Lunch bucket and beverage bottle combination

Claim 2

A lunch bucket and beverage bottle combination comprising: a. a lunch bucket having internal members dividing the interior thereof into a food compartment and a bottle compartment, said compartments being separate and unconnected with each other, sealed from each other internally of said bucket, and having separate, spaced apart openings outwardly from said bucket, b. a beverage bottle carried removably in said bottle compartment, the separate relation of said compartment preventing any possibility of liquid leaking from said bottle reaching said food compartment, c. a friction device operable when engaged to resist movement of said bottle from said bottle compartment through the outward opening of said compartment, and d. operating means carried by said bucket and operable selectively to engage or disengage said friction device.

Claim 3

The combination as recited in claim 1 wherein said operating means comprises a door carried by said bucket for movement between a closed position in which it closes the outward opening of said bottle compartment, and an open position in which it does not obstruct said outward opening, said door being operable to engage said friction device when it is closed, and to disengage said friction device when it is opened.

Claim 4

The combination as recited in claim 2 wherein said friction device is additionally operable to restrain said door frictionally in both its open position and in its closed position.

Claim 5

The combination as recited in claim 2 wherein said door is hinged to said bucket on an axis transverse to the direction of movement of said bottle as it is inserted into or removed from said bottle compartment, and wherein said friction device comprises an elongated leaf spring extending along a fixed bucket wall constituting a wall of said bottle compartment parallel to said direction of bottle movement, said spring being slidably connected intermediate its ends to said fixed bucket wall exteriorly to said bottle compartment, one end of said spring being hinged to said door on an axis parallel but eccentric to said door hinge, whereby said spring is moved longitudinally responsively to opening or closing of said door, and the opposite end of said spring being formed to present a protuberance which, when the door is closed, projects through an opening of said fixed bucket wall to engage a bottle in said bottle compartment, but which is moved out of registry with said wall opening when said door is opened, said spring being biased to press said protuberance against said bottle with substantial pressure, and said protuberance being rounded to be cammed out of said wall opening by said wall as said protuberance is moved out of registry with said opening.

Claim 6

The combination as recited in claim 4 wherein said spring protuberance moves out of registry with said fixed wall opening in a direction away from the outward opening of said bottle compartment as said door is opened, whereby when said door is closed and said protuberance engages said bottle, any tendancy of the bottle to move toward said door reacts longitudinally through said spring to force said door more tightly closed.