US1836604A - Sugar unit - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 15, 1931. v s, MEYER 1,836,604

, SUGAR UNIT Filed June 1, 1929 INVENTOR Imam/EJ116907 6 M ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 15, 1931 PATENT OFFICE SIMON M. MEYER, NEW YORK, N. Y.

SUGAR UNIT Application filed June 1, 1929. Serial No. 367,801.

This invention relates to sugar units or pieces for use particularly at the dining table 1n sweetening coffee, tea, or other beverages, and the invention has for its principal object 5 and purpose the provision of an improved unit of this character, adapted by the user to be easily and quickly broken into smaller parts or fragments usable in place of the original unit to sweeten a cup of beverage,

whereby to avoid over-sweetening and to afford the user the opportunity of electing, in accordance with his taste, whether he desires to sweeten his cup of beverage with an entire su ar unit or with a part or fragment thereof.

another object of the invention is the provision of a compressed quickly-fracturable sugar unit, designed to put at the disposal of the user the means by which to sweeten his beverage more precisely to his individual taste, designed to be more economical by avoiding waste through excessive sweetening, and capable of being economically manufactured.

More specifically, the invention resides in a compressed sugar unit having therein a weakened zone or region by reason of the existence of which the unit can be readily broken into parts or fragments when it is subjected by the fingers to a bending or breaking stress.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a simple method or means for producing compressed sugar units having weakened zones or regions along which to be fractured through the application by the fingers or otherwise of a bending or breaking stress exerted upon the bodies of the units.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

The invention resides in the forms, details of construction and in the means and arrangement hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention will be best understogd by referring to the accompanying drawings, in

which:

Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a compressed sugar unit made in accordance with my invention.

Figs. 2 to 6, inclusive, are similar views, showing various forms of notches which may be produced in the sugar units to provide weakening zones therein.

Fig. 7 represents a longitudinal sectional view through the compressed sugar unit illustrated in Fig. 1 and showing the weakened zone extending across the unit from the notch therein.

Fig. 8 represents a sectional view, more or less diagrammatic'in character, illustrating a preferred construction of means whereby 00 the weakened zone is produced in the sugar unit; and

Fig. 9 represents a fragmentary perspective view of the plunger device for compressing the sugar units.

Referring with more particularity to the accompanying drawings, the numeral 10 designates generically an elongated compressed sugar unit of box-form type, the same, having six faces comprising opposite end faces 11 and 12, opposite side faces 13 and 14, and the opposite faces 15 and 16 which, for the purpose of this description, may be referred to as the top and bottom faces, respectively.

The compressed sugar unit 10 is illustrated as having a V-shaped notch 17 therein, located in the top face 15 midway the length of the body of the unit, the sald notch extending inwardly into the material of the body of the unit from the face 15. The V- 30 shaped notch, thus extending inwardly into the body of the unit, not only weakens the unit along a transversely extending line where the unit is to be broken into two parts or fragments, but it also serves as indicating means by which to indicate to the user the weakened zone along which the unit is capable of being readily and quickly divided.

In accompaniment with the notch, transversely across the unit from the opposite faces 13 and 14 and as well from the notch to the bottom face 16, there may be provided a weakened zone or region 18 where the materials comprising the molecules of sugar are pressed together less firmly and densely than at the zones or regions 19 and 20 at opposite sides thereof, as illustrated in Fig. 7. By making the sugar unit with a central weakened zone 18 connecting the more compacted and consequently stronger zones 19 and 20, m

transverse fracture of the unit from the transversely extending notch 17 to the bottom face 16 can be easily accomplished by exerting relatively light bending or breaking force upon the body of the unit outside of the weakened zone 18.

A preferred form of construction. by which economically and efliciently to produce compressed sugar units with a transverse notch as 17 and accompanying weakened zone 18 is illustrated in Fig. 8. In a rovoluble cylinder, fractionally illustrated at 21, there is provided a pocket 22 which extends inwardly into the body of the cylinder from the peripheral surface 22 thereof. This pocket serves as a mold or matrix for receiving the granulated sugar the mass of which is pressed into the sugar unit form. This pocket, which of course is of the specific form and size necessary to produce the type of sugar unit desired. extends longitudinally in alignment with the axis of the revoluble cylinder; and slidably fitting within the pocket so as to constitute the bottom thereof is a plunger head 24 carried by a stem 25 which is mounted in the cylinder for reciprocating movement. This arrangement is such that the plunger head is advanced toward and retracted away from the concave face 26 of a pressure plate 27 against which the mass of sugar within the pocket is compacted to produce the compressed unit. This arrangement is such that the periphery 23 of the cylinder comes in close proximity to the concave face 26 of the pressure plate which. as illustrated. is concentric with the cylinder. The tranvserse extending notch 17 in the top face of the com pressed unit is produced by a suitable V- shaped projection 28 provided on the pressure face of the plunger head. Now. according to a feature of this arrangement. the longitudinal axis of the stem 28 corresponds with a radius of the cylinder and consequently of the pressure plate and the plunger head is arranged for movement at right angles to such radius. In Fig. 8 the numeral 29 indicates by wav of illustration a radius line coincident with the longitudinal center of the stem and in respectof which the plunger head 24 moves at right angles. With this arrangement, the

' pressure exerted on the mass of sugar within the pocket is not the same, being less along the radius line 29 where the concave face 26 is furthest from the pressure face of the plunger than at the regions where said concave face comes closer to the face of the plunger, it being manifest that the degree of pressure and consequent compactness gradually increases from the center or radius line 29, where the minimum of pressure takes place. towards the opposite end faces 11 and 12 of the unit. In this way, the sugar unit is compressed so as to have therein a weakened zone 18 extending from the notch 17 to the bottom face 16.

In Figs. 2 to 6, inclusive, I illustrated by way of example, compressed sugar units 10 having various forms of notches. Thus, in Fig. 2, the unit is illustrated as having a halfround notch 30; in Fig. 3 there is a notch 31 of rectangular form; in Fig. 4 the notch is represented as having opposite sides 32 which connect with the converging inclinations 33 forming a V-shaped bottom; in Fig. 5 the notch 34 has a step-like form; and in the remaining Fig. 6 the notch 35 has the characteristic of a mere' slit extending into the body of the sugar unit. Each of these various forms of notches serves the same function as the notch 17, and in order to produce these modified forms of notches it is of course necessary to provide in place of the V-shaped projection 28 on the plunger head, a projection corresponding with the particular form of notch to be produced in the completed sugar unit.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, it will be evident that the sugar unit of my invention can be readily and easily broken along the weakened zone 18 from the notch to the bottom face, when by the fingers bending or breaking force is exerted on the portions of the body at opposite sides of said weakened zone. Only slight force need be exerted on the body at opposite sides of the weakened zone in order to effect the separation of the unit into its parts or fragments. The unit may also be broken in other ways, for instance, by resting one end portion on the table and exerting bending or breaking pressure toward the table through the other end portion.

It will be manifest that I have disclosed an extremely simple sugar unit which can be manufactured economically and which embodies the features of advantage enumerated in the statement of invention; and while I have, in the present instance, shown and described the preferred embodiments thereof as reduced to practice, it s to be understood that the specific form qf construction is susceptible of modification in various particulars without departing from the spirit or scope of my invention or sacrificing any of its advantages.

I claim:

1. A sugar unit comprising a compressed granular body having relatively strong portions and a relatively weak portion connect ing the relatively strong portions, said rela tively weak portion affording a fracturable zone along which to divide the body into separated parts each consisting of a relatively strong portion, by virtue of pressure exerted on the body tending to force the relatively strong portions in a lateral direction either toward or away from each other, said unit being more highly compressed at the sides remote from the fracturable zone than at the portions in juxtaposition thereto.

2. An individual body of granular sugar particles coherently massed together as a result of external pressure applied to all sides of the body, the structure of the body at two opposed sides thereof being compressed more compactly progressively towards said sides than at the intermediate portion of the body to afford an easy breaking zone, nd a walled countersunk portion forming groove extending across one of its sides whereby to afford a fracturable zone alolig which to divide the body into separate parts by virtue of pressure exerted upon the ends of said body.

111 testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signed my name hereto.

SIMON M. MEYER.

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