for exerting lateral force on filaments to be treated disposed between the teeth of said slide member and the teeth of the body member which correspond thereto with the slide member in said second position.

6. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein: said body member includes a handle portion; and said means includes a lever pivotally mounted on said body member in the handle portion thereof which is coupled to said slide member for imparting thereto longitudinally sliding motion within the body member from said first position to said second position in response to manual actuation of said lever.

9. The method of treating a plurality of filaments of hair, or the like, to enhance the propensity of the filaments to curl, the method comprising the steps of: introducing into the plurality of filaments first and second sets of relatively slidable teeth which are disposed in substantially corresponding spaced, parallel relationship; and simultaneously drawing the sets of teeth along the lengths of the filaments and slidably urging the first and second sets of teeth together for applying to the filaments disposed therebetween lateral compressive forces from substantially aligned locations on opposite sides of the filaments.