US2896227A - Contour pillow - Google Patents

Description

July 28, 1959 M. J. REED 2,896,227

CONTOUR PILLOW Filed Aug. l1. 1954 INVENTOR /Kauri Jeed ATTORNEYS United States This invention relates to a contoured pillow designed especially for improving the sleeping habits and promoting the comfort of users.

The conventional pillow, as known and employed by the majority of people, consists essentially of a casing lled with some soft, resilient material, for example, feathers or foam rubber, and usually takes the form of a rectangular structure. When an individual places his head on such a pillow, it deforms into random shapes but does not contour itself to the shape of the users head, neck and shoulders and furnish support for these parts.

When an individual, by way of example, lies in a horizontal position on his back not on a pillow, the back of the head is generally at a much lower elevation than the back of his neck. If he lies on a pillow of the conventional type as described above, it will not afford the elevated support for the back of the neck needed, as no provision is made with pillows of the conventional type for taking into consideration the configuration of the upper portions of the human body. Hence, the individual, in place of lying in a horizontal plane, or at least substantially so, is compelled to assume unnatural positions with respect to his head, neck and shoulder regions. Although this is not realized to any large extent, since the effects are usually gradual, the use of a conventional pillow for sleeping is concededly uncomfortable and has been known in some instances to be the cause of loss of sleep. As a second consideration, the ears of an individual, since they project outwardly from the head portion of his body, are frequently a cause for discomfort in the adaptation of a conventional type pillow to the head especially when the individual is sleeping on his side.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel structure for a pillow which is, speciiically designed to accommodate a human being and is particularly adapted to conform to the general conguration of a persons body from the shoulders up, rather than the past practice of attempting to conform an individual to a xed design pillow. One of the main advantages of the pillow of this invention resides in its adaptability to various shoulder-neck-head profiles. It will be appreciated that these profiles vary widely in human beings from being very straight to quite curvy in a round shouldered individual. For all normal human beings, however, the prole curves in at the neck. Consequently, the neck should be supported higher than the head an elevation depending upon the individual using the pillow. The pillow of the present invention provides the requisite adaptability in this respect.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a contour pillow which can be readily and economically produced at a minimum of cost and which will function in use to promote better sleeping habits.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following descripiii;

time t* 2,895,227 Patented July 28, 1959 tion when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a view in plan partly broken away of the novel pillow of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a View in section of Figure 1 taken along line 2-2;

Figure 3 is a `View in section of Figure l taken along line 3 3; and

Figure 4 is a fragmentary view of the connecting lug.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, there will be seen the preferred embodiment of the pillow of the present invention consisting of a cylindrical front core i() and a hexadral elongated rear core ll rectangular in cross section. Each core is hollow, pneumatic, and resilient whereby each can be inflated with a gas such as air to any extent desired. For this purpose each core is provided with suitable valve 12. Core 10 when inated is greater in diameter than the inflated thickness of core 11 and thus the top of core 10 is above the upper surface of core 11 as will be evident from Figure 3. The upper and lower walls of core 11 are spot heat sealed as indicated by numerals 13 and gussets 14 extending transversely of core 11 are fixed, cemented, or otherwise joined to the inside surfaces of the top and bottom Walls with each terminating spaced from the side walls of the core.

The core 10 is placed beside core 11 so that the axis of core 10 is parallel to the long axis of core 11. A lug 15 characterized by a flat plate attached at one end to an end wall of core 11 projects beyond the core 11 and denes a hole 16 at its other end adapted to fit over the valve of core 10 to lock the cores together. A similar lug 17 has one end attached to the opposite end wall of core 11 and projects beyond. The projected end of lug 17 is arranged with the female half 18 of a snap fastener with the male half 19 being mounted on the end wall of core 10 for cooperation therewith to lock this end of the cores together.

When joined in this fashion, the cores are wrapped with about four layers of a cushioning material 21 being preferably cotton flannel with a Iweight of 4.80 yards to the pound in a 27 inch width. Although other cushioning materials could be used, such as felt or wool, cotton has the advantage of being more acceptable from an allergy standpoint.

The pillow of the present invention, as above described, is designed to fit human beings in general yand is adjustable to lit one human [being in particular. Because core 10 extends higher than Core 11, there is a depression or declivity between the cores in the area identified lby the numeral 20 (see Figure 3). modates the ear of the person when sleeping on his side and thus the pillow is comfortable to a side sleeper. Further, the compound nature of the pillow provides for individual adjustment of the neck supporting element (core 10) and head supporting element (core 11) by controlling the degree of iniiation of the cores. It is a still further advantage that the relative height of the cores 10 and 11 can be adjusted as desired.

In use, the pillow of the present invention can be inated to contour to the shape of the shoulder, neck and head regions of the individual employing same, furnishing full support for al1 parts of the individuals body in these regions. The support, as will be noted, is resilient, while at the same time being rm in all respects.

Although the present invention has been shown and described with reference to a specific embodiment, nevertheless, various changes and modifications obvious to one skilled in the art are deemed to Ibe within the spirit, scope and contemplation of the present invention.

This depression accom- What is claimed is:

A pillow comprising a rst inflatable core of substantially cylindrical design, a second inflatable core of rectangular cross-section, said rst core when fully intlated extending to a height above ,said second core when fully inflated, valve means for each of said cores, means to maintain said cores ,adjacent to one another when .each of said cores is separately supported `by a substantially flat surface, said means comprisingat least two `perforated plate means each integrally aixed to one of said `cores and engaging the other of said lcores to accurately maintain the space relationship of said cores, one of said `plate means resiliently engaging one of said valve means, whereby the degree of intlation and the height of each `of said cores can be 4individually'cont-rolled as -well as the difference in the heights thereof.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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