Thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower
The present invention is an improved medicinal herb or tobacco smoking device making use of thermoelectric technology to increase performance over thermally passive systems, provides built-in self-cleaning properties, and utilizes easy to use electrical arrangement.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention broadly relates to the field of medicinal herbs and tobacco-related inhalation devices. Particularly, the present invention improves the quality and comfort of use by actively controlling smoke or vapors temperature.
2. Description of Prior Art
The use of water pipe for the consumption of medicinal herbs and tobacco was introduced in ancient time originating in Asia. The premise of these devices is to make use of a fluid, often water, as a mean to cool, filter, and moisten the smoke or vapors to reduce the harshness of such smoke or vapors. In modern times various inventions provide for various means of achieving such functions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,353 to Kahler (1977); U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,109 to Kahler (1977) for example describe inventions making use of serpentine or pluralities of liquid passageways to improve on the device ability to cool vapors of smoke. U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,950 to Bechtold (1979) describes the use of a solid-phase medium to achieve the cooling mean. Other prior arts, such as the invention in U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,031 to Clark (1999) disclose a mean for easier maintenance of such apparatus, and prior art U.S. Pat. No. 7,445,007 to Balch (2008) discloses an alternative mean to generate smoke or vapors.
It is a common limitation of the prior inventions to make use of the passive thermal exchange occurring between the smoke or vapors and the cooling media via various heat exchanger configurations. Practicality of use and manufacturing constraints of those devices in this field of use limits the extent to which the system's efficiency can be expanded. More particularly, high-efficiency ratio heat exchangers quickly reach size, technological advancements unpractical to this field of use. Other prior arts making use of solid-phase cooling medium, such as water-ice, does help increase the cooling capacity of such devices, but has the disadvantage of requiring user to plan for, and have access to such medium. A natural side effect of making use of such devices is their tendency to accumulate debris, as a result of the by-product of consuming tobacco or medicinal herbs, maintaining cleanness of such device, and therefore their ability to perform is an issue, some prior art do partially improve of this effect by allowing easier disassembly of the device for cleaning. Other prior art use a heat-based mean to generate smoke or vapors instead of flamed-based to alleviate such effect but not eliminate it and do not necessarily provide any cooling mean.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTIONWith the prior art cited in this disclosure in mind, it is a primary object of the present invention to alleviate or partially alleviate the disadvantages of the prior inventions by providing a novel mean to actively rather than passively affect the temperature of smoke or vapors in the field of devices for use with tobacco consumption and/or medicinal herbs.
It is another important aspect of the present invention to make use of phase-changing property of the cooling medium to induce a self-cleaning behavior of the device.
Other novel features and novel objects of this invention will become apparent in the following detailed description, accompanying drawings, and appended claims.
- 10 Invention
- 12 Water Cooling Tower
- 14 Receptacle
- 20 Thermoelectric Engine Assembly
- 40 Power Base
- 16 Medium/Media
- 17 Water Level
- 22 Cooling Rod
- 24 Thermoelectric Chip
- 26 Heat Sink
- 28 Fan
- 30 Water-proofing Seal
- 31 Water Cooling Tower Insulator
- 32 Thermoelectric Engine Insulator
- 33 Upper Enclosure
- 34 Lower Enclosure
- 35 and 36 Electrical Rings
- 42 and 44 Spring Electrical Contacts
- 46 Electrical Plug
The present invention provides the mean to actively change the temperature of vapors or smoke for human inhalation using thermoelectric technology. Turning to
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Principally, the present Invention utilizes thermoelectric technology to affect the temperature of vapors or smoke.
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As gas or vapors travel down Receptacle 14 and enter the bottom section of Water Cooling Tower 12, said gas or vapors become submerged in water. Said water temperature is actively changed by the Thermoelectric Engine Assembly 20. In a typical application, water is cooled by Thermoelectric Engine Assembly 20 to temperatures near water's freezing point. Gas or vapors are rapidly cooled by the water as they mix, delivering gas or vapors at much lower temperatures when they exit the system then without the aid of such device. Water is a very effective thermal transfer element, having a heat capacity of 4.18 joules per gram-Centigrade (j/g-c).
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Another important aspect of the present invention is its ability to build up and accumulate water in the form of ice on the surface of Cooling Rod 22 further increasing the performance of the heat exchange setup as ice has 100 times the heat-calorie absorbency versus liquid water. This unique configuration allows the device to cool vapors or smoke via both means of liquid water, and keeping said water at very near freezing temperature, even during active use, by the constant exposure to an ice layer built upon Cooling Rod 22, and where said ice layer continues to build upon itself so long the device is energized.
The invention's ability to build up an ice layer, also provides for another beneficial aspect of the present invention. Said ice layer provides a natural physical barrier between Cooling Rod 22 and debris resulting from the vaporization or burning of tobacco or herbal medicine media. Debris accumulation onto surfaces meant to cool vapors and smoke has always been a major shortcoming of this type of devices, some inventions even provide for easy access to internal parts for easier cleaning, but do not incorporate built-in means to alleviate of prevent such accumulation, the present invention remedies this issue by tackling the root cause of the effect, while still allowing for easy access to critical components where the bond between Water-proofing Seal 30 and Water Cooling Tower 12 is a non-permanent, user detachable interface, allowing user to remove Water Cooling Tower 12 and directly access Cooling Rod 22.
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Claims
1. A Thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower comprising:
- a water cooling tower for storing water therein;
- a receptacle for holding media to be vaporized or smoked;
- a thermoelectric engine assembly to cool or heat said water in said water cooling tower;
- a power base to electrically power said thermoelectric engine assembly.
2. A Thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower as claimed in claim 1, wherein said media vapors or smoke are drawn to said water cooling tower by way of externally applied depressurization at the top area of said water cooling tower and where said vapors or smoke are cooled or heated as they mix with said water.
3. A Thermoelectric Water cooling Tower as claimed in claim 1, wherein said thermoelectric engine assembly comprises a thermally conductive metallic rod, a thermoelectric chip, a metallic thermal exchanger, and an air circulating fan and where said thermoelectric chip is sandwiched between said thermally conductive metallic rod and said metallic thermal exchanger and where said thermally conductive metallic rod is at the bottom section of said water cooling tower and submerged in said water and affects the temperature of said water; further configured where said metallic thermal exchanger is ventilated by said air circulating fan.
4. A Thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower as claimed in claims 1 and 3, wherein said water cooling tower is fluid-sealed from said thermoelectric engine assembly by way of a seal compressed between said thermally conductive metallic rod and said water cooling tower and where said thermoelectric engine assembly is thermally insulated by way of thermally non-conductive materials and where said thermally non-conductive materials insulate said thermally conductive rod and said thermoelectric chip.
5. A thermoelectric water cooling Tower as claimed in claim 1 wherein said water cooling tower, receptacle, and thermoelectric engine assembly are mated together in an external enclosure and where said external enclosure is equipped at its bottom external face with 2 electrically conductive rings where one ring carries positive side electrical current and alternatively the other carries negative side electrical current.
6. A thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower as claimed in claim 1 where said power base comprises an nesting enclosure generally configure to provide structurally balanced and stable support, a non-slip resting surface, an electrical power receptacle and a pair of spring-loaded electrical contacts wherein said electrical power receptacle allows to connect Thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower to external power, wherein said spring-loaded electrical contacts are electrically connected to said electrical power receptacle respectively establishing positive side and negative side electrical current connections and where said non-slip resting surface is non-permanently friction fitted to bottom edge of said power base.
7. A thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower as claimed in claims 5 and 6 where said external enclosure nests onto said nesting enclosure and form a free vertical axis rotating interface and when said external enclosure is nested with said nesting enclosure said electrically conductive rings establish electrical connection with said spring-loaded electrical contacts and where said electrical connection remains at any angle of rotation of the free vertical axis rotating interface.
8. A Thermoelectric Water Cooling Tower as claimed in claim 3, where thermally conductive metallic rod enables the build-up of protective and performance-increasing layer of water-ice onto its surface.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 14, 2012
Publication Date: May 15, 2014
Inventors: Adam Lee Kling (Athens, TX), Regis Marie-Jean Wandres (Canton, TX), Mark Charles Kitchens (Athens, TX)
Application Number: 13/676,435
International Classification: A24F 1/30 (20060101);