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Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity
"Heavenly Avarice" first appeared in the October 2001 issue of Touchstone.
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Heavenly Avarice
The Theology of Prayer & Aspiration
by Robert Crouse
Regarded from the standpoint of human psychology, and as a phenomenonof universal religious practice, prayer appears to be simply the articulation of human desires, human longings, and human aspirations. "My soul is athirst for God," cries the Psalmist, and it is indeed that thirst, that desire for God, which—whether acknowledged or merely implicit—underlies and impels every quest of the human spirit.
"All men by nature desire to know," says Aristotle at the beginning of his Metaphysica.1 But what is it that they desire to know? They long to know the reasons of things, the causes, the truth of things; finally to know that truth by which and in which all things have their truth. Thus Dante, in the Paradiso, compares the intellect's desire to a wild beast racing to its den, where alone it can find rest.2 What are all our sciences, what are all our fragments of knowledge but droplets from that fountain of which we long to drink in all its fullness? "My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God."
What is our quest for happiness, but a desire for the good; and what is that good we seek—whether knowingly or not—but some participation in the pure and perfect good that is God himself? What is our quest for liberty, but our longing for God's own city, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is above, and is free, and is the mother of us all? "My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God" (Ps. 84:2). What is our quest for beauty, but a longing for that pure and perfect beauty which belongs to Zion; and what are all our fragmentary images of beauty, whether in music, or painting, or sculpture, or poetry, or whatever human arts, but pallid reflections of the unimaginable beauty of the countenance of God? "My heart hath talked of thee, Seek ye my face: thy face Lord, will I seek. O hide not thou thy face from me: nor cast thy servant away in displeasure" (Ps. 27:8–9).
Desire of the Pilgrim
Desire takes so many forms, and speaks with so many different voices. High up in the mountains of central Italy, in Abruzzo, there is a tiny, isolated hamlet called Bominaco; and near that place, in a solitary spot on a mountainside, there is a supremely lovely twelfth-century church, with frescoes, sculpture, and architectural lines of such exquisite beauty as to move one to tears. The pastor of Bominaco sums up the meaning of the place in one phrase: "insonne desiderio di Dio": unsleeping desire for God. It is the soul's thirst, articulated in stone. "One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will require, even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life: to behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to visit his temple" (Ps. 27:4).
All human desire, all human longing and aspiration, expressed in a thousand different forms, at a thousand different levels, is ultimately desire for God. Dante makes that point lucidly in the Convivio:
Prayer is the interpretation, the articulation of all this desire: the soul's ceaseless desire for God; and prayer is therefore, indeed, as George Herbert describes it, "soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage."4 Indeed, the desire is itself the substance of the prayer, as St. Augustine remarks in one of his sermons: "Desire itself prays, even if the tongue be still. If you always desire, always you pray. When does prayer sleep? Only when desire grows cold."5 St. Thomas Aquinas makes the same point in his commentary on the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, when he says that "desire itself has the force of prayer,"6 and Richard Hooker sums it up in a comment in the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, where he remarks that "Every good and holy desire, though it lack the form, hath notwithstanding in itself the substance and with him the force of a prayer, who regardeth the very moanings, groans and sighs of the heart of man."7
The articulation of desire, the articulation of human longings and aspirations: from the standpoint of human psychology and universal religious practice, that is the meaning of prayer. It is homesickness for God. "My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth after thee: in a barren and dry land where no water is."(Ps. 63:1).
But looked at only in that perspective—the perspective of human aspiration and human experience—it has inevitably a tragic character, because it seeks an end that human energy and human ingenuity can never attain: It seeks the divine life, it seeks divine friendship, it seeks to be as God. That is tragic hubris, the tragic pride of human aspiration, whether one thinks of that in terms of the biblical accounts of the expulsion from the garden, and the destruction of the Tower of Babel, or whether one thinks of the fate of the heroes of Greek tragic poetry; for the divine life and the divine friendship appear to be, as Aristotle remarks, "a life too high for man."8
Remember how the temple of the oracle at Delphi bore the inscription gnothi seauton, "know thyself"9—know that you are a man and not a god, and do not transgress the human limits. The end of our desire must remain eternally beyond us, as in Keats's meditation on the figures of the lovers painted on a Grecian urn, poised there forever in the moment just before the kiss: "Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal."10 There is, of course, in such a spirituality a terrible hopelessness, perhaps most fully manifest in the desperate religiosity of the last great pagan philosophers,11 and perhaps less nobly manifest in some of the bizarre religious enthusiasms of our own times.
But what is the alternative? To deny the desire is to reduce the quest for truth to idle curiosity or pedestrian utility, the quest for happiness to selfish self-indulgence, and the quest for beauty to the search for emotional "highs." It is to fall into that pusillanimity of spirit that Dante so marvelously describes as the vestibule of hell, where life is but the futile pursuit of an empty figment. "Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa," says Virgil, "Let us not speak of them, but look and pass on."12 "O turn away mine eyes," cries the Psalmist, "lest they behold vanity" (Ps. 119:37)—lest they behold emptiness. "My tears have been my meat day and night, while they say daily unto me, Where is now thy God?" (Ps. 42:3).
Prayer as Divine Gift
To such an account of human prayer as human desire, Christian theology would add another, and more profound, and for Christian prayer, altogether crucial perspective, in the recognition of prayer as divine gift in creation and redemption, inspired by the divine Word and moved by the divine Spirit.
St. Augustine makes the point in a famous passage at the beginning of the Confessions. "It is thou, O God, who dost rouse mankind to delight in praising thee, for thou has made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in thee."13 In another passage, near the end of the Confessions, he comments more fully on the meaning of that unquiet heart:
The activity of prayer is thus the activity of love's conversion, the activity of rational will aspiring and ascending towards its true, eternal good. But what is the impulse, the spring of this ascent, this pondus, this "weight" of love? It is the natural God-given desire of the created soul, "the concreated and everlasting thirst for God's own realm,"15 inspired by the fire of the spirit, which burns within the soul. And just as fire, by the compulsion of its very nature, rises upwards, so the soul moves to desire, and finds no rest until it finds rejoicing in the final object of its love.
But whereas in the realm of nature all things are created in number, measure and weight, and by their very natures, by their rising and decline, infallibly seek the good in ordered and harmonious praise of the creator, human love is the activity of free and rational will. And therein lies the possibility of wayward love: a love that fixes upon some finite good as though that were the absolute and perfect good.
Thus, in human life, love becomes distorted, perverted, and frustrated, and leads the soul to slavery—subservience to the sensible, to idle curiosity, and vain ambition, subject to all the demons of the present age. And thus, the true freedom of the will is lost; the fire of love is, as it were, extinguished, frozen in a dark abyss of alienation and despair, and prayer is dead. But still, somehow, the thirst is there, if only in a half-recognized sense of emptiness and futility: "Like as the hart desireth the water, even so my soul longeth after thee, O God."
That text from Psalm 42 is marvelously illustrated in the great twelfth-century mosaic (just now beautifully restored) that adorns the apse of the ancient Church of San Clemente, in Rome. In that picture, the harts come to drink of the streams of paradise that flow from the Garden of Eden, which is also the hill of Calvary, surmounted by the Tree of Life, which is also the Cross of Christ. There is much more symbolic richness in that astonishing mosaic,16 but the essential point for us now is just this: It is through the Cross of Christ that the ancient enmity, the old and ever new alienation, is overcome, and the streams of grace flow out to renew the spiritual life of mankind, and give rebirth to prayer.
Into the Deepest Mystery
It is through the Cross of Christ that the gates of prayer are truly opened. Prayer is, indeed, the articulation of human desire; but Christian theology sees it as properly much more than that. By the Cross, we are raised up, no longer just clients, so to speak, but friends of God; and prayer becomes the conversation, the communication of friends. As St. Thomas remarks, in his meditations on St. John 15 (Jesus' Last Supper Discourse), Our Savior calls his disciples "friends," and calls them to converse together in the proper condition of friendship. Friends delight in each other's presence, and find comfort there in their anxieties. We are made friends with God, he dwelling in us, and we in him. We are no longer servants, but friends, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15).17
The great Puritan divine, Richard Baxter, makes just the same point as St. Thomas, specifically with reference to the Lord's Supper, wherein, he says, "we have the fullest intimation, expression and communication of the wondrous love of God."
It is, of course, a token of the intimacy of divine and human friendship that in the language of prayer, in English as in many other languages, we are privileged to use the intimate, second person singular forms, the "thee" and "thou" and "thine" of intimate friends, rather than the public and formal plurals. Prayer is the conversation of intimate friends. But the theology of Christian prayer takes us even beyond the intimacy of friendship: "Your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3): "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). We dwell not only in God's presence, as friends, but we dwell in him and he in us, and rightly does George Herbert speak of prayer as "God's breath in man returning to his birth."19
Indeed, in prayer we are taken up into the deepest mystery of the divine life, in the relations of being, knowing, and loving, which are the Holy Trinity. Through the gift of the Spirit, the Word of God engraces our hearts to cry, "Abba, Father," and thus we have our places in that eternal outgoing and return of the divine Word and Spirit, the divine self-knowing, and the bond of love that unites the knowing and the known.
Thus our prayer approaches God not from outside, as it were, but from within, "through Jesus Christ our Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit"; that is to say, our prayer is within the knowing and willing of God, with the divine Providence. In a right understanding of prayer, it can stand in no ultimate opposition to divine Providence, because its whole point, really, is to place our life freely within God's will, in knowledge and love; and our prayers accomplish precisely what God's eternal Providence, the source of all order in the world, has eternally willed to accomplish by them. They are the free agents of Providence, the free, rational, and willing instruments of grace. God's grace descends, and ascends again in prayer. As Richard Hooker beautifully expresses it:
God's grace descends, and ascends again in prayer. Thus prayer is God's gift to us: God's work in us and our life in God, the redemption of desire. As St. Paul explains, all who are in Christ are, by God's grace, new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), and our prayer is our participation in that new life of grace, converting us, setting straight our love, transforming, transfiguring, "transhumanizing" us (to borrow Dante's special word, transumanar).21
And at this level, when we speak of prayer, we're not speaking just of particular acts of prayer, or occasional prayer, but of prayer as a condition of life in continual conversion, continual reference to God. That is habitual prayer, that state in which, according to the magnificent Prayer Book collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, God so orders our unruly wills and affections that we love what he commands and desire what he promises, so that our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found. In that condition of habitual prayer, that state of being in prayer, as John Donne says in one of his sermons, "that soul prays sometimes when it does not know that it prays."22
Glorious & Hard
In Christ, we are new creations, born anew, no longer at enmity, but friends of God. Our reconciliation has been accomplished, once for all; for Christ's sake, we are accounted friends of God. But in another sense, our reconciliation is not complete, and will not be complete, until we come to know as we are known and to love as we are loved. Thus, there is the tension between a justification, divinely wrought and finished once for all, and a sanctification, which is being worked out within us day by day. Prayer reaches out, in faith and hope, across that space.
In that reaching out of prayer, precisely because it is by faith, trials and temptations, the dark night of doubt, confusion and uncertainty, are not just unfortunate accidents. In God's good Providence, they belong to the very life of faith, for faith must be tried, like precious metal, "which from the earth is tried, and purified seven times in the fire" (Ps. 12:6; 1 Pet. 1:7). As St. Ignatius of Antioch puts it, our desire is crucified: "My love," he says, "my eros is crucified."23 Perhaps the trials take different forms in one age or another, and different forms for each of us. Those trials are necessary, and must be embraced. Indeed, as St. James says, we must "count it all joy, knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience. Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire" (James 1:2–4).
Certainly, the confusions of the world in which we live, uncertainties within the Church, and confusions within our own souls present us with problems and dilemmas, in which it is surely not easy to "count it all joy"! But that is precisely the nature of our calling, and by the grace of God, who gives manna in the desert, and water from the rock, we are not without resources. The church's time of persecution is God's time of preparation, and it is in exile that the bride is prepared for her husband. As Thomas Traherne puts it, "Our very rust shall cover us with gold."24
In this mixed time, which is both glorious and hard, we are not without resources. We do possess, in faith, God's word of reconciliation, committed unto us. We do possess, in faith, God's work for us, God's word to us, made audible in Holy Scripture, made sensible in Holy Sacraments, if we will but attend with minds and hearts obedient and penitent. We do possess, in faith, the gift of God's Spirit to lead us into truth. We do possess, if we will, in the community of faith, centuries of wisdom and experience—none of it irrelevant—words and images of prayer and sanctity that will come alive for us, if we will give them (as to the shades in Homer's Hades) the living blood of our own labors to drink. It seems to me terribly important and urgent that we do our best to reclaim that great heritage of prayer and spiritual discipline that is ours especially as Anglicans in our great tradition of common prayer.
The practice of Christian spirituality, our life of prayer, presents us, no doubt, with many difficulties. But only one of these difficulties is, I think, really fundamental; and that is the demoralizing of the Christian mind and heart, and the demoralizing of the Christian community, which we bring upon ourselves when we forget our calling, and fall into a mindless conformity to the spirit of the present age—the ambitio saeculi, as St. Augustine calls it.25 Secular ideals, secular methods and measures insidiously invade our consciousness, and pollute the springs of prayer. We lose heart, and fall back into a hopeless neo-pagan spirituality.
The only true remedy lies in the steady cultivation of the Christian virtues of faith and hope and charity,26 holding on to the centuries of Christian wisdom, holding fast to our road of pilgrimage. What is essentially required is the practical upbuilding, among us and within us, of the life of penitential adoration, the life of habitual prayer. With such graces, may God now refurbish his house. If this conference has given us a little clearer insight into what that means, and if it has given us any morsel of encouragement to renew our disciplines of prayer, it has indeed been blessed by God, to whom be everlasting praise and glory.
1. Aristotle, Metaphysics, I, 1 (980a 21).
2. Dante, Divine Comedy, Paradiso, IV, 127–129, Dante Alighieri. Tutte le opere, ed. L. Blasucci (Florence, 1981), p. 631.
3. Dante, Convivio, IV, 12, ed. cit., pp. 176–177, tr. R.D.C.; cf. Augustine, Enarr. in ps. LXII, 5, CCL, 39, 796.
4. George Herbert, "Prayer," The Oxford Book of Christian Verse, p. 139.
5. Augustine, Sermon LXXX, 7, PL, 38, 497; cf. A. Cacciari, S. Agostino d'Ippona. La preghiera. Epistola 130 a Proba (Rome, 1981), p. 48.
6. Thomas Aquinas, Super epist. s. Pauli lectura, Vol. II (Marietti, 1953), I ad Thessal., 130, p. 189.
7. Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, ed. J. Keble, Works of Hooker (Oxford, 21841) Vol. II, V, xlvii, 2, p. 201.
8. Aristotle, Nichomachaen Ethics, X, 7 (1177b 25); cf. Metaphysics, XII, 7 (1072b 15–20). On the impossibility of friendship with God, Nic. Ethics, VIII, 7 (1158b 35–1159a 5).
9. For the history of interpretation of the maxim, see P. Courcelle, Connais-toi toi-méme de Socrate à saint Bernard (Paris, 1974).
10. John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn."
11. Cf. G. Reale, L'estremo messaggio spirituale nel mondo antico nel pensiero metafisico e teurgico di Proclo, introductory lecture in C. Faraggiana di Sarzana, trans. Proclo. I Manuali (Milan, 1985) pp. v–ccxxiii.
12. Dante, Divine Comedy, Inferno, ed. cit., III, 51, p. 396.
13. Augustine, Confessions, I, 1.
14. Ibid. XIII, 9 (tr. R.D.C.). For a full discussion, see A. DiGiovanni, L'inquietudine dell' anima. La dottrina dell' amore nelle "Confessioni" di S. Agostino (Rome, 1964).
15. Dante, Divine Comedy, Paradiso, ed. cit., II, 19–20, p. 622.
16. For a detailed description, see L. Boyle, A Short Guide to St. Clements', Rome (Rome, 1972), pp. 26–32.
17. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, IV, 22; cf. Super Evan. S. Jo. lect., XV, ed. Marietti, lect. 3, 1–4, pp. 379–382.
18. Richard Baxter, Works, III, 816, as quoted in J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness (Wheaton, Illinois, 1980), pp. 213–214.
19. George Herbert, Prayer, ed. cit., p. 139.
20. Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, ed. cit., V, xxiii, p. 115.
21. Dante, Divine Comedy, Paradiso, ed. cit., I, 70, p. 619.
22. John Donne, Sermon 12, in G. Potter and E. Simpson, eds., The Sermons of John Donne (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962) Vol. IV, p. 310.
23. Ignatius of Antioch, Ep. to the Romans, VII (ed. K. Bihlmeyer, Die Apostolischen Väter (Tübingen, 1956) I, 16, p. 100.
24. Thomas Traherne, "Christian Ethics," in The Oxford Book of Christian Verse, p. 287.
25. St. Augustine, Confessions, X, 30, 41.
26. Cf. R. Crouse, "Hope Which Does Not Disappoint: The Path to Genuine Renewal," in G. Egerton, ed., Anglican Essentials (Toronto, 1995), pp. 286–291.
Robert Crouse is professor emeritus of Classics, Dalhousie and King's Universities, Halifax, Nova Scotia, an Anglican priest of the diocese of Nova Scotia, and canon theologian of the diocese of Saskatchewan. This year, he is also adjunct professor of Classics at Dalhousie University, adjunct professor of Theology at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania, and visiting professor of Patrology, Augustinian Patristic Institute, Pontifical Lateran University, Rome. This is a paper from a Western Canadian Theological Conference, published in The Lord Is Nigh: The Theology and Practice of Prayer, M. Treschow, ed. (Kelowna, B.C.: Sparrow's Editing, 1997), 74–78. The title, "Heavenly Avarice," is taken from Thomas Traherne's poem, "Desire."
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Two consummate egotistical losers — and blowhards to boot — will emerge from well-deserved anonymity to recommend higher taxes and no freedom.
Former Wyoming Republican Sen. Alan Simpson will join former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles to lead the elite18-member debt commission convening Tuesday — a panel appointed by Democrats and Republicans to come up with a plan to save America from its spendthrift ways.
The "elite" crew is actually a third-rate bunch of millionaire publicity- and power-grovelers. The only thing missing is Warren Rudman.
The cowardly congress, as usual, doesn't want to do the heavy lifting itself, so they pass it off to semi-authoritative, unelected illuminati. We should throw them all out and hire members who will fire Simpson, Erskine, and about two million more. Country'll grow.4:13 pm on April 27, 2010 Email Christopher Manion

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Maxfield Parrish"Lusisti Satis"...Finally we found ourselves sitting silent on an upturned wheelbarrow,...etc."
pencil, chalk, pen and ink, and ink wash
14 7/16 x 9 7/8 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Olin Dows
One of Maxfield Parrish's friends explained the charm and appeal of his black and white illustrations for Kenneth Grahame's The Golden Age: "Try as you may, you cannot locate any of the quaintly capricious beings or the backgrounds, natural or architectural, against which they are amassed. All you know is that they belong to a place where one is ever young, and that they spontaneously awaken in you memories of having once been there yourself."


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posted by Greg .
what are major similarities and differences among the different religious groups like Atheist, Buddhist Baptist, Catholic, Protestant, Methodist, Hindu, Islam, Jehovah's
Witnesses, Mormon Sikh Judaism
Oh, my!
This is an impossible question to answer with less than a 500-page book. And even that would only scratch the surface of these religions.
You can go on forever comparing and contrasting these. Try first organizing them into groups based off of common beliefs, (such as putting all branches of Christianity into one group) and focus on the core beliefs of each group. You can begin with Atheist and discuss that this group is without religion, and can continue comparing it with Agnostics. But unless if you have to write a long essay on this, try keeping it brief and concise.
that is my problem it is suppose to be a 350-500 word summary and I will never be able to do it in that many words
this is what I have wrote so far
There are many types of religions that exist in our world. With the emergence of so many cultures in the United States comes the existence of numerous religious views. While religions may differ in their goals and in the way they envision and present the significance of their activities, there is nevertheless a basic structure which can be found in every religion. Most of the leading religions have shared a number of characteristics, some of them are belief in a deity, a doctrine of salvation, a code of conduct, the use of sacred stories and religious rituals. Its basic characteristic is the relationship between humankind and God or lack thereof. The ideas of one family of religions, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the belief of one God.
That's a good start -- but it's unnecessarily long -- considering the amount of material you need to cover.
I suggest you organize your paper as Ms. Lila suggested.
what is a saying or a poem for dyer in the renassices


text:
The official MYTHIC BATTLES : PANTHEON message board.
good, place, official, mythic, battles, #pantheon, message, board
Home of the Pantheon Templars. Pantheon Templars
#pantheon, templars
Mythic Battles : Pantheon Dutch Forum
Greek mythology
A text based RPG adventure. Literally write the world around you. Create a character and take your place in Ultras pantheon of heroes.
ultra, text, based, adventure, literally, write, world, character, place, ultras, #pantheon, heroes
Closed to the public. This is where I am checking the functionality of phpBB for what can be used for the Pantheon PnW alliance.
#pantheon, test, closed, public, checking, functionality, phpbb, alliance


text:
JERUSALEM (Nov. 24)
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resumed his polemical battle against the Zionist movement today with a comment in the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, that he doubted that the adjective "Zionist" was appropriate for the forthcoming World Zionist Congress. He remarked that he was "willing to advise my friends not to recognize this Congress as Zionist but my friends do not share this view."
The Prime Minister made his comments in reply to a question from Joseph Serlin, General Zionist Knesset member, who asked whether the Prime Minister was aware that two Mapai Cabinet members had presented their candidacies for the Congress in lists abroad. He was referring to Finance Minister Levi Eshkol in Britain and Minister of Education Abba Eban in Belgium.
The Prime Minister replied that he felt "nobody should be a candidate for the Zionist Congress since that name does not fit the Congress." However, he added, others think otherwise and have a right to participate in the Congress elections and to present their candidacies.


text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Apr 14, 2009
|Filing date
|Jul 29, 2005
|Priority date
|Jul 29, 2005
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|Laura E. Keck
|Original Assignee
|Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (102), Non-Patent Citations (10), Referenced by (5), Classifications (17), Legal Events (4)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
Finger wipes or covers are known and used in the art for a variety of purposes. A common use of finger wipes (also know as a "finger glove" in the art) is for applying ointments, medications, alcohol, oral anesthetics, and the like, to various body parts. Such devices may also be utilized to remove various substances, such as makeup, or to clean body parts or other objects.
Finger wipes have proven particularly useful in the field of dental hygiene in that they provide a portable and efficient means for more frequent dental care, and as a cleaning device that can be easily used in public. In particular, a number of finger-mounted teeth cleaning devices have been developed that can be placed over a finger and wiped over the user's teeth and gums. These devices are typically small, portable, and disposable.
Examples of oral cleaning devices and finger wipes are disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,987 to McDevitt. et al. and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,549 also to McDevitt, et al., which are incorporated herein by reference. An oral hygiene finger device is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,825 to Copelan et al. Other finger-mounted teeth cleaning devices were developed to contain an elastomeric material to help prevent the device from slipping or falling off the user's finger during cleaning. Examples of such teeth cleaning devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,068,941 to Dunn; U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,153 to Cole; U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,764 to Kaufman et al.; and PCT Publication No. WO 95/31154 to Mittiga et al.
Finger wipes that incorporate an integral additive or composition, such as an oral hygiene agent, are a convenient and desirable product. However, it may be difficult to incorporate an adequate supply of the desired composition with certain conventional finger wipe constructions, or to adequately preserve or protect the additive prior to use. For example, the use of an aqueous adhesive composition to apply the additive directly to the wipe can be problematic for certain types of additives, particularly certain types of soluble compositions, such as encapsulated compositions, including flavoring oils and the like. These encapsulated additives are intended to be activated by the user's saliva or water upon use, but can prematurely interact with the aqueous adhesive during initial application, thus resulting in an overall decrease in the effectiveness of the additive.
It is also a desirable feature of conventional finger wipes to incorporate a textured outer surface to enhance the cleaning or scrubbing effect of the wipes. For example, conventional wipes may include an outer nonwoven material layer that has been thermally bonded in a pattern so as to produce protruding unbonded regions, sometimes referred to in the art as "point unbonded" (PUB) material. These materials serve a useful purpose, but increase the difficulty and complexity of incorporating desired additives to the wipe.
Thus, a need exists in the art for improved ways to incorporate additives with a wipe, particularly for wipes incorporating water soluble additives.
As used herein, the term "breathable" means pervious to water vapor and gases. In other words, "breathable barriers" and "breathable films" allow water vapor to pass therethrough, but are substantially impervious to liquid water. For example, "breathable" can refer to a film or laminate having water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of at least about 300 g/m2/24 hours measured using ASTM Standard E96-80, upright cup method, with minor variations as described in the following Test Procedure.
A measure of the breathability of a fabric is the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) which, for sample materials, is calculated essentially in accordance with ASTM Standard E96-80 with minor variations in test procedure as set forth in detail in the '549 patent incorporated herein by reference.
As used herein, the terms "elastic" and "elastomeric" are generally used to refer to materials that, upon application of a force, are stretchable to an elongated length, and which will retract at least about 50% of its elongation upon release of the stretching, biasing force.
As used herein, "meltblown fibers" refers to fibers formed by extruding a molten thermoplastic material through a plurality of fine, usually circular, die capillaries as molten threads or filaments into converging high velocity, usually hot, gas (e.g. air) streams which attenuate the filaments of thermoplastic material to reduce their diameter, which may be to microfiber diameter. Thereafter, the meltblown fibers are carried by the high velocity gas stream and are deposited on a collecting surface to form a web of randomly disbursed meltblown fibers. Such a process is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,241 to Butin. et al. Meltblown fibers are microfibers which may be continuous or discontinuous, are generally smaller than 10 microns in average diameter, and are generally tacky when deposited on a collecting surface.
As used herein, a "liquid impermeable layer" refers to any material that is relatively impermeable to the transmission of fluids, i.e. a fabric having a liquid impermeable layer can have a liquid strikethrough ratio of 1.0 or less according to ASTM test method 22.
As used herein, the term "neck-bonded" refers to an elastic member being bonded to a non-elastic member while the non-elastic member is extended in the machine direction creating a necked material. "Neck-bonded laminate" refers to a composite material having at least two layers in which one layer is a necked, non-elastic layer and the other layer is an elastic layer thereby creating a material that is elastic in the cross direction. Examples of neck-bonded laminates are such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,226,992; 4,981,747; 4,965,122; and 5,336,545, all to Morman, all of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto.
As used herein, "spunbond fibers" refers to small diameter fibers which are formed by extruding molten thermoplastic material as filaments from a plurality of fine, usually circular capillaries of a spinneret with the diameter of the extruded filaments then being rapidly reduced as by, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,340,563 to Appel, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,618 to Dorschner. et al.: U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,817 to Matsuki, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,992 to Kinney; U.S. Pat. No. 3,341,394 to Kinney; U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,763 to Hartman; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,615 to Dobo. et al. Spunbond fibers are generally not tacky when they are deposited on a collecting surface. Spunbond fibers are generally continuous and have average diameters (from a sample of at least 10) larger than 7 microns, and more particularly, between about 10 and 40 microns.
As used herein, the term "stretch-bonded" refers to a composite material having at least two layers in which one layer is a gatherable layer and the other layer is an elastic layer. The layers are joined together when the elastic layer is in an extended condition so that upon relaxing the layers, the gatherable layer is gathered. For example, one elastic member can be bonded to another member while the elastic member is extended at least about 25 percent of its relaxed length. Such a multilayer composite elastic material may be stretched until the nonelastic layer is fully extended. One type of stretch-bonded laminate is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,415 to Vander Wielen, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference. Other composite elastic materials are described and disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,789,699 to Kieffer, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,966 to Taylor; U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,802 to Morman; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,760 to Morman, et al., all of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto.
As used herein, the term "texturized" refers to a base web having projections from a surface of the web in the Z-direction. The projections can have a length, for instance, from about 0.1 mm to about 25 mm, particularly from about 0.1 mm to about 5 mm, and more particularly from about 0.1 mm to about 3 mm. The projections can take on many forms and can be, for instance, bristles, tufts, loop structures such as the loops used in hook and loop attachment structures, and the like.
Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth below in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
The present disclosure is directed generally to applicators used to deliver an internally stored composition upon use of the device, and encompasses any manner of cleaning mitt, pad, or like structure incorporating the novel aspects of the invention. For ease of description only, aspects of the invention are explained herein by reference to finger wipe embodiments, particularly dental finger wipes. However, it should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to such devices.
In certain embodiments, the applicator is a disposable tubular or mitt structure designed to fit onto the finger(s) or hand of a user. In a particular embodiment, the applicator is configured as a finger wipe designed for cleaning the teeth or gums of a person or animal with an oral hygiene composition carried by the wipe. Further, the dental wipe is particularly well suited for use by small children learning how to clean their teeth.
The applicator of the present invention can also be used in other applications. For instance, a finger wipe embodiment may be used to clean or treat other parts of the body such as the eyes, the ears, the nose, and the like. The finger wipe may be used to apply a medicine, lotion, ointment, cleaning agent, or the like to any part of the body, or any other object.
In still other embodiments, the applicator can be used to clean various utensils, objects or surfaces and/or to polish various items with any number of compositions or agents carried by the wipe. For example, in one embodiment, a finger wipe can be used to polish silver with a polish carried by the wipe.
For the finger wipe embodiments, the tubular structure has an open end for insertion of one or more of a user's fingers. The tubular structure is formed from a front panel, and an opposite back panel. The front panel is configured to perform a desired function with the wipe, such as cleaning, scrubbing, polishing, application of a composition, and so forth. The front panel can include a liquid impermeable material disposed to prevent liquids from contacting the user's fingers during use of the applicator, and an outer liquid permeable cover material. A plurality of discrete pockets are formed between the cover material and the liquid impermeable material. Any desired composition is contained within each of the pockets and is delivered with use of the applicator by migrating through the permeable cover material.
It should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to any particular type of composition contained within the pockets. In a particular embodiment, the composition is soluble and activated by water or the user's saliva, and remains protected in the pockets until use. The composition may be any oral hygiene agent. For example, the composition may be an encapsulated agent, such as an encapsulated flavoring oil, that is released when the capsules dissolve in an aqueous medium. The composition may be a soluble powder or granular substance, such as a cleaning agent. In a particular embodiment, the composition may be an effervescing particulate flavoring material that creates a distinct flavor and effervesces upon activation. Particularly for children, this type of agent emits a gratifying audible sound and a tingling sensation in the mouth. In general, the composition may be any desired substance that, upon mixing with an aqueous medium when using the wipe, migrates through the cover material to perform its intended function.
Various materials may be used in construction of the panel members, and at least one of the panels may be formed of an elastomeric material to provide the wipe with form-fitting properties. The panel members can be the same or a different material, depending on the desired characteristics of the applicator. In one embodiment, the application panel and back panel are formed separately and subsequently attached along a seam around the closed periphery portion of the wipe to define the elongated closed-end tubular structure having a finger insertion opening at one end.
In a particular embodiment, the application panel includes a thermoplastic nonwoven cover material that is thermally fused to the liquid impermeable material, such as a thermoplastic film, fibrous material, laminate, and the like, at distinct fused portions. Unfused portions between the cover material and the liquid impermeable material define the discrete pockets. The composition is deposited between the materials prior to fusing in a pattern that corresponds to the unfused portions. The composition can be initially deposited onto the liquid impermeable material utilizing any suitable deposition technique, such as template, vacuum plate, adhesive, textured substrates, electrostatic, xerographic, printing (e.g., gravure), patterned transfer roll (vacuum or adhesive), and the like.
The pockets may have any desired geometry and size. In a particular embodiment, the pockets are generally circular in cross section and have a diameter of generally between about 2 mm to about 10 mm. In an alternate embodiment, the pockets have an elongated shape. The pockets have a height dimension in the Z direction with respect to a surface plane of the fused portions, and may have a width to height ratio of generally between about 1 to about 5. The pockets may serve the additional function of enhancing the surface scrubbing and cleaning effect of the cover material, and may have a size, texture, and flexibility selected for this purpose.
The pockets may be defined in any desired pattern on the cover material. In one embodiment, the pockets are defined in a generally uniform pattern over the surface of the cover material. In another embodiment, the pockets are defined in a discrete zone generally closer to the closed end of the tubular structure, which is the location generally applied by the user to an object. This embodiment minimizes waste of the composition. With this embodiment, other surface area regions of the cover material may include additional textured features to enhance the scrubbing or cleaning effect of the wipe. In this regard, the cover material may be formed from a nonwoven material layer that has been texturized by any one of a number of conventional processes. The textured features may be pockets between the material layers that are not filled with the composition, but are formed in the same process.
In addition to the composition contained within the pockets, various other additives can also be applied, if desired, to the finger wipe during manufacturing and/or by the consumer. For example, cationic materials, such as chitosan (poly-N-acetylglucosamine), chitosan salts, cationic starches, etc., can be applied to a wipe of the present invention to help attract negatively charged bacteria and deleterious acidic byproducts that accumulate in plaque. Examples of other suitable additives include, but are not limited to, dental agents, such as fluorides, peppermint oil, mint oil and alcohol mixtures; flavoring agents, such as xylitol; anti-microbial agents; polishing agents; hemostatic agents; surfactants; anti-ulcer components; and the like.
Additives can be applied to the cover material in the form of an aqueous solution, non-aqueous solution (e.g., oil), lotions, creams, suspensions, gels, etc. When utilized, the aqueous solution may be coated, saturated, sprayed, or impregnated into the material. In some embodiments, the additives can be applied asymmetrically. Moreover, in some instances, it may be desired that the additives comprise less than about 100% by weight of the wipe, and in some embodiments, less than about 50% by weight of the wipe, and particularly less than 10% by weight of the wipe.
It should be noted that any given range presented herein is intended to include any and all lesser included ranges. For example, a range of from 45-90 would also include 50-90; 45-80; 46-89 and the like. Thus, the range of 95% to 99.999% also includes, for example, the ranges of 96% to 99.1%, 96.3% to 99.7%, and 99.91 to 99.999%.
Various features and aspects of the present invention are discussed in greater detail below.
A full and enabling disclosure of the present invention, including the best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended drawings, in which:
Repeat use of reference characters in the present specification and drawings is intended to represent the same or analogous features or elements of the invention.
Reference now will be made in detail to embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the invention, not limitation of the invention. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment, can be used with another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Embodiments of an applicator according to the invention are illustrated in the figures as a finger wipe 10 in the shape of a tubular structure 12, in particular a finger wipe intended to be placed over one or more of a user's fingers for use as a cleaning or polishing device, or any other use. In the illustrated embodiments, the finger wipe 10 is made from a front application panel 14, and a back panel 16. The panels 14, 16 may be sections of the same or a different material, and are bonded or attached together along an edge seam 18 in a finger-shaped pattern so that the bonded sections form the closed end tubular structure 12 with an opening 22 for the insertion of a user's finger(s) into the space 24 between the panels 14, 16. The panels may be bonded or attached by any conventional means, including thermal or ultrasonic bonding of point bonds 20 around the edge seam 18. The panels 14, 16 may be bonded or otherwise attached along the seam 18 in generally continuous pieces of materials, wherein the materials are subsequently cut adjacent to the seams 18 such that the finger wipe 10 is formed. In an alternative embodiment, the panels 14, 16 are cut and bonded in a single processing step.
It may be desired that one or both of the panels 14, 16 include a textured outer surface, such as the surface illustrated in
Referring to
The dimensions of finger wipes 10 will depend upon the particular application and purpose for which the finger wipe is to be used. For instance, the finger wipe can be constructed in order to fit around the finger of an adult or the finger of a child, as illustrated in
In general, the finger wipes 10 of the present invention can be formed from a variety of materials. U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,549 incorporated herein by reference describes various suitable materials, and combinations of materials, that may be used for wipes 10 incorporating the unique seam structure of the present invention. Non-limiting examples of suitable materials are described in greater detail below.
Referring to the figures in general, the front panel 14 of the wipe embodiments 10 is configured to perform a desired function with the wipe, such as cleaning, scrubbing, polishing, application of a composition, and so forth. The front panel 14 includes a liquid impermeable material 26, such as a breathable film, disposed to prevent liquids from contacting the user's fingers during use of the wipe 10. The front panel 14 includes an outer liquid permeable cover material 28, such as a thermoplastic nonwoven material.
A plurality of discrete pockets 30 are formed between the cover material 28 and liquid impermeable material 26. Any desired composition 42 is contained within each of the discrete pockets 30. The composition 42 migrates through the cover material 28 upon being wetted with use of the finger wipe 10.
It should be appreciated that the invention is not limited to any particular type of composition 42 contained within the pockets 30. In a particular embodiment, the composition 42 is soluble and activated by water or the user's saliva. Prior to use of the wipe 10, the composition 42 remains essentially protected within the pockets 30. In a particular embodiment, the composition 42 may be an oral hygiene agent, particularly an encapsulated agent such as a flavoring oil that is released when the capsules dissolve in an aqueous medium, such as a user's saliva. The composition 42 may be a soluble powder or granular substance, such as a cleaning agent. In another embodiment, the composition 42 may be an effervescing particulate flavoring material that creates a distinct flavor and also effervesces upon activation. It should thus be appreciated that the composition 42 may be any desired substance that, upon mixing with an aqueous medium when using the wipe, migrates through the cover material 28 to perform its intended function.
With certain embodiments, the front panel 14 may be formed from a thermoplastic nonwoven cover material 28 that is thermally fused to the liquid impermeable barrier material 26. The barrier material 26 may be a thermoplastic film, fibrous material, laminate, and the like. The two materials are fused together in a pattern that defines fused portions 32 and unfused portions. The unfused portions define the discrete pockets 30 in which the composition 42 is contained. The composition 42 is deposited between the materials prior to the fusing process in a pattern that corresponds to the unfused portions. The composition 42 can be initially deposited onto either of the layers 26, 28 utilizing any suitable deposition technique, such as a template, vacuum plate, adhesive, electrostatic deposition, printing techniques, patterned transfer rolls, and the like. Exemplary processes will be described below with reference to
It should be appreciated that the pockets 30 may have any desired geometry and size. For example, in the embodiments of
The pockets 30 may serve the additional function of a textured surface that enhances the surface scrubbing and cleaning effect of the cover material 28 and, thus, may have a size, texture, and flexibility selected for this purpose.
It should also be appreciated that the pockets 30 may be defined in any desired pattern over the surface area of the cover material 28. For example, in the embodiment of
In any zone of the cover material 28 that does not include the pockets 30, it may be desired that the cover material 28 include additional textured surface features to enhance the cleaning or scrubbing effect of the material 28. In this regard, the cover material may be formed from a nonwoven material layer that has been texturized by any one of a number of conventional processes, as discussed in greater detail below. The textured features may be defined by additional pockets between the material layers 26, 28 that are not filled with the composition 42 during the manufacturing process, but are formed in the same process.
In addition to the composition 42 carried within the discrete pockets 30, various other additives can be applied to the cover material 28. Suitable additives can be applied to the tubular structure material in the form of an aqueous solution, non-aqueous solution, lotion, cream, suspensions, gels, etc. Examples of suitable additives include dental agents, such as fluorides, peppermint oil, mint oil, and alcohol mixtures; flavoring agents; anti-microbial agents; polishing agents; hemostatic agents; surfactants; anti-ulcer components; and so forth. Various non-limiting examples of additional additives are described in greater detail below.
It may be desired that the tubular structure of the wipe 10 have elastomeric form-fitting properties. In this regard, either or both of the panels 14, 16 may be formed of a suitable elastomeric material, examples of such materials are discussed below.
Various non-limiting examples of materials that may be used in construction of finger wipes 10 according to the invention are discussed below.
As mentioned, the panels 14,16 are formed from a base web that may include one or more layers of fibrous materials used in the art for making wipes. For example, either or both of the panel sections may comprise a liquid absorbent material or a non-absorbent material. When comprising a liquid absorbent material, the base webs may comprise any suitable fabric material, such as a woven fabric, a nonwoven fabric, or a knitted fabric.
In one embodiment, the base web comprises a spunbond web, a coform web, a tissue web, a meltblown web, a bonded carded web, and laminates thereof. A nonwoven material can be made from various fibers, such as synthetic or natural fibers. For instance, in one embodiment, synthetic fibers, such as fibers made from thermoplastic polymers, can be used to construct the cover layer of the present invention. For example, suitable fibers could include melt-spun filaments, staple fibers, melt-spun multi-component filaments, and the like. These synthetic fibers or filaments used in making the nonwoven material may have any suitable morphology and may include hollow or solid, straight or crimped, single component, conjugate or biconstituent fibers or filaments, and blends or mixtures of such fibers and/or filaments, as are well known in the art.
The synthetic fibers used in the present invention may be formed from a variety of thermoplastic polymers where the term "thermoplastic polymer" refers to a long chain polymer that repeatedly softens when exposed to heat and substantially returns to its original state when cooled to ambient temperature. As used herein, the term "polymer" generally includes, but is not limited to, homopolymers, copolymers, such as for example, block, graft, random, and alternating copolymers, terpolymers, etc., and blends and modifications thereof.
Exemplary thermoplastics include, without limitation, poly(vinyl) chlorides, polyesters, polyamides, polyfluorocarbons, polyolefins, polyurethanes, polystyrenes, poly(vinyl) alcohols, caprolactams, and copolymers of the foregoing, and elastomeric polymers such as elastic polyolefins, copolyether esters, polyamide polyether block copolymers, ethylene vinyl acetates (EVA), block copolymers having the general formula A-B-A′ or A-B like copoly(styrene/ethylene-butylene), styrene-poly(ethylene-propylene)-styrene, styrene-poly(ethylene-butylene)-styrene, (polystyrene/poly(ethylene-butylene)/polystyrene, poly(styrene/ethylene-butylene/styrene), A-B-A-B tetrablock copolymers and the like.
Many polyolefins are available for fiber production, for example polyethylenes such as Dow Chemical's PE XU 61800.41 linear low-density polyethylene ("LLDPE") and 25355 and 12350 high-density polyethylene ("HDPE") are such suitable polymers. Fiber-forming polypropylenes include Exxon Chemical Company's Escorene� PD 3445 polypropylene and Montell Chemical Co.'s PF-304 and PF-015. Many other polyolefins are commercially available and include polybutylenes and others.
Synthetic fibers added to the nonwoven web can also include staple fibers that can be added to increase the strength, bulk, softness and smoothness of the base sheet. Staple fibers can include, for instance, various polyolefin fibers, polyester fibers, nylon fibers, polyvinyl acetate fibers, cotton fibers, rayon fibers, non-woody plant fibers, and mixtures thereof.
Besides, or in addition to, synthetic fibers, pulp fibers can also be used to construct the cover layer. The pulp fibers used in forming the cover layer may be soft wood fibers having an average fiber length of greater than 1 mm, and particularly from about 2 to 5 mm based on a length weighted average. Such fibers can include northern softwood kraft fibers, redwood fibers, and pine fibers. Secondary fibers obtained from recycled materials may also be used. In addition, hardwood pulp fibers, such as eucalyptus fibers, or thermomechanical pulp can also be utilized in the present invention.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the base web can include a hydraulically entangled web (or hydroentangled). Hydroentangled webs, which are also known as spunlace webs, refer to webs that have been subjected to columnar jets of a fluid that cause the fibers in the web to entangle. For example, in one embodiment, the cover layer can comprise HYDROKNIT�, a nonwoven composite fabric that contains 70% by weight pulp fibers that are hydroentangled into a continuous filament material. HYDROKNIT� material is commercially available from Kimberly-Clark Corporation of Roswell, Ga. Hydraulic entangling may be accomplished utilizing conventional hydraulic entangling equipment such as may be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,485,706 to Evans or U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,202 to Everhart, et al., the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
In one embodiment, the base web may comprise a laminate containing two or more webs. For instance, the web may comprise a spunbonded/meltblown/spunbonded laminate, a spunbonded/meltblown laminate and the like.
For nonwoven webs containing substantial amounts of synthetic fibers, the webs may be bonded or otherwise consolidated in order to improve the strength of the web. Various methods may be utilized in bonding webs of the present invention. Such methods include through air bonding and thermal point bonding as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,046 to Hansen, et al. which is incorporated herein by reference. In addition, other conventional means of bonding, such as oven bonding, ultrasonic bonding, hydroentangling, or combinations of such techniques, may be utilized in certain instances.
In one embodiment, thermal point bonding is used which bonds the fibers together according to a pattern. In general, the bonding areas for thermal point bonding, whether pattern unbonded or pattern bonded fabrics, can be in the range of 50% total bond area or less. More specifically, the bond areas of the present inventive webs can be in the range of from about 60% to about 10% total bond area.
When the finger wipe of the present invention is used to scrub adjacent surfaces or is to be used in dental applications, in some embodiments, the cover layer 28 may include a texturized surface, such as the surface illustrated in the embodiments shown in
The manner in which a texturized surface is formed on a nonwoven web for use in the present invention can vary depending upon the particular application of the desired result. The panel sections may be made from a nonwoven web that has been thermally point unbonded to form a plurality of tufts 44. As used herein, a substrate that has been "thermally point unbonded" refers to a substrate that includes raised unbonded areas or lightly bonded areas that are surrounded by bonded regions. For example, as shown in the figures, bumps or tufts are the unbonded or lightly bonded areas that form raised projections off the surface of the nonwoven web to provide the necessary texture.
The material used for the point unbonding process can vary depending upon the particular application. For instance, the material can be a single layer or can include multiple layers of material. For most applications, the total basis weight of the material should be at least 1 osy, and particularly from about 3 osy to about 9 osy. Higher basis weights are needed in order to produce tufts with an appropriate height.
Besides point unbonded materials, there are many other methods for creating texturized surfaces on base webs and many other texturized materials can be utilized.
Examples of known nonwoven, texturized materials, include rush transfer materials, flocked materials, wireformed nonwovens, and the like. Moreover, through-air bonded fibers, such as through-air bonded bicomponent spunbond, or point unbonded materials, such as point unbonded spunbond fibers, can be incorporated into the base web to provide texture to the wipe.
Textured webs having projections from about 0.1 mm to about 25 mm, such as pinform meltblown or wireform meltblown, can also be utilized in a base web of the present invention. Still another example of suitable materials for a texturized base web includes textured coform materials. In general, "coform" means a process in which at least one meltblown diehead is arranged near a chute through which other materials are added to the web while it forms. Such other materials can include, for example, pulp, superabsorbent particles, or cellulose or staple fibers. Coform processes are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,818,464 to Lau and U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,324 to Anderson. et al. Webs produced by the coform process are generally referred to as coform materials.
In one embodiment, the texturized material can be a loop material. As used herein, a loop material refers to a material that has a surface that is at least partially covered by looped bristles that can vary in height and stiffness depending upon the particular application. Further, the looped bristles can be sparsely spaced apart or can be densely packed together. The loop material can be made in a number of different ways. For example, the loop can be a woven fabric or a knitted fabric. In one embodiment, the loop material is made by needle punching loops into a substrate. In other embodiments, the loop material can be formed through a hydroentangling process or can be molded, such as through an injection molding process. Of course, any other suitable technique known in the art for producing looped bristles can also be used.
In one particular embodiment of the present invention, the loop material used in the finger wipe is a loop material commonly used in hook and loop fasteners. For example, VELCRO loops No. 002 made by VELCRO, USA, Inc. can be used. This material is made with nylon loops. In an alternative embodiment, the looped fastener material can be elastic. Elastic woven loop materials include VELSTRETCH Tape 9999 and MEDFLEX Tape 9399, both marketed by VELCRO, USA, Inc.
The liquid impermeable layer 26 may be separate a single material, or constitute a component of a base web. The liquid impermeable layer(s) can be made from liquid-impermeable plastic films, such as polyethylene and polypropylene films. Generally, such plastic films are impermeable to gases and water vapor, as well as liquids.
While completely liquid-impermeable films can prevent the migration of liquid from outside the wipe to the finger, the use of such liquid- and vapor-impermeable barriers can sometimes result in a relatively uncomfortable level of humidity being maintained in the finger wipe. As such, in some embodiments, breathable, liquid-impermeable barriers are desired. As used herein, the term "breathable" means that the barrier or film is pervious to water vapor and gases. In other words, "breathable barriers" and "breathable films" allow water vapor and gases to pass therethrough, but not necessarily liquids.
For instance some suitable breathable, liquid-impermeable barriers can include barriers such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,556 to Braun, et al., which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. The breathable barrier of Braun, et al. is a multilayered, clothlike barrier comprised of at least three layers. The first layer is a porous nonwoven web; the second layer, which is joined to one side of the first layer, comprises a continuous film of PVOH; and the third layer, which is joined to either the second layer or the other side of the first layer not joined with the second layer, comprises another porous nonwoven web. The second layer continuous film of PVOH is not microporous, meaning that it is substantially free of voids that connect the upper and lower surfaces of the film.
In other cases, various films can be constructed with micropores therein to provide breathability. The micropores form what is often referred to as tortuous pathways through the film. Liquid contacting one side of the film does not have a direct passage through the film. Instead, a network of microporous channels in the film prevents water from passing, but allows water vapor to pass.
In some instances, the breathable, liquid-impermeable barriers are made from polymer films that contain any suitable substance, such as calcium carbonate. The films are made breathable by stretching the filled films to create the microporous passageways as the polymer breaks away from the calcium carbonate during stretching. In some embodiments, the breathable film layers can be used in thicknesses of from about 0.01 mils to about 5 mils, and in other embodiments, from about 0.01 mils to about 1.0 mils.
An example of a breathable, yet fluid penetration-resistant material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,510 to Junker, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference. The fabric material described in Junker, et al. contains a breathable outer layer of paper stock and a layer of breathable, fluid-resistant nonwoven material. The fabric also includes a thermoplastic film having a plurality of perforations which allow the film to be breathable while resisting direct flow of liquid therethrough.
In addition to the films mentioned above, various other breathable films can be utilized in the present invention. One type of film that may be used is a nonporous, continuous film, which, because of its molecular structure, is capable of forming a vapor-permeable barrier. Among the various polymeric films which fall into this type include films made from a sufficient amount of poly(vinyl alcohol), polyvinyl acetate, ethylene vinyl alcohol, polyurethane, ethylene methyl acrylate, and ethylene methyl acrylic acid to make them breathable. It is believed that films made from such polymers solubilize water molecules and allow transportation of those molecules from one surface of the film to the other. Accordingly, such films may be sufficiently continuous, i.e., nonporous, to make them liquid-impermeable but still allow for vapor permeability.
Still, other breathable, liquid-impermeable barriers that can be used in the present invention are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/928,787 entitled "Breathable, Liquid-Impermeable, Apertured Film/Nonwoven Laminate and Process for Making the Same", which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. For example, breathable films and/or apertured films can be utilized in the present invention. Such films can be made within a laminate structure. In one embodiment, a breathable, liquid-impermeable, apertured film/nonwoven laminate material can be formed from a nonwoven layer, an apertured film layer, and a breathable film layer. The layers may be arranged so that the apertured film layer or the breathable film layer is attached to the nonwoven layer.
For instance, in one embodiment, an apertured film can be used in the present invention that is made from any thermoplastic film, including polyethylene, polypropylene, copolymers of polypropylene or polyethylene, or calcium carbonate-filled films. The particular aperturing techniques utilized to obtain the apertured film layer may be varied. The film may be formed as an apertured film or may be formed as a continuous, non-apertured film and then subjected to a mechanical aperturing process.
Liquid impermeable layers, as described above, can be used alone or incorporated into a laminate when used to construct various components of the finger wipe of the present invention. When incorporated into a laminate, the laminate can include various nonwoven webs in combination with the liquid impermeable layer. For instance, liquid impermeable laminates can be formed from many processes, such as, meltblowing processes, spunbonding processes, coforming processes, spunbonding/meltblowing/spunbonding processes (SMS), spunbonding/meltblowing processes (SM), and bonded carded web processes. For instance, in one embodiment, the nonwoven layer of a laminate liquid impermeable layer of the present invention is a spunbond/meltblown/spunbond (SMS) and/or spunbond/meltblown (SM) material. An SMS material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,203 to Brock. et al. which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Other SMS products and processes are described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,464,688 to Timmons. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,706 to Collier, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,029 to Brock, et al., all of which are also incorporated herein in their entireties by reference. Generally, an SMS material will contain a meltblown web sandwiched between two exterior spunbond webs. Such SMS laminates are available from Kimberly-Clark Corporation under marks such as Spunguard� and Evolution�. The spunbonded layers on the SMS laminates provide durability and the internal meltblown barrier layer provides porosity and additional clothlike feel. Similar to an SMS laminate, an SM laminate is a spunbond layer laminated to a meltblown layer.
In some embodiments, any of the above layers and/or materials can also be dyed or colored so as to form a base web or liquid impermeable layer having a particular color. For example, in one embodiment, the liquid impermeable layer can be provided with a colored background.
As described above, the finger wipes 10 may include one or more elastic components for providing the wipe with form-fitting properties. For example, one or both of the panel sections may be made of an elastic material, or include elastic components. The materials can contain elastic strands or sections uniformly or randomly distributed throughout the material. Alternatively, the elastic component can be an elastic film or an elastic nonwoven web.
In general, any material known in the art to possess elastomeric characteristics can be used in the present invention as an elastomeric component. Useful elastomeric materials can include, but are not limited to, films, foams, nonwoven materials, etc.
Other exemplary elastomeric materials which may be used include polyurethane elastomeric materials such as, for example, those available under the trademark ESTANE� from B.F. Goodrich & Co. or MORTHANE� from Morton Thiokol Corp., polyester elastomeric materials such as, for example, those available under the trade designation HYTREL� from E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Company, and those known as ARNITEL�, formerly available from Akzo Plastics of Amhem, Holland and now available from DSM of Sittard, Holland.
Another suitable material is a polyester block amide copolymer. Elastomeric polymers can also include copolymers of ethylene and at least one vinyl monomer such as, for example, vinyl acetates, unsaturated aliphatic monocarboxylic acids, and esters of such monocarboxylic acids. The elastomeric copolymers and formation of elastomeric nonwoven webs from those elastomeric copolymers are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,117.
When incorporating an elastomeric component, such as described above, into a base web of the present invention, it is often desired that the elastomeric material form an elastic laminate with one or more other layers, such as foams, films, apertured films, and/or nonwoven webs. The elastic laminate generally contains layers that can be bonded together so that at least one of the layers has the characteristics of an elastic polymer. Examples of elastic laminates include, but are not limited to, stretch-bonded laminates and neck-bonded laminates.
The elastic member used in neck-bonded materials, stretch-bonded materials, stretch-bonded laminates, neck-bonded laminates and in other similar laminates can be made from materials, such as described above, that are formed into films, such as a microporous film, fibrous webs, such as a web made from meltblown fibers, spunbond filaments or foams. A film, for example, can be formed by extruding a filled elastomeric polymer and subsequently stretching it to render it microporous.
In one embodiment, the elastic member can be a neck stretched bonded laminate. As used herein, a neck stretched bonded laminate is defined as a laminate made from the combination of a neck-bonded laminate and a stretch-bonded laminate. Examples of necked stretched bonded laminates are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,114,781 and 5,116,662, which are both incorporated herein by reference. Of particular advantage, a neck stretch bonded laminate is stretchable in the machine direction and in a cross machine direction. Further, a neck stretch-bonded laminate can be made with a nonwoven basing that is texturized. In particular, the neck stretched bonded laminate can be made so as to include a nonwoven facing that gathers and becomes bunched so as to form a textured surface. In this manner, the neck stretched bonded laminate can be used to form the entire finger wipe having stretch characteristics in two directions and having a textured surface for cleaning the teeth and gums of a user.
As mentioned, the composition 42 within the pockets 30 may be any desired composition that reacts with an aqueous medium. In addition, the tubular structure 12 may also incorporate the same or another additive. Any material, chemical, or additive commonly applied by cotton ball, swabs, or gauzes, and so forth can be applied with a finger wipe of the present invention. Examples of such additives can include, but are not limited to, medications, lotions, diaper rash ointments, alcohols, oral anesthetics, facial make-up removal agents, cleaning agents, polishing agents, and the like.
Certain compositions and additives are used when the finger wipe is intended as an oral cleaning device. Examples of such dental agents include, but are not limited to alginates, soluble calcium salts, phosphates, fluorides, such as sodium fluoride (NaF) or stannous fluoride (SnF2), and the like. Moreover, mint oils and mint oil mixtures can be applied to a finger wipe of the present invention. For instance, in one embodiment, peppermint oil can be applied to the finger wipe. Moreover, in another embodiment, a mint oil/ethanol mixture can be applied. Components of mint oil (e.g., menthol, carvone) can also be used. Additionally, various whitening agents can be applied to the finger wipe. Examples of whitening agents include peroxides and in situ sources of peroxide, such as carbamide peroxide.
Other additives and compositions can include, but are not limited to, flavoring agents, anti-microbial agents, preservatives, polishing agents, hemostatic agents, surfactants, etc. Examples of suitable flavoring agents include various sugars, breath freshening agents, and artificial sweeteners as well as natural flavorants, such as cinnamon, vanilla and citrus. Moreover, in one embodiment, xylitol, which provides a cooling effect upon dissolution in the mouth and is anti-cariogenic, can be used as the flavoring agent. As stated, preservatives, such as methyl benzoate or methyl paraben, can also be applied to a finger wipe of the present invention. The additives can be applied to the finger wipe as is or they can be encapsulated in order to preserve the additives and/or to provide the additive with time release properties.
Although various embodiments of the invention have been described using specific terms, devices, and methods, such description is for illustrative purposes only. The words used are words of description rather than of limitation. It is to be understood that changes and variations may be made by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention, which is set forth in the following claims. In addition, it should be understood that aspects of the various embodiments may be interchanged both in whole or in part. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred versions contained therein.
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|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Jul 16, 2013
|Jul 19, 2016
|Jacob Holm & Sons Ag
|Method for production of a hydroentangled airlaid web and products obtained therefrom
|Jul 9, 2007
|Jan 15, 2009
|Timothy Duffy
|Fingertip cover
|Jan 2, 2009
|Dec 9, 2010
|Thomas Methfessel
|Device for cleaning the oral cavity
|Jun 29, 2013
|Jan 9, 2014
|Alan T. Fanelli
|Finger mitt for use in cleaning an animal's ears
|Mar 11, 2015
|Apr 12, 2016
|Marshall J. Pettygrove
|Moisturizing finger cover
|U.S. Classification
|401/7, 401/201
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Nov 14, 2005
Owner name: KIMBERLY-CLARK WORLDWIDE, INC., WISCONSIN
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Effective date: 20051102
|Oct 15, 2012
|Fee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
|Feb 3, 2015
Owner name: KIMBERLY-CLARK WORLDWIDE, INC., WISCONSIN
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text:
A Window of Opportunity
This is a project for Leeds City Council for brighten up vacant shop windows within Leeds, UK. This design will be used in vacant shop windows and cropped into a direct mail design which will contain information the Leeds 2030 Strategy. The whole deisgn was produced in Illustrator and spans over a metre in length.
Thank You!


text:
'Jr. Gregg Day' scheduled for Nov. 8
By FAITH HUFFMAN, News-Telegram News Editor
Oct. 22, 2008 - Friends of Jr. Gregg have designated Nov. 8 as a day of appreciation for him, as well as an opportunity to raise funds to help him with expenses associated with his medical care.
Jr. Gregg Day will be held Nov. 8 at the 2J Ranch in Como. The appreciation benefit begins at noon with serving of chicken and beef stew.
Auctions for a handmade ranch-style king-sized quilt, a paint filly with application for registration with APHA, hay and Western-styled lamps, wall hangings, ornaments and other items will be conducted.
A Billy Cook saddle valued at $1,800 is being raffled, as is a registered gray filly; chances for both items are offered for donations of $10 each or three for $25. A handmade western quilt will also be raffled; the cost to enter the drawing is $2, or three chances for $5.
Also, Jr. Gregg and Trail Riders, which will start at the South Seven 1/2, will also break at the 2J Ranch for the benefit. Trail riders will continue after the lunch and benefit. Trail ride is Nov. 8 and 9 at South Seven 1/2.
Those attending the benefit are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs or blankets. To find the festivities, go 1.2 miles east on State Highway 11 east past the blinking light in Como. Turn right on County Road 2331 and continue traveling south 0.8 of a mile. The 2J Ranch will be on the left. Watch for ribbons. Trail rides will begin on County Road 2426.
Questions related to this benefit should be directed to Ida Herring at 903-850-7740 or 903-383-7739, David Herring at 903-850-9783 or Jerry Mathews at 903-439-5951.
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text:
Compare FIAT Garages and FIAT Servicing prices in Belfast today.
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Compare FIAT Garages and FIAT Servicing prices in Belfast today.
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Full service carried out on the car. Overall very happy, the car is running much smoother and the price was very good. Alvin and the guys even replaced side lights and wipers as part of the price. Friendly, well priced and convenient. I would highly recommend
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I would most definitely recommend Eurofit Louise and Keiran were fantastic, they collected my car and dropped it back too which was so helpful to me... I will be using them again ...
Fantastic quick service will definitely use again. Thank you
They did the job right.


text: <mauiusers at supercluster.org>Hi all I installed Maui and Torque, however it seems that Maui can't talk to torque After I install Torque and Maui as the quick guide on www.clusterresources.com, then I start pbs_server, pbs_mom and maui as the quick guide. 1.I submit a job: echo 'sleep 30'| qsub 2.The qstat return the following result: Job id Name User Time Use S Queue ------------------- ---------------- --------------- -------- - ----- 0.localhost STDIN haughtycool 0 Q batch 3.The pbsnodes -a return the following result localhost state = free np = 1 ntype = cluster status = opsys=linux,uname=Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6xen #1 SMP Mon Oct 16 15:11:19 EDT 2006 i686,sessions=3651,nsessions=1,nusers=1,idletime=0,totmem=2481396kb,availmem=2159720kb,physmem=947228kb,ncpus=2,loadave= 0.10,netload=12609732,state=free,jobs=? 0,rectime=1182097361 4. However the Maui can't schedule the job. It write the following information in log file 06/17 23:23:55 WARNING: no resources detected 06/17 23:23:55 MRMWorkloadQuery() 06/17 23:23:55 WARNING: no workload detected Could you tell me what is wrong? I've just installed torque and maui in my computer and started pbs_server, pbs_mom and maui in my computer Could you give me the advance as soon as? Best Regard, haison8x at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.supercluster.org/pipermail/mauiusers/attachments/20070618/97cdffd8/attachment-0001.html


text:
4 Min Read
* Cisco seems to be winning market share from smaller rivals
* Riverbed stock off 20 pct, Juniper off 9 pct on weak view
* Analysts concerned about Riverbed's long-term growth
* Juniper's problems seen continuing for several quarters
By Nicola Leske and Soham Chatterjee
Jan 27 (Reuters) - Network equipment maker Cisco (CSCO.O) may have reason to rejoice despite bleak outlooks from smaller rivals Juniper Networks (JNPR.N) and Riverbed Technology RVBD.O amid signs that it is winning back market share from its peers.
Cisco's chief executive John Chambers promised his shareholders in September that Cisco would go after Juniper and it looks like he is delivering on that promise.
Cisco stock was down 1.4 percent, which some analyst put down to a knee-jerk reaction to Juniper's and Riverbed's news.
"People often reflexively sell the peer company when there is bad news," FBN Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi said.
But Cisco's competitors took a beating, with Riverbed stock plunging 20 percent and Juniper down 9 percent in morning trading after their first-quarter outlooks were well below estimates.
Riverbed blamed disruption in product sales as it launches new products [ID:nL4E8CQ6N0] and Juniper pointed to weaker-than-expected demand from service providers for its routers -- which move data packets along networks -- in the fourth quarter.[ID:nL4E8CQ7HX]
Juniper, based in Sunnyvale, California also said that it did not see a pickup in demand anytime soon but that its fundamentals were strong.
Juniper generated around 60 percent of total revenue from business with service providers such as Verizon (VZ.N) and AT&T (T.N) in the fourth quarter but Cisco's exposure to carriers is at 25-30 percent.
"We believe that Juniper is losing share to Cisco in routers," FBN's Seyrafi said, arguing that Juniper's router revenue declined by 13 percent year-on-year and that he estimated Cisco's router sales to be up 8 percent in its January quarter.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Sanjiv Wadhwani, who downgraded Juniper to "hold" from "buy," agreed, although he pointed out that Cisco's quarterly router revenue was not out yet. The company is scheduled to report on Feb. 8.
Wedbush analyst Rohit Chopra warned that Juniper's "problems may take multiple quarters to resolve as the product portfolio focused on core and edge routing does not address the immediate need of the large carrier market — alleviating overly congested wireless networks that have been burdened by unprecedented traffic."
Unlike Juniper, Riverbed's fourth quarter beat estimates but it is in the midst of a product transition and some analysts said that they were concerned about longer-term growth prospects.
"We take a cautious view on the longer-term growth prospects of the company (Riverbed) as we see wide area network (WAN) optimization market slowing down, competition from Cisco (CSCO.O) heating up and Riverbed likely stretched too thin with multiple product initiatives," Auriga USA analyst Sandeep Shyamsukha wrote in a note.
FBN's Seyrafi downgraded Riverbed, based in San Francisco, from "Outperform" to "Sector Perform" because its outlook was materially lower than average estimates and that it created a high bar for the coming quarters, which would all need to grow nearly 10 percent quarter-on-quarter in revenue.
(Reporting By Nicola Leske; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
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Category Archives: Mark Philbrick
2016 UPAA Awards
Written on June 20, 2016 at 11:49 am, by jsw63
BYU Photo was recognized with several awards at the 2016 Symposium of the University Photographer's Association of America. Mark Philbrick placed 5 prints in the Annual Print Competition and won the competition. The UPAA also announced on Friday that they are renaming the Photographer of the Year Award the Mark Philbrick Award, in recognition of Mark's
BYU at Utah State
Written on December 1, 2015 at 9:34 am, by jsw63
BYU at Utah State by BYU on Exposure
BYU Photo Garners National Awards
Written on June 15, 2015 at 9:07 am, by jsw63
At the Annual Symposium of the University Photographer's Association of America, BYU's Mark Philbrick was awarded "Best in Show" in the 2014-15 Annual Print Competition for his photograph of Professor Tim Leishman's acoustics research inside an anechoic chamber. Mark also received an Honorable Mention in Science and Research and Sports Action. Jaren Wilkey placed 4 prints in the
Acoustics Lab
Written on October 30, 2014 at 12:00 pm, by jsw63
2014 UPAA Photographer of the Year – Mark A. Philbrick
Written on June 23, 2014 at 6:58 am, by jsw63
At the Annual Symposium of the University Photographer's Association of America, BYU's Mark Philbrick was named the 2014 National Photographer of the Year. This is Mark's 8th POY Award, making him the winningest photographer in the history of the UPAA. Mark placed 3 prints in the Annual Print Competition, including a first place in Sports Features and Science Features
BYU Defeats #15 Texas
Written on September 8, 2013 at 12:09 am, by jsw63
The BYU Football Team overcame rain, lightning and a talented Texas team in their home opener. Check out our photos from the game at BYUPHOTOS.COM. 2013 BYU Football vs #15 Texas – Images by BYU Photos
BYU Weekly visits BYU Photo
Written on August 27, 2013 at 9:57 am, by jsw63
Thanks to BYU Weekly for the profile they did on our office. Jump to the 12:57 mark of the video below to see why we belong behind the camera and not in front of it:


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Colettes King Cake recipe just in time for Mardi Gras
Colette Lottinger - Jan 11, 2007
I decided to make a king cake for a garden club meeting. It was rather a rush job, except for the time it took for the dough to rise.
Ive always been an experimenter in the kitchen, so at 7 a.m. I started combining ingredients. Here is the recipe if youd like to try it:
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