Article of manufacture comprising container and contents therefor

Application filed August 29, 1923. Serial No. 660,029.

The object of my present invention is to provide a novel article of manufacture, comprising a multiple compartment collapsible tube of pliable metal or alloy, or such struc5 turally associated tubes, each compartment of said collapsible tube containing a different substance, a paste or colloidal body, for example. Each paste in this colloidal body serves as a vehicle and contains a different ¹⁰ chemical substance, the pastes being of equal or substantially equal fluidity, or degree of mobility, and pre-designed physically and chemically, to maintain, or to substantially maintain, these pre-designed respective flu15 i di ties, or degrees of mobility, regardless of time or aging, of temperature changes, vibrations, etc.

I have found in practice, that for equal extrusion volumes, or rates, of flow of sub²⁰ stance from a multiple compartment collapsible tube, as herein illustrated and descripesd, that substances of equal or substantially equal fluidities, or degrees of mobility, must be produced and be maintained, in or²⁸ der to provide and insure satisfactory behavior or operation in use. By satisfactory behavior is meant equal, or substantially equal, volumes, or rates of flow of material or substance from both of the two struc30 turally associated tubes, when they are compressed at any point, not only immediately after manufacture, but after months of storage in various climates.

With reference to the accompanying draw35 ings, Figure #1 represents a section through a multiple compartment collapsible tube, with each compartment filled with a substance, showing, upon the application of external pressure, an inordinate extrusion of ⁴⁰ substances from the inner tube. Figure #2 again illustrates a section through such a bicompartment collapsible tube system, but showing, upon the application of external pressure, an inordinate extrusion of sub⁴⁵ stance from the outer tube. Figure #3 shows such an article of manufacture comprising the double tube and separated contents, turned through an angle of ninety degrees, and Figure #4 shows a section 50 through the neck piece of Figure #3 along the broken line 4-Λ. With further reference to Figure #1, 10 represents the outer collapsible tube and #11 represents the inner collapsible tube. #12 represents the substance, or mixture of substances, in the 55 outer collapsible tube and #13 represents the substance, or mixture of substances, in the inner collapsible tube. The neck piece #14 of the outer collapsible tube, carries inwardly projecting members #15 integral 60 therewith, receiving and centering the neck piece #16 of the inner tube. The screw threads #17 are adapted to receive the screw threads #18 in the cap or cover #19, provided with the cork disk #20. Both the 65 outer tube #10 and the inner tube #11 are sealed by the common closure #21, produced by flattening together, and folding the metal ends of the two tubes, and in clamping with the clip #22. On- the other 70 end, or upper end, egress of material may take place from the inner tube through the central orifice #23 and material may have egress from the outer tube through the surrounding orifices #24. With such a system 75 or soft, or pliable metal collapsible tubes, thus structurally associated, containing separate pastes or colloidal substances, the inner paste, or colloidal paste, #13, is extruded more rapidly, or in larger volume, as indi- so cated by the long core of substance #25, than the paste in the outer tube, as shown by the ., shorter shell of substance #26, unless the pastes are of substantially equal fluidities, or degrees of mobility. For best results, 85 with equal areas, or substantially equal areas, of paste outlet, that is to say, the area of the outlet #23 of the inner tube, and the area of the outlets #24 of the outer tube, I prefer to make the inner paste #13 a little »0 stiffer, or less fluid, than the outer paste #12, otherwise .an undue collapse of the inner tube #11 is liable to take place, as shown at #27, when pressure at a point #28, is brought to bear on the outer tube. This phe- «5 nomenon of inner tube collapse with inordinate extrusion of the inner paste or colloid is liable to take place nevertheless upon pressure exerted at any point of the surface of the outer tube #10, unless the inner paste is ¹⁰⁰slightly stiffer, or less fluid, than the outer paste. Although the relatiye extrusion rates of the pastes in the inner and outer tubes may vary somewhat dependent upon the

1,639,699 β relative sizes of the extrusion passageways and orifices, and upon other characteristics, I have found for collapsible tubes of commercial weights and commercial proportionS ing of the passageways and orifices and other characteristics, that a ten percent increase in paste stiffness in the inner tube is about right.

With further reference to Figure #2, the 10 reverse of the behavior shown in Figure #1 is depicted, due to the fact that the outer paste #12 is more fluid than it should be over the paste #13 of the inner tube, and with the pressure exerted at the point #28 15 on the outer tube #10 without the collapse of the inner tube #11, thereby forcing an inordinate length or volume of the shell of paste, as shown at #26, over the length or volume of the .core of paste, as shown at #25. 20 With particular reference to the substances which I may employ to fill the respective compartments of such a bi-compart ment collapsible tube for an article of manufacture, I am selecting here, as an example, ²⁵ substances for a dentifrice in the form of pastes or colloids.

It is evident that pastes, or colloidal substances, may be made from gums, water and glycerine, for example, to serve as vehicles ³⁰ for other substances, such vehicles possessing equal degrees of fluidity, or mobility, or substantially equal degrees of fluidity or mobility, at the time of mixing or of manufacture, and because of the different chemi³³ cal natures and characteristics of the different substances, a chemical or physical change, or both, may take place in one of the vehicles or in certain of the substances, incorporated in the vehicles, altering the fluid40 ity, or mobility.

The present description relates in some detail to the operation of a system of collapsible tubes and fluids, and also' to the chemical substance and physical characteris45 tics of a re-acting type of dentifrice; it will be understood, however, that the invention is equally applicable to facial creams, shaving creams and other cosmetics dependent upon constant colloidal binders, as well as ³⁰ to certain compound substances employed in the arts and sciences, adapted for use in a multi-compartment collapsible tube. The following formulae are given here, therefore, for a reacting type of dentifrice as an ex³³ ample of the principles involved, applicable, not only to a dentifrice, but to cosmetics in general and to other substances in the arts and sciences. The component parts of each article of manufacture under my invention ³⁰ are adapted for isolation in the respective compartments of a collapsible envelope, until the moment of use, and are contained in the separate compartments of a bi-compartment collapsible tube as herein illustrated and de³³ scribed, and furthermore, as disclosed, illustrated and described' in my several previous patent applications. The following are the component parts of the compound formulae for a reacting dentifrice.

Contents of outer tube (white carbonate paste).

oz. calcium carbonate; 44 oz. gum tragacanth colloid, made by adding 30 oz. water to 1 oz. gum tragacanth, allowing the 75 same to stand for 24 hrs. and then adding 20 oz. of glycerine and 10 oz. of nulomoline, (nulomoline is the trade name for glucose or inverted sugar);

oz. sodium bicarbonate; (4 oz. potassium 80 chlorate or other oxygen yielding compound;

oz. corn starch powder; )4 oz. sodium benzoate; 160 drops tincture myrrh; and 20 drops oil of eucalyptus.

Contents of inner tube (pink acid paste).

oz. calcium phosphate precipitated, % oz. sodium benzoate; 48 oz. gum tragacanth colloid, made by adding 30 oz. water to 1 oz. gum tragacanth, allowing the same to stand ⁰⁰for 24 hrs. and then adding 20 oz. glycerine and 10 oz. nulomoline, (nulomoline is the trade name for glucose or inverted sugar);

oz. powdered sugar; 6 grammes phenol; 4½ oz. tartaric acid; % oz. citric acid; ··

100 drops oil wintergreen; and powdered litmus worked into paste and added to provide the orange vegetable color, or other suitable food color, such as amaranth and naphetal, as certified by the U. S. Depart- 1· ment of Agriculture.

In manufacturing these pastes, I use an electric motor driven stirring or mixing machine, and by inserting a wattmeter in the motor circuit I am enabled scientifically to Mi make the two pastes of the some consistency, or fluidity, or mobility, or to make the pink acid paste say 10% stiffer than the white carbonate paste.

It has been found in practice, that the gum 1U tragacanth employed as a colloidal binder here, will in time, at elevated temperature, such as encountered in hot summer weather in certain climates, or when stored in certain localities, adjacent to steam pipes, etc., 1U be hydrolyzed by the action of the sodium bicarbonate, for example, and will increase in fluidity, or mobility.

In order to maintain this gum tragacanth paste or colloidal substances at the same de- 1* gree of fluidity, or mobility, or substantially the same degree of fluidity or mobility, after the wattmeter control of motor manufacture, in the presence of the basic sodium bicarbonate after a lapse of time, or sub- IS jection to heat, or both, it is necessary to provide chemically, against these changes in fluidity. The addition of the corn starch powder, insoluble at ordinary temperature, in the white carbonate paste, prevents an

1,639,699 increase in fluidity or degree of mobility, of the paste or colloid, as a result of hydrolysis, because the powdered corn starch itself, normally insoluble, goes into solu5 tion, at the temperature of hydrolysis, and forms a starch colloid which automatically take the place of the tragacanth colloid, which has been hydrolyzed.

On the other hand, with the pink calcium io phosphate paste I may do likewise, but I find in practice that it is not necessary, with the above formulae, or formula; upon substantially the same lines, to provide for the hydrolysis of the tragacanth, since it does not appear to break down so freely in the presence or the dilute fruit acids used. With the above compound formula;, or with compound formulae on substantially the v same lines, I am enabled to subject my artide of manufacture, comprising the double collapsible tubes, and the chemical substances contained therein, to a temperature of 50° C. or over, for a long period of time or to a temperature of 100° for a reasonably ³ .°.('t ¹¹¹ tensive test period, without materially changing the respective fluidity, or mobility, of either of the two pastes. By ^aPPtyiⁿg these principles of manufacture and chemical colloidal control to my double so tube and contents, or novel article of manufacture, I secure and maintain equal, or substantially equal extrusion rates, or volumes of flow of substances from my tube, regardless of the point of external pressure appli·'> cation. In the same general way I am enabled to produce other satisfactory reacting toilet articles, together with other substances adapted for use in the arts and sciences, ^efl^ual>. ^or substantially equal, fluidities, at the time of manufacture and to provide for hydrolysis of the colloidal binder, for example, and for other chemical actions which would interfere with the maintenance of previously adjusted equal, ^J or substantially equal, fluidities or mobilities.

In some cases it is desirable to adjust this fluidity or mobility of the paste or colloids rn ^One, ^{wonld be more} or mobile, than ³ the other on account of tube thickness, compartment volumes, or areas of orifice, but in such a case, as in the previous cases, it is also of great importance to predesign chemically to maintain these respective physical fluidities, or mobilities, in spite of tempera- 55 ture or aging.

Furthermore, I have found for multiple compartment collapsible tubes of pliable material, that pastes or colloids, even if prepared of substantially equal degrees of fluid- 60 ity or mobility, must have a certain definite relative value of fluidity or mobility with relation, to the thickness and stiffness of the walls of the two tubes in order to extrude simultaneously in ,a satisfactory manner; 65 otherwise the smooth equal extrusion of the two colloids or pastes, is not easily promoted or maintained. I find, as a result of my researches, that pastes substantially stiffer than pastes or colloids produced by 70 the above described formula;, made at 80° C. do not flow as well in harmony in structurally associated tubes of commercial thickness when made of pure tin, the preferred metal. ' 75