Spice Mill

The present invention relates to spice or pepper mills, that is mills for grinding down spice grains or corns into minute particles.

Spices are apt to lose much of their freshness and flavour when kept for any extended length of time after being ground to a powder such as ordinarily used when flavouring or spicing food. Accordingly, table mills have been designed and commercialized for grinding spices immediately before use. The spices are ground and dispensed by holding the mill by one hand and rotating its top portion by the other. Most such mills cannot hold any sizeable quantity of spices and must be re-loaded frequently. This procedure is often slow and tedious, necessitating feeding the spices more or less piecemeal into the mill.

It is an object, therefore, of the invention to provide a spice mill which can hold a generous quantity of spices at a time. It is a further object to provide a grinding mill assembly which can be attached to a spice jar which will form the base of the mill and which mill can be shifted between jars holding different spices or from an empty jar to a filled one.

With these and other objects in view, in a spice mill comprising a grinding assembly and a base portion, said base portion comprises a jar for holding spices, one member of said grinding assembly having a portion adapted for frictionally engaging the mouth of said jar, a second member of said grinding assembly being rigidly connected with housing means affording a hand grip for rotating said second grinding member, longitudinal channel means extending through said housing means for dispensing powderized spices on rotating said second grinding member with the said jar being held upside down.

An embodiment of a pepper mill according to the invention will now be described by way of example, reference being had to the drawing. In the drawing,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the grinding assembly,

FIG. 2 is a similar view, the outer grinding member having been removed,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the annulus-shaped outer grinding member,

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the grinding assembly housing, and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the complete mill including the spice jar forming the base of the device.

A mill housing 1 is made of plastic or other suitable material. Longitudinal passages 2 extend through this housing, beginning at the circumference of a helically toothed frusto-conical grinding rotor 3 rigidly secured to the bottom of the housing 1 and constituting one member of a grinding assembly, the second or mating member being an annulus 4 shaped with grinding teeth or serrations 5 at the inner circumference (FIG. 3). These grinding teeth or serrations form two rows, one above the other. The upper row teeth (in the operative position of the mill, i.e. upside down) are larger-sized than those underneath, and serve principally to split the spice grains to facilitate their subsequent grinding between the smaller-sized teeth and the rotor teeth. The annulus 4 surrounds the rotor 3 coaxially with some small clearance, but there are spaced recesses formed either at the inside of the annulus 4 or at the outside of the rotor 3 or both to admit spice grains in between the teeth. The mill assembly is mounted at the top of a spice jar 9 (FIG. 5) and is fed with spice grains when turned upside down. To prevent the grains in the jar from amassing at the infeed of the mill thereby increasing excessively the resistance against turning, a feed plate 6 is rigidly secured to the top of the rotor 3 and is recessed at its periphery as at 7 so as admit only as many spice grains at a time to the grinding space as there are recesses 7. The number of recesses may be two, as illustrated, but can also be three or four, for example. Plate 6 also forms as axial stop for member 4.

The annulus 4 is shaped with an external concentrical groove wherein there is received a sealing ring 8 of a resiliently deformable material. This ring 8 serves to secure the housing 1 with a frictional and sealing engagement within the mouth of the spice jar 9. On holding the assembly upside down and rotating the housing 1 relative to the jar 9, the grinding rotor 3 will rotate within the annulus 4 and will pulverize grains of pepper, salt or other spices between the teeth of the rotor and the teeth or serrations of the annulus, the latter being held firmly against rotation by its engagement with the neck of the jar. The spice grains are fed from the jar 9 down into the recesses 7 of plate 6, and are caught between the grinding members. The plate 6 prevents the congestion of spice grains and stoppage of the grinding action with ensuing turning of the annulus 4 relative to the mouth of the jar by admitting only a few grains at a time at spaced points around the entrance to the grinding space.

The powderized spice goes down the passages 2 and exits at their opposite end at the top of the housing 1 which is facing downwards during the grinding procedure. After use, the pepper mill is turned into its inactive upright position, to rest upon the base, that is the spice jar 9.

If different spices are kept in uniform jars, it is a simple thing to shift the housing 1 with the grinding mechanism between the jars, as required. The sealing ring 8 should be made of a material sufficiently resilient to fit neck openings having a diameter differing within reasonably wide limits. The grinding assembly will engage the mouth of the jar 9 internally, and any threads or similar projections provided at the outside of the neck for engaging the closure lid of the jar will not interfere with this engagement.

The housing 1 with the grinding assembly can be given a distinctive and pleasing appearance. The annulus 4 and sealing ring 8 can be made in different sizes to suit spice jars having different neck diameters.