An extinguishing device for lighted articles such as cigars, cigarettes and the like. The extinguishing device comprises a housing having a first hollow compartment for containing an extinguishing liquid such as water, and a second hollow compartment containing a capillary material which provides sufficiently small pores therethroughout to provide by capillary action wetting of the capillary material when extinguishing liquid is introduced into the second compartment, the capillary material being such as to maintain its integrity when wetted with extinguishing liquid.
Instantaneous Cigarette Extinguisher
The second compartment has an open end, and the housing is provided with a passageway interconnecting the first compartment with the second compartment to transfer water from the first compartment into the second compartment to wet the capillary material. An extinguishing member of wettable material is also provided for the open end of the second compartment for extinguishing a lighted article which comes in contact therewith. The extinguishing member includes a bottom portion and a side wall portion which extends away from the bottom portion, and is supported in the open end of the second compartment so that the bottom portion is at a lower elevation than the side wall portion; at least the underside of the bottom portion of the extinguishing member is in contact with a first part of the capillary material; and at least a second part of the capillary material is juxtaposed to the side wall portion of the extinguishing member and is at a higher elevation than the bottom portion of the extinguishing member whereby at least the bottom portion of the extinguishing member is continuously wetted by the capillary material when extinguishing liquid is introduced into the second compartment.
As is well known, users of cigars or cigarettes oftentimes attempt to extinguish same by rubbing, pressing or disintegrating the burning end or stub or the cigar or cigarette against a hard surface. However, in many instances, the fire is not completely extinguished, thereby creating a fire hazard, or a source of noxious fumes. Consequently, various prior art devices have been proposed in the past for ensuring more complete and positive cigarette extinguishing of the burning or lit end of a cigar or cigarette. For instance, some prior art devices employ a snuffing substance for cutting off the supply of air to the lighted end of the cigar or cigarette.
However, these types of prior art devices which contain a liquid such as water have not proven satisfactory in use. For instance, with many of these prior art devices, the reservoir for the liquid is open to air and thus tend to rapidly lose their supply of liquid through evaporation. Thus in turn requires that the reservoir be refilled often, or that relatively large, bulky reservoirs be provided, thereby cutting down on the usefulness and desirability of the devices. Also, such devices tend to dispense large quantities of liquid thereby tending to soak the cigarette or cigar, and thus preventing reuse of same.
More particularly, in this manner at least the bottom portion of the extinguishing member is always wet or moistened with the extinguishing liquid by virtue of the bottom portion being at a lower elevation than the side wall portion and in contact with a first part of the capillary material, and by virtue of at least a second part of the capillary material being at a higher elevation than the bottom portion of the extinguishing member. As the extinguishing liquid is used from the second compartment, it is continuously replenished from the first compartment, irrespective of the height of the extinguishing liquid in the first compartment. This is achieved by virtue of capillary attraction between the liquid and the capillary material in the second compartment. Since the entire capillary material is wetted (i.e., that portion which is above and below the elevation of the part in contact with the bottom part of the extinguishing member), at least the bottom portion of the extinguishing member in contact with the capillary material is also wetted, even if the liquid evaporates from the upper end of the capillary material.
In the preferred embodiment, the extinguishing member comprises a wire screen of a generally concave configuration which is supported in the upper open end of the second compartment. The open nature of the wire screen allows water in the second compartment to freely pass therethrough so that at least the bottom portion is continuously wetted. This is true even if the capillary material should tend to compact slightly during use at its upper end since at least the bottom portion remains in contact with the capillary material. Also, the effect of whatever evaporation of extinguishing liquid which takes place occurs at the upper end of the capillary material which is at an elevation above the bottom portion of the screen, and consequently, at least the bottom portion of the screen remains wetted. Here, it should be noted that as the extinguishing liquid tends to evaporate, the liquid is continuously supplied to the pores at the upper elevation of the capillary material in the second compartment, thereby ensuring that at least the second part of the capillary material in contact with the screen remains moist for the purposes of wetting the bottom portion of the screen.
