Drinking-water service system for athletes

Claim 1

A drinking-water service system for supplying individual cylindrical containers of drinking water to athletes comprising: a storage and dispensing unit for storing a plurality of cylindrical drinking-water containers having a bottom and a top end and dispensing therefrom individually said cylindrical drinking-water containers to athletes participating in athletic events; said unit having a storage space for receiving and storing a plurality of said cylindrical drinking-water containers for semi-automatically sequentially dispensing individually the cylindrical drinking-water containers to athletes; means defining in said storage space a multi-stage storage and delivery control passageway having an inlet opening and a plurality of sequential contiguous sections downstream thereof including a rolling section generally inclined downwardly for receiving and storing a plurality of the cylindrical drinking-water containers disposed in a side-by-side sequence each extending longitudinally in a horizontal position and gravity-biased to roll along any inclined path defined by said rolling section of said passageway, an uprighting section of said multi-stage passageway receiving individual cylindrical drinking-water containers from said rolling section and having surfaces effectively causing each horizontal longitudinally extending cylindrical drinking-water container received successively to assume a substantially upright position for travel downwardly in said uprighting section with said bottom thereof lower than said top end, a dispensing section in said passageway receptive of individual cylindrical drinking-water containers sucessively from said uprighting section and having internal surfaces guiding downward travel in an upright position the individual cylindrical drinking-water containers received, said dispensing section having a lower dispensing outlet opening of said passageway through which said cylindrical drinking-water containers are semi-automatically dispensed from said passageway under control of gravity; a horizontal stand surface spaced downwardly from the dispensing outlet opening for individual cylindrical drinking-water containers to descend free of said passageway onto said stand surface in an upright position and maintain a next successive cylindrical drinking-water container extending downwardly partially outwardly of said passageway through said outlet opening; a plurality of flexible retainers extending downwardly of said outlet opening circumferentially spaced relative thereto for effectively retaining circumferentially an upper part of individual successively dispensed cylindrical drinking-water containers aligned with said outlet opening and said individually dispensed cylindrical water containers retaining a next sucessive cylindrical drinking-water container in said dispensing section extending downwardly partially outwardly of said outlet opening; and said flexible retainers terminating spaced above said stand and a lower part of the individual cylindrical drinking-water containers dispensed onto said stand surface so that the individual cylindrical drinking-water containers can be manually grasped below the retainers and removed from the stand surface and the next cylindrical drinking-water container dispensed onto the stand surface under control of gravity.