Description
A. SPRAYING AND SPRINKLING
This is the general class for claims pertaining to the spraying,sprinkling, or scattering of fluids or fluent solids either in theform of slurries or as dry material, over an extended area on asurface. The class includes processes and apparatus, not providedfor in some more specialized class, for ejecting fluents and slurriesby slinging, sloshing, centrifugally throwing, overflowing, andprojecting such materials in the form of fog, mist, droplets, spray,sprinkle or a modified stream in a general haphazard or broadcastingmanner upon the immediate vicinity of operation or environment,upon a surface to be treated. The surface may be of any shape orform and the sprinkling, spraying, or scattering may be for anypurpose, for example, a street to be flushed or oiled, a field orlawn to be irrigated by a lawn sprinkler, hose, nozzle, or overheadirrigating system or to be fertilized or to be seeded, a tree orother plant to be sprayed or dusted for some plant husbandry reasonor for destroying insects, etc.; however, any claim reciting a specializedrelation between the sprinkling, spraying, or scattering means andthe surface, work or environment being treated is excluded fromthis class. Some form of modified flow, either by way of dischargecharacteristic, (e.g., droplet size, or degree of atomization, etc.)is required.
B. WEATHER CONTROL OR MODIFICATION
This class also takes methods for causing or inhibiting changesin atmospheric moisture conditions not elsewhere classified as byprecipitating, dissipating, or inhibiting atmospheric moisture (rain,fog, frost, or snow) or inducing fog or like, and apparatus forprecipitating atmospheric moisture if not classifiable in some otherclass on the basis of the claimed proximate functions.
C. DIFFUSERS
This class also takes methods and apparatus for disposingor disseminating a liquid or solid into the ambient air by unhurriedevaporation or sublimation, the material being supplied to or supportedby a holder, with or without controlled dripping of the substancethrough the ambient air or being fed usually to an absorbent material fromwhose surface evaporation takes place.
D. FOUNTAINS
This class also provides the locus for patents including stepsor means for ejecting liquids into the air as a stream or sprayto serve an ornamental or decorative function or for directing abubble or stream generally upwardly for drinking purposes especiallywhere the fluid conducting or ejecting member is associated witha stand, pedestal, or catch basin for overflow or waste.
E. DRINKING TUBES AND STRAWS
This class also provides the generic repository for portabledrinking tubes and straws, per se, including those which are sippedthrough by placing one end of the tube in the mouth while the otherend thereof is in the fluid within a holder, and also for thosewhich are held in a flowing stream, e.g., juxtaposed a faucet, andredirect the fluid to the mouth.
F. DRY PULVERULENT MATERIAL
This class provides for the combination of a container or similarreceptacle for holding a supply of dry material and a means to strewor scatter such material in the dry form over an extended area ona surface; a nozzle, per se, disclosed for scattering or strewinga dry powder is properly classified in this class only if the claimedstructure is capable of use with a fluid.
Except as provided in the above paragraph, this is also theclass for discharging or scattering a fluent material only if thereis fluid sprinkling, spraying, or diffusing of the type specifiedin A. Spraying and Sprinkling, above, no matter in which order thefluent is discharged in relation to the fluid and with no regardas to whether or not one material reaches the surface to be contactedafter the other has already been deposited thereon.
G. TERMINAL FLUID HANDLING ELEMENTS AND ORIFICE SHAPES
This class also provides the residual home for fluid dischargingor ejecting members, per se, claimed as terminal members, i.e.,members which render the final influence or point of control upona fluid during its projection from the fluid system to dischargeinto the atmosphere, or through the air to the environment and not havingsuch additional features which restrict the use thereof to somespecial art or other classification. Such nozzle, distributor, aperturedpipe, orifice shape, rose, etc., must serve to modify flow of thefluid as it leaves the element. Terminal fluid handling elements,orifice shapes, ejecting or egress means for this class include:
(1) Outlet means which effect modification of the emittedstream to cause lateral compression or expansion thereof, such aswould not occur in a mere abruptly terminated flow means (e.g.,a pipe cut off at its end);
(2) means within, proximate to, or at the end of the flow lineto cause the emitted stream to become more turbulent, or to be reducedin turbulence tending to assume a smooth or laminar flow, or tobe redirected and dispersed;
(3) means to control droplet size, to restrict flow to increasepressure, or to alter discharge coverage, of the emitted stream.
Examples of means to accomplish the above are orifice shapes,spray heads, and the like; weir or drip type discharge, and otheroutlet means with such added features as whirlers, deflectors, rotationcontrollers, interiorly placed guides and distributors and systemsincluding aspirating nozzles.
In order to be properly classified in this class, a claim mustinclude a distributor or nozzle means more specifically than byname only (except as hereinafter provided with respect to Class137). A claim which recites an ejecting, egress, or distributormeans by name only is properly classified in this class only ifthe claim also includes:
(a) a coupling means for adjustably securing such terminalmeans to a support, or an articulated coupling means mounted ona support, if the disclosed purpose of the coupling is to reorientthe terminal means relative to the support;
(b) special mounting or support means for purposes of continuousmotion during discharge or emission of the stream, or means fordirecting such terminal means along a path of traverse, where themeans for moving and the means for directing are disclosed for sprinkling orspraying;
(c) two or more such nominally recited terminal means andsome suggestion of arrangement relative to each other or to a support,e.g., along a pipe, at the ends of a support, etc.
(d) a fluid handling system disclosed for sprinkling or spraying,if no better basis exists for classification in either Class 137or Class 222. See References to Other Classes, below;
(e) a fluid handling system disclosed for spraying and includingan aspirating nozzle where discharge is by aspiration, or feedbackcontrol, e.g., flow regulation as a result of discharge or for controlof discharge, or some other provision as otherwise defined hereinabove;or
(f) a container for nonfluid material and it is clear that thebroadly recited ejecting, egress or distributor means is an elementwhich moves relatively to a fixed support, such as a rotating scatterer.See (3) Note in subclass 650.
Certain structures, for example, unitary plural outlet means,are considered to be terminal members, per se; therefore the followingor the like are considered to involve more than mere named or nominalterminal means, and if such or similar language is recited in a claim,affords basis for classification in this class, unless reason existsfor exclusion in view of the class lines set out below:
A pipe with a restricted outlet; a flexible, rigid or elongatednozzle; a spray gun; a rose; a shower head.
Similarly, a cutting or welding torch, a burner, a fuel injectorrecited as such is classified in this class if it is clear thatthe terminal member or tip is included in such recitation, and notjust the support for such terminal member or tip.