FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to the confectionery, restaurant, and culinary fields. More specifically, this invention is a set of chopsticks having at least one elongated stick with an internal duct for sipping through one end of a stick and is appropriate for use by: consumers of oriental food; patrons at restaurants, taverns, and other providers of same and ; chefs and other preparers of processed oriental foods. The invention also relates to other uses where oriental foods and fluids may be served, such as: hospitals, nursing homes, and vocational rehabilitation centers.

Background of the Invention:

A number of inventions have been made in the field of eating utensils and straws which offer alternatives to prior limitations of food and fluid movements. In a patent issued to Aykanian in 1969, U.S. Pat. No. 3,461,554, an invention was presented that offered a combination drinking straw and spoon. The implement, however, was fashioned in shape from a traditional straw mold, and end-cut so as to permit an upward bending to resemble, in part, a spoon. The device could always be utilized as a straw, but, only in part, as a spoon. In 1972, U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,369 was issued to Frodsham, which displayed an invention which attached or bonded a flat blade to the end of a straw. Finally, in 1975, Huntington was awarded U.S. Pat. No. 3,925,890, which presented a plastic spoon attachment into which a soda straw could' fit. Improvements on these straw/spoon combinations have occurred such as that of US 5,038,476 in which a baffle is placed in placed in the liquid uptake conduit in the utensil.

While, these combination straw/utensil inventions offered certain advantages, they did not address the traditional expectations of certain food consumers and users of eating utensils especially those in the oriental market. Conventional chopsticks are rods of round or square construction. Alternatively, the stick can be sectioned into an upper conical and lower rounded sections and these sections can be made from of different materials such as those chosen from plastic, wood, or stainless steel. Chopsticks have been used for hundreds of years as an eating utensil, mainly for Oriental cuisine. These are grasped in one hand and the user manipulates the pair of "sticks" to pick up food. For small pieces of food, such as rice, the user may pickup the bowl containing the grains, place the bowl close to his tips and use the chopsticks to shovel the grains into his mouth. As indicated, Chopsticks can be made in a variety of materials and are also available in re¬ usable form or disposable form.

While effective for Solids, the gripping and shoveling action of the chopsticks has its limitations. For consuming liquids such as soup, the user has to use a spoon or use the bowl containing the soup like a cup and drink directly from the bowl. In Oriental cuisine, it is usual for all the dishes, including soups to be served and consumed at the same time. Many dishes, such as noodle soup and ramen, are a combination of solids and liquid. As chopsticks alone are not effective, the user often has to use both hands, one holding the chopsticks and the other holding a spoon. If the user uses one hand only, he has to change utensil frequently, depending on whether he feels like consuming a solid or a liquid. Summary of the Invention

This invention contemplates the use of a traditionally-shaped chopstick, containing an internal duct, to allow alternate means of consumption: by stick-bowl conveyance or by sipping/suction. My invention conforms to the usual shape of the mouth while eating just as in the case of a straw. Alternatively, the lip portion of the stick stem can be rimmed to accommodate either pursed or relaxed lips. The salient characteristic of the instant sipping-chopstick is the internal duct. It can be a uniform annular orifice or can be slightly-widened at the orifice at either the entrance base or the lip end of the stick and follows the general longitudinal shape of the stick.

The invention is specifically directed to a set of chopsticks with at least one stick having an open ended annular cylindrical channel or bore traversing its longitudinal length in the nature of a straw. As chop¬ sticks are used in pairs, the bore or hole can be on both sticks or only on one for effectiveness of the invention.

The bored or hollow chopsticks retain the functions of the traditional chopsticks for gripping and shoveling solid foods. In addition, the user of the instant chopstick/straw utensil can also consume soup or any other liquid by placing the bottom of the stick in the liquid and sucking on the top end with his mouth to draw up the liquid in the manner of sipping through a straw. The user does not have to put down the chopsticks to pick up a spoon or bowl. With the present straw/ chopstick combination, the spoon is rendered redundant and unnecessary. The user can choose to sip on a pair of bored sticks or only on one such stick. Of course, the invention is not material dependent and can be applied to re-usable and disposable chopsticks.

In another embodiment of the invention fluid backflow may be prevented by use of a baffle between the intake orifice and the aspiration (outflow) end of the instant chopstick/straw invention. The one way design stops the liquid from re-entering or fouling the fluid food item, thereby keeping the contents of the fluid container fresh and unsoiled. The baffle has alternate and usual forms of application drawn from various fields of art such as medical, plumbing, boiler etc.. The baffle placement can be made at any location upward from the intake end of the present chopstick/straw item. The preferred location is near the intake- end of the stick shaft to have minimal fluid content maintained in the sipping chopstick.

Other embodiments of the instant chopstick/straw invention include use of a curvatured flue attached to the outtake end of the stem for better lip accessibility to a user and lip shaped attachments for the convenience of the consumer. The curvatured flue can be constructed of a corrugated bellows portion whereby the lip sipping portion or the straw is flexible and easily drawn to ones mouth.

Α still further embodiment of the instant straw/chopstick utensil include corrugated portions along the sidewalls of the chopstick, the corrugations positioned to enhance either the user's hand gripping of the sticks and/or the grasping of the food. Brief Description of the Drawings

Fig. 1 is a side cross-sectional perspective view of the chopstick and straw utensil of the instant invention demonstrating an open orifice in the stem member of the utensil.

Fig. 2 is a frontal plan view of one of the tapered shaped chopsticks of the instant invention.

Fig. 3 is a side vertical view of one of the instant chopsticks illustrating an upper rectilinear stem tapering down to a cylindrical base.

Fig 4 is a cross-sectional cut-away view of the chopstick of Fig. 2 taken along line 4-4 of Fig. 2 illustrating the bore linearly transversing the entire chopstick.

Fig. 5A and 5B are sectional views of baffle details used in the instant invention.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of a flue/mouth piece used in the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 depicts a side cross-sectional perspective view of the chopstick eating utensil 10 of the instant invention. The utensil includes a straw duct section formed from a central bore tubular member 12 having an aspiration port 14 at the stem end and a fluid intake port 15 at the food handling end of the chopstick. This chopstick is of a selected length comprising a top end 16, a bottom food handling end 17, the undefined region 18 between which acts as the hand manipulation region. This region 18 can have a corrugation, or finger grooved or other friction indentation, so as to enhance hand manipulation of the stick by a utensil user.

As shown in plan view Fig. 2, the shape of the chop stick 20 is in the form of a rectilinear upper stem 22 converting to a tapered cylindrical lower food handling portion 24. Also shown it a corrugated portion 26 at the food handling end of the stick 20 comprising a series of axially spaced corrugations extending substantially entirely about the sidewall of the utensil 20 for enhanced food grasping. Further shown is a roughened corrugated portion disposed about the entire sidewall in the upper middle hand manipulation region 28 (shown as 18 of Fig. 1) and comprised of axially spaced lines or corrugations extending entirely about the sidewall of the stick for enhanced hand grasping.

The thickness of the stick at any point is the measure of the diameter of the internal duct 12 of Fig. 1 and the material construction. Of course the shape of the instant chopstick-straw utensil is not critical as long as there is material construction about the duct so that the stick is firm in construction and when employed with another stick can manipulate and carry food.

Turning to Fig. 3 there is depicted an upright version of the instant chopstick/straw invention. As shown, the pair of chopsticks 30 are rectilinear at the stem end 32 and taper to a cylindrical food gripping or handling end 34. Throughout the body of at least one of the sticks runs a hollow cylindrical bore which is open at each end to enable the sticks to function as a straw (not shown in this Fig. 3.) .

In Fig. 4 is an upright vertical cross-sectional view of the present chopstick/straw invention along line 4-4 of Fig. 2. The single chopstick 40 includes a tubular bore 41 in the form of a straw open at both aspiration stem end 43 and fluid intake port 45, an upper stem portion 47, and a base portion 49. Since the member 40 must be capable of transporting fluid contents and also supporting food during food excavation and scooping, the member 40 must be sufficiently rigid in carrying out each of these functions. It is to be appreciated that the central bore need not be uniformly cylindrical throughout but in fact may have varying diameters as long as the bore functions as a fluid transporting medium in the nature of a straw.

As indicated above, a baffle can be placed in the central bore of the present chopstick/straw invention to avoid backflow of fluid being consumed and possible contamination of the fluid food which may be communally accessed, i.e. a soup bowl for a number of people. While not shown in Fig. 4, the baffle can be locked between the upper stem portion 47 and the fluid intake base portion 49. Of course more than one baffle can be employed. A typical baffle means is displayed in Fig. 5A and 5B in the form of a tricuspid valve well known in the valve arts. Fig. 5A displays the position of the tricuspid valve with flaps 53 in the closed position, securing an air lock, thereby preventing fluid backflow. Fig. 5B displays the tricuspid flaps in an open position 55, revealing the open bore 56; when suction is applied to the mouth intake end of the chopstick (43 of Fig. 4) causing the flaps to open, the air lock of the closed position to be broken, and the fluid to begin or continue a one¬ way flow from the orifice at the base intake (45) upward along the conduit 41 to the stem and exiting at the handle/mouth end orifice 43 of the chopstick. The flaps 53 are made of pliable means material, such as thin plastic, which when open give the appearance or a triangle 53. The passage width is a function of the measure or the triangular sides or the equilateral-type tricuspid opening.

Fig. 6 depicts a flue/mouthpiece combination 60 which can be used as a further embodiment of the instant invention. The flue 60 is of the same general shape and has a conduit bore 61 of the same general diameter (or rectangular dimension) as the shaft 47 of Fig. 4 and effectively extends orifice 43 of that Figure. The flue has a pleated corrugated portion 63 which can be bent at that portion. As such the flue shaped by the shaft can be equilaterally affixed to the chopstick 40 (Fig. 4) and function as a mouthpiece extender or it can be bent and affixed angularly at 45° (or at any angle) from the perpendicular to accommodate a user more comfortably. A multiple of items can be attached to the mouth end of instant chopstick/straw invention and these would be a function of standard commercial designs, where the attachment length accommodates the various sizes, shapes and lengths of the instant chopstick/straw invention. As shown, the stem 62 attachment widens slightly in the form of a collar 65 for more accommodative mouthing. As is apparent any number of attachment designs can be used in combination with the instant invention.

It is to be further appreciated that while all the embodiments shown in Figs. 1-4 herein demonstrate an annular or cylindrical bored shaft channel linearly transversing the entire length of the a stick instrument commencing at the bottom point food entry end (see legend 45 of Fig. 4) and terminating in the very top food consuming point exit (see legend 43 of Fig. 4) . There are alternative channel geometries equally functional and well within the purview of the present invention. For example, the food flow channel of the chopstick could be curved, spiraled or otherwise configured within the stick- Moreover, the food exit or entry orifices can be located any where along the chopstick provided a sipping straw functionality remains. For example, the food flow channel could be linear throughout most of the stick' s length and curve or bend and exit as orifices near both ends of the stick. The orifices in such a stick have to be located near enough to the top and bottom ends of the chopstick so as to allow mouth access at the top end for drawing in food by sipping and low enough at the bottom end to draw in the allocated food in a bowl. In this way the food ingress or entry point can be arranged above the food handling point end of the stick. Likewise, sipping of food can occur at a level below the upper end point of the chopstick.

The materials of the instant chopsticks can be any rigid material such as plastic, wood, or stainless steel. The plastic chopsticks of the present invention are formed by conventional molding techniques from relatively rigid, non-toxic plastics, preferably those are which are relatively inexpensive such as PVC (unplasticized or only slightly plasticized with nontoxic plasticizer) , polystyrene or polyolefin, e.g. polypropylene or polyethylene. Of course, more expensive plastics can also be used, but those are not preferred. If desired, the plastics can be colored by suitable non-toxic pigments or dyes.

For plastic materials, conventional molding techniques can be used. Preferably, the chopsticks of the present invention are formed by blow molding or extrusion, followed by reshaping the ends to close same. Injection molding followed by reshaping the ends to close same can also be used. Preferably, however, a preform is formed by extrusion or injection molding followed by reshaping using blow molding or suction molding, in turn followed by reshaping the ends to close same.

Of course well known grooving technology can be used for wood, plastic, or metal materials of which the instant chopsticks are constructed. For example, wooden slats could be cut, grooved and laminated to form the chopsticks using presently available pencil manufacturing technology. Additionally, simple boring of a stick version of any solid material could be enlisted to prepare the instant chopstick eating utensils.

As noted above, the plastics utilized according to the invention are not only non-toxic and inexpensive, but preferably are those which are relatively stiff, because the finished chopstick must be sufficiently stiff so as to resist bending during usage. In view of the stiffness requirements, it is desirable to have a wall thickness which is relatively great compared to, for example, a drinking straw. In practice, it has been found that depending on the precise plastic material used, the wall thickness should be at least about a minimum of 10% of the average width or diameter of the tube. If the wall thickness reaches about 20% of the average width or the diameter of the tube, increased thickness of the wall does not result in any substantial further benefit and the cost increases because of the greater quantity of plastic material used. Thus, it is preferred that the wall thickness be about 10-20% of the average width or diameter of the tube.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore the scope or the invention should be determined by the appended claims than by the variations provided.