Measuring dispenser

Claim 1

A measuring dispenser for flowable material having the combination of a hopper having an elongate aperture in the bottom thereof, an elongate sleeve member joined with the hopper and having a pair of longitudinally extending slots in the wall thereof, one of said slots communicating with said aperture and the other slot being located substantially diametrically opposite thereto, a receptacle alignable with said other slot, an elongate barrel member rotatable in the sleeve member and comprising a plurality of measuring portions mutally longitudinally displaced along the barrel axis, each portion comprising a single closed-ended recess of predetermined volumetric capacity, the recesses each having an open end in a wall of the barrel member alignable with each of said slots by rotation of the barrel member, said open ends being mutually angularly displaced about the axis of the barrel member and the volumes of the recesses being such that, by rotation of the barrel member in a filling direction from an initial angular position through less than 360 degrees to a limit angular position, the recesses are aligned sequentially with said aperture in the hopper until all of the recesses are filled, and means rotatable with the barrel member for indicating said initial and limit positions and at least one intermediate angular position, wherein a plurality less than all of said recesses are filled by rotation of said barrel member to said intermediate angular position in said filling direction, whereby upon reverse rotation of the barrel member the filled recesses are successively aligned with said other slot and emptied into said receptacle.