A grip demoisturizing device for a sports racquet, or the like, has a normally closed tubular container containing a moisture absorbing powder and a self-closing, elastically yielding flap valve for admitting the grip into the container. A described embodiment has an apertured tubular partition located coaxially within the container and spaced therefrom by apertured discs, with powder being stored in an annular region and the diameter of the partition being chosen so as to provide a "pump" and "swab" action to provide an additional measure of neatness in dispensing the powder onto the grip.

This invention relates to a device for applying a moisture absorbent 
powdery substance to a grip, such as the grip of a sports racquet, handle 
of a golf club, or the like; and, in particular, to a self-closing 
container for neatly storing and dispensing such a moisture absorber onto 
the grip or handle. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
During active racquet sports play, such as during tennis, squash, 
badminton, lacrosse, etc., the grips of the racquets frequently become 
soaked with sweat transferred from the hands of participants which may 
make the grip slippery or otherwise interfere with the grasping thereof. A 
similar situation arises in bat sports like baseball, cue stick sports 
like billiards and club sports like golf. The same problem can occur also 
with horse whips and fishing rods. In each case, an elongated handle or 
stock (hereafter "grip") that is manually gripped by a user becomes 
covered with sweat and it is a desirable objective to remove the same. 
Accumulated sweat may be removed from time to time by blotting the same 
with a terry cloth or other towel material. Alternatively, a continuous 
moisture absorbing action can be obtained by applying talc, rosin, 
deliquescent salt, sawdust, or other desicant or moisture absorbing 
material in powder or particulate form (hereinafter "powder") over the 
grip to capture the sweat and improve frictional contact during usage. 
A problem with the application of a moisture absorbing powdery substance to 
a grip shaft is the difficulty of neatly containing such materials and the 
general messiness of such materials during application. A usual way of 
carrying such powdery substances is in a container having normally closed 
apertures that are opened to spill a quantity of such material onto the 
hands for rubbing onto the grip or handle. Dispensing is hard to control 
and materials such as talcium tend to puff up into clouds when expelled 
through the apertures. It is common to dispense grip demoisturizing agents 
like ground chalk by means of a cloth impregnated with the same and often 
stored between uses in a plastic bag or other closed container. Even such 
powder impregnated cloths will normally emit unwanted puffs of material 
when wiped around the grip surfaces, though an initial shaking action is 
avoided. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for applying a 
moisture absorbing powder to a grip of a sports racquet, or the like, in a 
neat and convenient manner which minimizes unwanted clouding and spreading 
of the powder to unintended surfaces. 
In accordance with the invention a device for applying a moisture absorbing 
substance to the grip of a sports racquet, or the like, comprises a 
container defining a normally closed chamber for storage of a quantity of 
moisture absorbent powder, and self-closing valve means located on the 
container for admitting the grip or handle into the interior of the 
container for application of a portion of the contained powder thereto. 
The valve means functions to open for admission of the grip and close upon 
its withdrawal, thereby preventing dispensing of the powder other than by 
attachment to the inserted surfaces of the grip. 
A preferred embodiment of the invention, described in greater detail below 
has a normally closed tubular container with an internal, smaller diameter 
tubular partition located coaxially therein and defining annular and 
central partitioned regions within a closed chamber. The top of the 
container has valve means in the form of adjacently disposed contacting 
flaps which yield elastically when depressed by the base of a grip to 
uncover an opening into the container through which to admit the grip into 
the central chamber region. The tubular partition is apertured to 
communicate a portion of a quantity of moisture absorbent powdery 
substance stored in the annular region through the partition into the 
central region and onto the inserted surfaces of the grip. Removal of the 
grip from the container restores the flaps to their container closing 
position. 
The partition is preferably dimensioned, as described below, in close 
tolerance with the dimensions of the grip so that a "pump" and "swab" 
action occurs upon insertion and withdrawal, respectively, of the grip to 
assist in dispensing from and recapture to the annulus of the powder.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The principles of the invention are described by way of example in their 
application to an illustrative device for applying moisture absorbing 
substance to the grip of a tennis racquet. The understanding of the 
principles thus applied should make possible their application elsewhere. 
As shown in FIG. 1, an exemplary grip demoisturizer device 10 has a 
container 11 in the form of a transparent plastic tubular housing with a 
closed circular base 12 and an open circular top sealed by means of a cap 
14 having a peripheral circumferentially projecting flange 15 which is 
brought over the external surface of the container 11 perimetally adjacent 
the top. The capped container 11 thus defines a normally closed internal 
chamber 16 for storage of a quantity of a moisture absorbent powdery 
substance, such as talcum 17, whose application to the grip end of a 
tennis racquet will absorb sweat therefrom and improve the manual grasping 
thereof. 
A central area 18 (shown by dot and dashed lines in FIG. 1) of the cap 14 
is provided with valve means in the form of adjacently disposed flaps 19 
to provide a self-closing mechanism for admission of the tennis racquet 
grip into the interior of the container 11. In the illustrated embodiment, 
the flaps 19 are formed by making a plurality of radial cuts from the 
center of the cap 14 an equal distance partway out to the flanged edge of 
the cap 14. The material of cap 14 is chosen to impart an elastic quality 
under deformation to the flaps 19, so that the flaps will yield 
elastically to uncover an opening bounded by the area 18 when depressed 
inwardly towards the chamber 16 by the base of a grip, as further detailed 
below. 
To increase the neatness and control of the powder storage and dispensing 
operation of the demoisturizer 10, as shown in FIG. 1, a smaller diameter 
tubular partition 20 is located centrally within the chamber 16, coaxially 
with and for the full length of the container 11. The partition 20 serves 
to divide the closed chamber 16 into an annular region 21 and a central 
core region 22 (see FIG. 2A). For reasons that will become apparent from 
the discussion below, the diameter of the partition 20 (and, thus, the 
diameter of the core region 22) is advantageously chosen to be the same as 
the diameter of the area 18 and just slightly larger than the diameter of 
the grip onto which application of the powder 17 is desired. 
The powder 17 is preferably initially stored in the annulus 21, with 
apertures 23 provided over the length of the partition 20 serving to 
communicate that powder into the core region 22 on demand. A plurality of 
toroidal spacers or discs 24 provided with powder communicating apertures 
25 serve to impart additional rigidity to the container 11 and maintain 
the centralized position of the partition 20 relative to the 
circumferential walls of the container 11. 
The container 11 for use as a tennis racquet grip demoisturizer device 10 
may suitably correspond in general configuration to the structure of a 
plastic three tennis ball container, now presently known, the container 11 
being similar in dimension and material to the main open-topped ball 
receiving portion and the cap 14 being similar to the reattachable plastic 
tennis ball container cap. Such known ball can structures commonly have 
central, inwardly protruding dimples 26 (see FIG. 2A) that can be adapted 
to maintain the centrality of the inner extent of an insertable/removable 
form of partition member 20. The rings 24 can be dimensioned relative to 
the internal diameter of the container 11 and fixed at longitudinally 
spaced intervals along the partition 20, so that the partition 20 and 
attached rings 24 can be inserted as an assembly into the interior of the 
container 11 and maintained therein by virtue of a close fit between the 
outer circumferential edge of the discs 24 and the inner diameter of the 
container 11. One possible arrangement is to have the partition and discs 
housed in a plastic wrap outer sheath, or the like, with a full reload of 
powder contained in the region between the outer diameter of the partition 
20 and the inside of the wrap, thus providing an expendable powder 
cartridge insert element. 
FIGS. 2A-2C show, by means of a series of cross-sectional schematic views, 
the operation of an advantageous feature of a preferred implementation of 
the device 10 in which the inside diameter of the partition 20 closely 
matches the outside diameter of a grip 28 of a tennis racquet 30. FIGS. 
2A-2C show a device 10 as in FIG. 1 having a tubular partition 20 
coaxially located within the container 11 to define a normally closed 
internal chamber having annular and core regions 21, 22. FIG. 2A shows the 
device 10 in its closed valve position with a quantity of powdery 
substance, such as talcum 17, received within the annular region 21. When 
the base of a grip 28 of a racquet 30 is directed at the central area 18 
(see FIG. 1) of the cap 14 (as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2B), the flaps 
19 yield axially and radially to admit the grip 28 coaxially into the core 
region 22. Where close tolerance exists between the outside diameter of 
the grip 28 and the inside diameter of the partition 20, movement of the 
racquet 30 into the device 10 will force air from portions of the core 
region 22 below the base of the grip 28 outwardly into the annular region 
21 and up toward the top 14 of the container 11 (i.e. toward the shank 
restriction of the racquet 30). This lower core region pressurizing action 
"pumps" an amount of the powder 17 from its storage position in the 
annulus 21 through the apertures 23 and dispels it as a cloud onto the 
grip portion 28 of the racquet 30. Subsequent withdrawal of the racquet 30 
from the container 11, as shown by the arrow in FIG. 2C, decreases 
pressure in the core region 22 below the base of the grip 28 and causes a 
reverse flow of air in the container that "swabs" the residue of powder 17 
brought into the core 22 back out and into the annular storage region 21. 
This alternate pumping and swabbing action adds an additional measure of 
neatness to the powder dispensing process. When the racquet 30 has been 
completely withdrawn from the container 11, the flaps 19 will resume their 
normally closed position to block further dissemination of the powder 17 
out of the chamber 16. 
FIG. 3 shows an example implementation of a grip demoisturizer device 110 
in a tennis court environment. A normally closed container 11 having 
self-closing valve means 19 for admitting the grip of a tennis racquet 30 
contains a quantity of moisture absorbent powder for application thereon. 
The implementation 110 may be constructed, as desired, with or without a 
partition 20 and discs 24; however, a swivel bracket 32 is provided 
attaching an intermediate point of the container 11 to a post 33 (e.g., a 
tennis net supporting post) for pivotal rotation of the container 11 
together with the racquet 30 about a horizontal axis. An amount of powder 
can thus be applied to the grip of the racquet 30 by inserting the grip 
against the valve means 19 and into the container 11 and then pivoting the 
container about the swivel 32 by turning the racquet to a position 30' 
(shown by dot-dashed lines) in order to agitate the powder in the 
container 11 onto the grip. The container 11 can be weighted or the swivel 
32 provided with a biasing mechanism to return the container 11 to an 
upright position after removal of the tennis racquet 30. 
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art to which the invention 
relates that the forgoing detailed description of preferred embodiments of 
the invention has been made for illustrative purposes only and not by way 
of limitation. In particular, it will be appreciated that dimensional and 
configurational changes may be made to conform to the structures of 
particular grips. For example, for use with a bow grip which is located 
centrally on an elongated bow, a valve means 19 can be accommodated at 
both ends of the container 11 to enable the grip to be received within the 
chamber 16. It will also be appreciated that various other substitutions 
and modifications may also be made thereto, without departing from the 
spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims below.