Heating attachment for towelettes

An attachment for a towelette container provides a path through which the towelettes pass as they are removed from the container and a heater warms the towelettes as they are in and move through the path. The attachment is detachably secured to the container so that it can be used on new containers as the original containers become depleted of their contents. The heater can be an incandescent bulb and the outer wall of the attachment can be at least partially light-transmissive, so that the attachment can also function as a lamp or night light.

This invention relates to an attachment for a towelette container which 
warms the towelettes as they are removed from the container. 
Containers for a plurality of flexible elements from which the elements may 
be removed one after the other are in common use. In one particular 
embodiment the flexible elements are in the form of moist towelettes used 
for baby hygiene. Because the towelettes are moist, usually as a result of 
the presence in them of liquids which tend to evaporate rapidly, the 
towelettes when applied to the skin have a very marked cooling effect. 
While for adults this may often be considered pleasant, for infants the 
sudden application of a cooling towelette is unsettling and frequently 
leads to distress. It therefore is desirable to provide a means for 
warming the towelettes before they are applied to the baby's skin, thereby 
to avoid any undesirable shock. 
Customarily the towelettes are sold in plastic containers having a 
removable top with an opening through which the towelettes can pass, the 
removal of one towelette by pulling it through that opening bringing the 
next succeeding towelette to a position where its leading end passes 
through the opening and is left in a position to be grasped and pulled 
when the next towelette is desired. The individual containers are 
disposable once they have been emptied of their contents, but they are 
self-sustaining structures. 
In accordance with the present invention I provide an attachment adapted to 
be removably mounted on such a towelette container so that it can be used 
on a succession of such containers. The attachment defines a path through 
which a towelette can pass, which path has a length preferably 
approximating that of the towelette itself, the leading end of the 
towelette extending out from the attachment for manual grasping in 
essentially the same way as the leading end of a towelette normally 
extends from the container. Heating means is provided in the attachment in 
heat-transmissive relation to the towelette received in the attachment, 
thereby to warm the latter. Hence the next towelette to be used is warmed 
while it is waiting to be used, and the removal of that towelette from the 
attachment brings the next towelette into the attachment to be warmed. 
It is the prime object of the present invention to provide means for 
warming towelettes or other flexible elements as they are removed from 
their container and before they are used. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an attachment 
which can be used sequentially with a plurality of towelette containers. 
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such an 
attachment which can also function as a source of illumination and 
beautification both with and without the container.

Although, as set forth above, the attachment of the present invention is 
particularly adapted for use for the warming of moist towelettes, and is 
here specifically illustrated as used with an existing commercial 
container for such products, it will be apparent that it can be used for 
many other types of products, generically characterized as flexible 
elements. Those elements will be here specifically described as 
towelettes, but the use of the term towelettes, it will be understood, is 
exemplary only and not limiting. 
A typical towelette container, generally designated 2, is in the form of a 
large plastic jar having an open top 4 defined by a top rim 5 which is 
normally closed by a cap 6 which is sealingly but removably secured to the 
container 2 to close the top 4 and which is provided with an opening 8 
surrounded by a rim 10, a sealing top 12 being secured to the cap 6 by a 
flexible strap 14 and being snap-engageable with the rim 10 so as to seal 
the opening 8. The towelettes, generally designated 16, are packed in the 
jar 2 in sequentially connected manner, so that as one towelette 16 is 
pulled out through a dispensing station at the open jar top opening 8 it 
will pull the next towelette partially out through that opening, leaving 
the leading end of that next towelette protruding slightly from the 
opening 8 so that it can be grasped and pulled when it is wanted, that in 
turn moving the next succeeding towelette to a position where its leading 
end can be grasped when desired. Thus under normal circumstances each 
towelette 16 as it is pulled from the container 2 has been at normal room 
temperature, and because it is moist, usually because of the presence of 
highly volatile liquids, it seems quite cool when it is applied to the 
skin. 
The heating attachment of the present invention comprises a mounting means 
generally designated 18 comprising a horizontal wall 20 which essentially 
covers the top opening 4 of the container 2, that wall having a depending 
rim 22 which is detachably, and preferably sealingly, engageable with the 
upstanding rim 5 of the container 2, and a tube 24 of a length at least 
equal to a substantial portion of the length of a towelette 16 extends up 
therefrom, the tube 24 being formed of a suitable heat-transmissive 
material. The tube 24 is here illustrated as integral with the wall 20, 
but it may be a separate piece subsequently assembled with the wall 20 in 
any appropriate manner. The mounting means 18 may be provided with an 
upwardly facing peripheral groove 26 into which a shell 28 is received, 
that shell extending up from the wall 20 for a distance slightly less than 
the length of the tube 24, having a top wall 30 with a central opening 32 
through which the tube 24 freely extends with a clearance therebetween, 
and having an upstanding rim 34 radially outwardly spaced from the tube 24 
and extending up approximately to the end of the tube 24. 
Mounted on the wall 20 between the tube 24 and the shell 28 is a heating 
means generally designated 36. In the form here specifically disclosed 
that heating means 36 comprises an incandescent bulb 38 mounted in a 
socket 40 secured to the wall 20 in such a way, as by being pivotable 
about securing screw 42 while the opposite securing screw 44 moves within 
arcuate slot 46, so that it can be moved toward and away from the tube 24, 
thereby to vary its heating effect on the contents of the tube 24. 
Electric wires 48 extend from the socket 40 to a conventional plug 50, the 
element 52 being an on-off switch which may also, if desired, be provided 
with a variable control so that the degree to which the bulb 38 is 
illuminated, and hence the rate at which it produces heat, may be 
adjusted. A thermostat can also be provided for automatic control of the 
illumination of the bulb 38 to maintain a desired temperature within the 
space 51 between the tube 24 and the shell 28, in which space the bulb 38 
is received. Heated air in that space can escape through the clearance 
between the tube 24 and the wall 30 and through openings 35 formed in the 
rim 34. 
While any heating means other than a bulb 38 can be used, the bulb 38 has 
the advantage of producing light as well as heat, in which case the shell 
28 may, at least in part, be of a light-transmissive character, and it may 
carry appropriate ornamentation either itself or by receiving thereover a 
light-transmissive ornamented shade 54. Hence the attachment, when mounted 
on the container 2 or when free standing, can function as a lamp or as a 
night light in the nursery. The use of a separate ornamented shade 54 
permits variation in the decorative effect of the attachment. 
The upper end of the tube 24 is closed by the cap 6 which may be received 
thereon in the same way that the cap 6 is received on the top of the 
container 2, the leading end 16A of the leading towelette 16 passing 
through the opening 8 in that cap 6 so that it can be grasped when the top 
12 is swung out from the position shown in FIG. 2 to that shown in FIG. 3. 
The upper end of the tube 24 and the cap 6 may be considered jointly or 
severally as the outlet means of the attachment. 
As here specifically disclosed the shell 28 and shade 54 are tapered for 
esthetic reasons, so that their diameters at their upper ends are smaller 
than those at their lower ends, thus calling for the use of a cap 6 which 
is smaller than the one which would normally be used on the illustrated 
container 2. However, if a shell 28 and shade 54 of non-tapered shape were 
to be employed, the cap 6 that would be used could be the same one that 
was used for the container 2. When a tapered shell 28 is employed the 
taper may be such that when the attachment is mounted on a container 2 of 
large size the cap 6 to be employed would be of the size that the 
towelette supplier provides on its smaller container. 
To use the attachment the cap 6 provided with the container 2 is removed, 
the leading towelette 16 is partially pulled out and is threaded through 
the tube 24 and the attachment is mounted on the top rim 5 of the 
container 2. The appropriate sized cap 6 is then mounted on the top of the 
attachment, the leading end 16A of the leading towelette 16 being pulled 
through the opening 8 in the cap 6, and the top 12 of the cap 6 is snapped 
to its position shown in FIG. 2. The plug 50 is inserted into an 
appropriate electrical output, the switch 52 is appropriately manipulated, 
and the device is functional. The heating means 36 provides heat to the 
space 51 and that heat is transmitted through the tube 24 to the leading 
towelette 16 the major portion of the length of which is received within 
the tube. That leading towelette is thus warmed, and hence when the top 12 
is moved to its position shown in FIG. 3 and the leading towelette 16 is 
pulled from the attachment, that towelette will be warm and its 
application to the baby's skin will be without shock to the infant. At the 
same time the next towelette 16 will be pulled up through the tube 24 to 
the position shown in FIG. 2, so it will then be warmed before it is 
pulled from the attachment. 
As here shown the length of the tube 24 approximates the length of a single 
towelette, so that if a second towelette is removed quickly after the 
first, that second towelette may not have had time to become fully warmed. 
Some of the warming effect of the heating means 36 will be transmitted to 
the interior of the container 2, there to act upon those towelettes 
closest to being pulled out, so that this problem is usually not a serious 
one. However, if the tube 24 is further elongated so as to accommodate 
more than one towelette at a time the heating means 36 can act directly on 
more than one towelette at a time. Lengthening the tube 24 without 
increasing the height of the attachment to a corresponding degree can be 
accomplished, for example, by spiraling the tube 24. 
The attachment can be used by itself, without being mounted on a container, 
as an ornamental object or as a lamp or night light, resting on and 
supported by its mounting means 18. 
The attachment can readily be made of a limited number of simple structural 
pieces capable of being inexpensively molded of suitable plastic, so that 
the attachment can be inexpensive and at the same time sturdy enough to be 
used virtually indefinitely with different towelette containers as the 
contents of those containers become exhausted. 
While but a single embodiment of the present invention has been here 
specifically disclosed, it will be apparent that many variations may be 
made in the details thereof, all within the spirit of the invention as 
defined in the following claims.