Abstract:
A dispenser for wet and dry paper formed as a housing composed of a first canister for wet paper and a second canister for dry paper, the first and second canisters being separate and provided with their respective papers in isolation from one another for being removed in use from the respective canister through a dispensing opening therein. The canisters are connected together and define a cylindrical shape for the housing; and the housing is connectable to conventional brackets of toilet paper holders to permit separate dispensing of the wet and dry paper from their respective canisters.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application(s) NO(s).: APPLICATION No(s).: 60/544,378 FILING DATE Feb. 13, 2004 and incorporates the same by reference. 

   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention relates to a dispenser for separately dispensing wet and dry paper. 
   In particular, the invention relates to such dispenser in which separate canisters are provided for the wet and dry paper to keep the wet and dry paper separate from one another. 
   The invention also relates to a method of assembling such a dispenser. 
   BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART 
   The following patents are related to dispensing paper from dispensers. 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
               Lander 
               4,108,513 
             
             
                 
               Dutton 
               4,984,530 
             
             
                 
               Newbold 
               5,660,313 
             
             
                 
               Ogden 
               5,697,577 
             
             
                 
               Mele 
               5,988,561 
             
             
                 
               Rivera 
               6,537,631 
             
             
                 
               Faulks 
               6,659,391 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   Newbold shows premoistened toilet paper in a dispenser adapted to be mounted on a conventional toilet paper hold. 
   Rivera, Ogden, Faulks and Mele are cumulative and show similar arrangements. Lander shows dispensing toilet paper from two separate rolls. Dutton shows two rolls of paper separately delivered from a common dispenser. 
   SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
   An object of the invention is to provide a dispenser for wet and dry paper in which separate canisters are utilized for the wet and dry paper and when assembled the canisters form a configuration which corresponds to a conventional roll of toilet paper. 
   Another object of the invention is to provide a dispenser in which the canisters are easily replaced when they become empty. 
   A further object of the invention is to provide such a dispenser which can replace the conventional roll of toilet paper and use the same brackets or lugs to mount the dispenser. 
   In order to achieve these and further objects, the invention provides for a dispenser for separate dispensing of wet and dry paper comprising a common housing formed by a first canister for wet paper and a second canister for dry paper, the first and second canisters being shaped to provide said housing with the shape of a toilet paper roll in which the wet paper and the dry paper can be separately dispensed. 
   In accordance with a feature of the invention, the paper is encapsulated in the wet paper container to prevent evaporation. 
   According to another feature, the first and second canisters have separate dispensing openings for the wet paper and the dry paper, respectively. 
   According to another feature, the wet paper and the dry paper are isolated in their respective canisters so that they cannot contact one another. 
   According to another feature, said housing includes means for engaging the brackets for a conventional toilet paper holder to secure the housing to the brackets. 
   In further accordance with the invention, there is contemplated a shelf including means for securing the shelf in bores in the brackets which normally can support a holder for a toilet paper roll. First and second canisters are provided for wet paper and dry paper. The canisters have a respective opening for removing the paper therefrom. The canisters are mounted on the shelf on opposite sides thereof and have respective surfaces of part-cylindrical shape cooperatingly forming a cylindrical outline simulating a roll of toilet paper. 
   According to another feature of the invention, each canister is replaceably mounted on the shelf. 
   In further accordance with the invention, there is contemplated a housing including a first canister for wet paper and a second canister for dry paper, the first and second canisters being separate and provided with their respective paper in isolation from one another for being removed in use from the respective canister through a dispensing opening therein. The canisters are connected together and define a cylindrical shape for the housing. The housing is connected to connection brackets for a toilet paper holder to secure the housing to the brackets and permit separate dispensing of the wet and dry paper from their respective said dispensing openings of the canisters. 
   According to a further feature of the invention, the first and second canisters have aligned bores when the canisters are engaged with one another to receive an elastically telescoping rod which can be engaged in the brackets. 
   According to a further feature of the invention, laterally extending tabs are provided for engaging the brackets to oppose rotation of the housing with respect to the brackets. 
   In further accordance with the invention, there is provided a method by which separate dispensing of wet paper and dry paper can be obtained from a common dispenser, the method being achieved by the steps of providing a first canister containing wet paper, the canister having an opening from which the wet paper can be removed; providing a second canister containing dry paper, the second canister having an opening from which the dry paper can be removed; assembling the canisters and mounting them in bores in brackets normally used for supporting a conventional toilet paper holder; detachably connecting the first and second canisters in the assembly with the openings thereof accessible from the front; and forming the canisters with domes of semi-cylindrical shape so that when the canisters are mounted on the brackets, the canisters form a cylindrical shape. 
   According to a further feature of the invention, the first canister for wet paper forms a hermetic enclosure for the wet paper. 
   According to a further feature of the invention, the canisters are formed such that they can be interchangeably mounted on the top or bottom of the assembly. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a front perspective view of a first embodiment of a dispenser for wet and dry paper according to the invention. 
       FIG. 2  is an exploded view showing a shelf of the dispenser separated from a holder of the dispenser. 
       FIG. 3  shows the shelf supported in the holder. 
       FIG. 4  shows the shelf in readiness to receive a support stud. 
       FIG. 5  shows the shelf of  FIG. 4  with studs installed thereon. 
       FIG. 6  is a perspective view of a tab lock for the dispenser. 
       FIG. 7  shows the shelf with the tab lock at the left edge in preparation for installation on the shelf while the tab lock at the right edge is installed on the shelf. 
       FIG. 8  is an enlarged top plan view of a portion of the left side of the shelf showing the engagement of the tab lock on the shelf. 
       FIG. 9  is a rear view showing the tab locks installed on the shelf. 
       FIG. 10  shows the shelf with the tab locks installed and ready to be inserted into the holder. 
       FIG. 11  is a side view showing the shelf supported in the holder with the tab locks retracted. 
       FIG. 12  shows the tab locks after being pushed against the frame of the holder. 
       FIG. 13  is a perspective view of  FIG. 12 . 
       FIG. 14  is an exploded view of a canister for dry paper. 
       FIG. 15  shows the assembled dry paper canister. 
       FIG. 16  is an exploded view of a wet paper canister. 
       FIG. 17  shows the assembled wet paper canister. 
       FIG. 18  shows the manner of installation of the dry paper canister. 
       FIG. 19  shows the manner of installation of the wet paper canister. 
       FIG. 20  is an exploded front perspective view from below of a wet paper and a dry paper canister of a second embodiment. 
       FIG. 21  is similar to  FIG. 20  but viewed from above. 
       FIG. 22  shows the wet and dry paper canisters of the second embodiment assembled in readiness for installation in the holder. 
       FIG. 23  shows the canisters of the second embodiment installed in the holder. 
       FIG. 24  is an exploded view of a modification of the wet paper canister illustrated in  FIG. 17 . 
       FIG. 25  shows the assembled canister in  FIG. 24 . 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   In  FIG. 1 , there is seen a first embodiment of a dispenser  1  of the invention which comprises a canister  2  containing moistened paper (hereafter referred to as wet paper) and a canister  3  containing dry paper such as toilet paper. The wet paper and dry paper are supported in their respective canisters for being dispensed therefrom through respective openings as will be seen later. 
   The canisters  2 ,  3  are each of semi-cylindrical shape and are connected together to form the dispenser  1  as a casing or housing of cylindrical shape simulating a conventional roll of toilet paper. This will enable the housing to be installed in conventional support structures normally used to support a roll of toilet paper as will be seen later. 
   The canister  2  and  3  are mounted on a shelf  4  which serves to connect the dispenser  1  to conventional brackets or lugs  5 ,  6  ( FIG. 2 ) which normally support a conventional rod for a roll of toilet paper. 
   The lugs or brackets are secured to a support that can take many forms. For illustrative purposes, the invention will be described with reference to a conventional concave holder  7  which is secured in a hole in a wall and which includes a frame  8  adapted to abut against the edge of the hole in the wall. The wall for the holder  7  can be the wall of a cabinet or the wall in a bathroom or other location where the dispenser  1  is installed. The lugs  5 ,  6  can be secured to the supporting wall in other ways as well known in the art without the need for detailed explanation. However, in all cases, lugs  5 ,  6  project from the supporting wall for normally supporting the rod for holding a roll of toilet paper. 
   The canister  2  for wet paper is intended to supply individual or continuous sheets of wet paper, such as “wet wipes” or the like while the canister  3  is intended to supply dry paper in the manner of conventional toilet paper or individual sheets. The moistened or wet paper can be moistened by a liquid, generally water based, which can contain medicaments, cleansing agents, scenting agents or the like depending on the ultimate use. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 2-5 , the shelf  4  is seen as being formed as a flat member having a front edge  10 , a rear edge  11 , and side edges  12  and  13 . At the front edge  10 , there are formed latch members  14 ,  15  which are offset from one another to latch the canisters  2 ,  3  as will be explained later. At the rear edge  11 , the shelf is formed with a rear wall  18  from which hooks  17  extend respectively at the top and bottom surfaces of shelf  4  to overlie the shelf. The hooks at the top surface of the shelf are visible at  17  and the hooks at the bottom surface of the shelf are the same and are interspaced with hooks  17  at the top surface of the shelf. The shelf  4  is formed with castellations  16  at the rear edge, and rear wall  18  closes the back of the shelf  4 . 
   The shelf  4  is formed with engagement members  20 ,  21  at the side edges  12 ,  13  and the engagement members  20 ,  21  are integral with the rear wall  18  (as best seen in  FIG. 9 ). The engagement members  20 ,  21  serve as a means to secure the shelf  4  to lugs  5 ,  6 . 
   As clear from  FIG. 4 , each engagement member  20 ,  21  includes a portion  22  integral with the rear wall  18  of the shelf and a wing  23  which extends from portion  22  and is laterally offset outwardly therefrom to provide some degree of elasticity of the wing to enable lateral elastic displaceability. The wing  23  is provided with a slot  24 . 
   In order to enable the shelf  4  to be engaged in lugs  5 ,  6 , a plurality of different size studs  25  are provided which are intended to be fitted in blind bores or holes  26  in lugs  5 ,  6 . 
   After selecting the particular size of the stud  25  which fits in the blind bore  26 , a pair of resilient locking claws  27  provided on the back side of the studs are snapped into slot  24  to lock against the upper and lower edges of slot  24 . The stud  25  has an outer projecting portion  28  of T-shape with a rearwardly projecting cam  29  of triangular shape. 
   A pair of tab locks  30  are provided at the opposite sides of the shelf  4  and are mounted on the portions  22  of the engagement members  20 ,  21 . In  FIG. 7 , the tab lock  30  at the left side of the shelf is shown in readiness for being mounted on engagement member  20  while the tab lock  30  at the right edge  9  of shelf  4  is mounted on engagement member  21 . 
   Each tab lock  30  is provided with grooves  31  at its top and bottom to slidably ride on the top and bottom edges of portion  22  of the respective engagement members  20 ,  21 . The outer face of portion  22  is formed with a series of ratchets  32  and the tab locks  30  have flexible tongues  33  with an inwardly facing locking tooth  34  at its end for lockingly engaging the ratchet. 
   After the tab locks  30  have been installed on the portions  22  of the engagement members  20 ,  21  (as shown in  FIGS. 9 and 10 ), the shelf is ready to be installed in the lugs  5 ,  6 . To achieve this, the rear edge  11  of the shelf is inserted into the hollow of holder  7  causing the cams  29  to contact the lugs  5 ,  6  and force the wings  23  inwardly. The shelf is provided with slots  35  facing the wings  23  to accommodate the inward displacement of the wings. When the outer projecting portions  28  of the studs  25  reach the blind bores  26  in the lugs  5 ,  6 , the projecting portions  28  snap into the blind bores and secure the shelf in the lugs. The tab locks  30  are then slidably moved rearwardly until outwardly facing flanges  36  of the tab locks bear against the frame  8  of the holder  7  as seen in  FIGS. 12 and 13 . The locking teeth  34  on tongues  33  are now engaged with the ratchets  32  and the shelf is tightly secured to the lugs. 
   The canisters  1 ,  2  are now ready to be secured to the shelf  4  to complete the assembly as will be explained hereafter. 
     FIG. 14  is an exploded view of the dry paper canister  3  which includes a semi-cylindrical cover  40  of dome shape and a flat base  41  on which the cover  40  is formed. The canister  3  is preferably made of thin plastic material which can be injection molded. Dry paper (not shown) is interleaved or otherwise connected and placed in the canister so that the paper can be extracted either as individual sheets or as a continuous sheet through a dispensing opening  42 . The dispensing opening  42  is closed by a removable peel-off cover  43  of sheet form which has a tab  44  to enable removal of the cover  43  when the canister is installed and ready for first use. 
   The base  41  is slightly greater in extent than the bottom edge of the cover  40  to extend therearound. The base  41  is affixed on a deck  45  having the same size as the base  41 . The base and deck can be integrally formed with one another and made as a single part integrated with cover  40 . At the front edge of the canister  3  there is formed a slot  46  adapted to engage latch member  15 . 
   In order to assemble the canister  3  on the shelf  4 , reference is made to  FIGS. 18 and 19  wherefrom it can be seen that the rear edge of the base and deck of the canister is engaged beneath the hooks  17  whereafter, and the slot  46  is latched to latch member  15 . 
     FIGS. 16 and 17  show the construction of the canister  2  for wet paper and it is evident that this construction is similar to that of the dry paper canister. However, the wet paper canister must be hermetically enclosed to prevent evaporation of the liquid from the wet paper. To this end, a closable, sealable door assembly  50  is provided. As with the dry paper canister  3 , the wet paper canister  2  has a semi-cylindrical cover  51 , a base  52 , and a deck  53 , and the assembled wet paper canister  2  is shown in  FIG. 17 . In  FIG. 17 , a door  54  of door assembly  50  is shown in open position to expose dispensing opening  55  from which wet paper sheets can be removed. After removal of the desired number of wet paper sheets, the door  54  is closed. The door  54  and the frame  56  to which it is hingeably attached are provided with seals  57  extending all around the opening in the door and frame so that when the door is closed, the door assembly will be hermetically sealed. The opening  55  in the cover  51  is larger than opening  42  in the canister  3  to facilitate the removal of the wet paper from the canister. 
   After the dry paper canister  3  has been installed, the wet paper canister  2  is installed on the shelf  4 , similar to that of canister  3  as shown in  FIG. 19 . 
   The order of installation of the canisters can be reversed. 
   Although the wet paper canister  3  has been shown mounted on top of the shelf, it is also possible to interchange the location of the canisters by inverting the shelf  4  and mounting the dry paper canister  3  on top of the shelf and the wet paper canister on the bottom of the shelf. 
   It is to be noted that the latch members  15 ,  16  are slightly offset from one another to engage respective slots  46  at the front edges of the canisters, which are correspondingly offset. In this way, the canisters can be inserted in only one configuration with respect to the shelf  4 . Accordingly, once the shelf  4  is installed, the location of the canisters (top or bottom) is fixed. However, should it be desired to reverse the location of the canisters, it is only necessary to remove the shelf and invert it as previously stated. 
   As evident from the above, when a canister becomes empty, it is easily replaced with a full one by unlatching the front of the empty canister and sliding the canister forwardly to extract the rear edge from the hooks  17  at the rear edge of the shelf. The full canister is then installed by a reverse operation. 
   While the openings in the canisters for removing paper therefrom are shown at the front of the canisters, the openings can be located in other locations such as the top of the upper canister and the bottom of the lower canister. 
   Reference is next be made to  FIGS. 20-22  which show a second embodiment according to the invention. 
   The second embodiment is similar to the first embodiment in that it comprises canisters for wet and dry paper which when assembled form a cylindrical configuration similar to a conventional roll of toilet paper. 
   This embodiment departs from the first embodiment by eliminating the shelf thereof and by utilizing a rod or holder which is similar to or the same as a conventional holder for a roll of toilet paper. 
   The same reference numerals will be used to designate the same elements as in the first embodiment. 
     FIG. 20  shows canister  102  for wet paper and canister  103  for dry paper. The wet paper canister  102  is a closed body which contains the wet paper in an arrangement in which the wet paper can be extracted through opening  104  as in the previous embodiment either continuously or sheet by sheet depending on how the paper is packed in the canister. The canister  102  is made in two parts  102   a  and  102   b  which are slidably fitted together to form the completed canister  102 . In this way, the wet paper canister can be refilled when it is empty. The completed canister  102  has a closed bottom wall  105  with a step  106 . A pair of lugs  107  extend downwardly at the opposite sides of canister  102  and the lugs have holes  108  which are aligned with one another. Mounted at the opening  104  is the closable door assembly  50 . 
   The canister  103  for dry paper is also a closed body and it contains dry paper in an arrangement in which the paper can be removed through the opening  109  (see  FIG. 22 ) either sheet by sheet or continously depending on how the paper is packed in the canister. The canister  103  is also made in two parts,  103   a  and  103   b  which are slidably fitted together to form the completed canister  103 . In this way, the dry paper canister can be re-filled with paper when it is empty. The canister  103  for dry paper has U-shaped cut-outs at its sidewalls which conform to the lugs  107  on the wet paper canister to receive the lugs when the canisters are abutted against one another as shown in  FIG. 22 . The upper wall of the canister is formed with a raised block-like portion  112  which fits into a hollow  113  in the wet paper canister in correspondence with step  106 . When the canisters are interfitted, the block-like portion  112  fits into hollow  113 . The block-like portion  112  has a bore  114  extending therethrough which is aligned with the holes  108  in lugs  107  when the canisters are interfitted. 
   A telescopic rod or holder  115 , similar or the same as a conventional holder for a roll of toilet paper, is engaged in the aligned holes  108 , and bore  114  to hold the canisters  102  and  103  together. 
   The telescopic holder  115  is then installed in lugs  5  and  6  in the same manner as mounting the conventional toilet paper holder, namely by telescoping the ends of the holder inwardly until they engage in the blind bores in the lugs  5  and  6 . 
   In order to secure the assembled canisters against rotation, the lugs  107  are provided with spaced outwardly projecting tabs  116  which engage lugs  5  and  6  at top and bottom and prevent rotation of the canister assembly relative to the lugs. 
     FIGS. 24 and 25  show a modification of the wet paper canister  2  of  FIG. 17  adapted to further prevent evaporation of liquid from the wet paper. 
   As shown in  FIG. 24 , an additional moisture barrier is formed over the opening  55  in canister  2 . The moisture barrier is in the form of a thin soft, pliable plastic film  120  of a thickness of the order of 0.003″ to 0.005″. The film  120  has a slit  121  extending horizontally in the film to cover opening  55 . The film  120  is secured by adhesive or other means to the cover of canister  2  and the frame  56  of the door assembly  50  whereby the film  120  is sandwiched between the frame  56  and the cover of canister  2  as seen in  FIG. 25 . The frame  56  is provided with an impermeable membrane  122  forming a shield with an opening  123  through which the slit  121  in film  120  is accessible. In this way, the wet paper is removed by the user from the canister  2  by inserting his or her hand through opening  123  in the frame and reaching through the slit  121  to grasp the next sheet of wet paper to be removed. Evaporation of moisture is prevented by film  120  in addition to seals  57 . 
   Although numerous modifications and variations of the disclosed embodiments will become evident to those skilled in the art, these will fall within the scope and spirit of the invention if they are defined within the appended claims. Thus, for example, although the housing has been described as being cylindrical, it can be slightly out-of-round or of other shape within the scope of the invention.