Water aerator and method
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     There are generally two types of water aerators which are used, for among other things, to keep fishing bait alive. One type of aerator draws air from the surrounding air and pumps the air in a stream of bubbles beneath the surface of the water. The other type agitates the surface of the water so as to draw or trap air bubbles beneath the surface of the water. Among the latter types are those which force streams of water onto and below the surface of the water, thereby trapping air bubbles and forcing the air/water mixture to circulate within the container. The present invention is a live-bait water aerator suitable for placing in any container to provide uniform aeration. The present invention is a three-chambered water pump which rests on the bottom of a container and pumps filtered water from the container above the surface of the water in the container and sends streams of water in a substantially circular pattern, below the surface of the water, thereby driving air, containing oxygen, below the surface and simultaneously setting up a circulation of water containing air bubbles within the bait container thereby prolonging the life of the bait. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to a water aerator which supplies oxygen to water by trapping air in streams of water driven below the surface of the water while simultaneously circulating the water. The invention relates to a water pump which circulates water, driving a plurality of streams of water through air onto and below the surface of the water in which the pump is submerged, in a substantially circular pattern. The invention further relates to a live bait water aerator having an electrically driven water pump, and having means for attaching the pump to the bottom of the container of water in which the water pump is submerged. 
     The water pump of this invention is a three-chambered container with an electrically driven motor, within a housing forming the top of the container, the electrically driven motor having a shaft with an impeller attached to the shaft, the shaft and the impeller extending into a first chamber which is in contact with a second chamber by means of at least one fluid passage and a third chamber at least surrounding the second chamber and communicating with the second chamber through at least one fluid passage and with the surrounding water by at least one fluid passage, the third chamber being filled with a filter material. The first chamber has a hole in its side with a conduit attached to the side of the first chamber surrounding the hole, the conduit leading vertically upward above the surface of the water into a delivery head. The invention relates to an aerator with a substantially cylindrical delivery head having a plurality of delivery holes substantially evenly placed about the sides of the cylindrical head where the holes are drilled within the cylindrical side of the delivery head at an angle relative to a line perpendicular to the surface of the water in the container and through the center of the cylindrical head of between about 35 and about 50 degrees. The invention relates to a live bait water aerator which pumps water taken in from the container in which it is submerged, up above the surface of the water and into the water in a plurality of streams in a substantially circular pattern down below the surface of the water forcing air in the form of bubbles to about 7.5 centimeters below the surface of the water. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a view of the aerator from the side slightly above horizontal with a container which is partially cut away. 
     FIG. 2 is a view of the aerator from a position slightly above the aerator with the top motor housing separated from the three-chambered housing. 
     FIG. 3 is a view of the three-chambered housing cut vertically along the line 3--3&#39; of FIG. 2. 
     FIG. 4 is a view of the top motor housing of the aerator from the bottom. 
     FIG. 5 is a view of the aerator from the bottom. 
     FIG. 6 is a view of the delivery head and part of the vertical conduit cut vertically along the line 6--6&#39; in FIG. 3. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The water aerator will be described further by reference to the Figures. 
     FIGS. 1 and 2 show the live bait water aerator 10 with an electrical motor housing 11 containing an electrical motor (not shown) which can be powered by batteries or a battery or a conventional alternating current source but preferably by batteries and most preferably by a 12-volt battery. The motor is sealed within the housing 11 so that water cannot touch the motor since almost all of the aerator is submerged in water within a container such as 12. The aerator 10 consists of an electric motor within the housing 11 which turns a shaft 13 with an impeller 14 within a three-chambered or three-compartmentalized housing 15. The rotating impeller 14 draws water into the multi-chambered housing 15 and through a delivery conduit 16, into a discharge head 17 where the water is discharged in a plurality of streams onto and beneath the surface of the water carrying air bubbles between about 5 and about 9, preferably between about 6 and about 7.5 centimeters below the surface. The motor housing 11 forms the top of the multi-chambered housing 15 and is reversible attached thereto by fastening means 18, preferably a hook 19 and eye 20 type fastening means. 
     FIGS. 2 and 3 show the inside of the multi-chambered or multi-compartmental housing 15 which consists of three chambers or compartments, an inner upper chamber or compartment 21, an inner lower chamber or compartment 22 and an outer chamber or compartment 23. The inner upper chamber 21 is over the inner lower chamber 22, the bottom 24 of the inner upper chamber 21 forming the top 24 of the inner lower chamber 22 and serving as a partition 24 between the inner upper and lower chambers 21 and 22. At least one partition hole or fluid passage 25, is in the partition 24 and allows fluid communication between the inner upper chamber 21 and inner lower chambers 22. The preferred number of partition holes is 1 to 5 inclusive; the most preferred is 1. The inner chambers 21 and 22 are surrounded by the outer chamber 23. At least one hole or fluid passage 26 exits in the side or sides 27 of the lower chamber 22 which allows fluid communication between the outer chamber 23 and the inner lower chamber 22. The preferred number of inner lower chamber side passages is between about 1 and about 12, most preferably between about 2 and about 7. The outer chamber&#39;s outer wall 28 has at least one, preferably between about 1 and about 30, most preferably between about 1 and about 20 holes or fluid passages 29 allowing fluid communication between water outside of the aerator 10 and the outer chamber 23. The bottom of outer chamber 23 has at least 1, preferably between about 1 and about 15, most preferably between about 1 and about 12 holes, openings or fluid passages 31 which also allow fluid communication between water outside of the aerator 10 and the outer chamber 23. The shape of chambers 21, 22 and 23 may be essentially polyhedral or cylindrical but the preferred shape is cylindrical, the inner chambers 21 and 22 having essentially equal horizontal diameters, preferably between about 2.5 and about 7.5 centimeters, most preferably between about 3 and about 5 centimeters with the outer chamber 23 also preferably being cylindrical and concentrically surrounding the inner chambers 21 and 22 with a horizontal diameter between about 3.5 and about 12.5 preferably between about 6.5 and 8.5 centimeters. The height of the three-chambered housing is between about 2 and about 8, preferably between about 3 and about 5 centimeters. 
     The outer chamber 23 is filled with a filter material 32 so that water which enters the outer chamber 23 through the outer chamber side holes 29 and the outer chamber bottom holes 31 passes through the filter material 32 then through the inner lower chamber side holes 26 into the inner lower chamber 22. The filter material 32 may be any material which filters but does not build excess pressure so as to burn out the pump motor. Preferred materials for the filter 32 are open pored or celled non-woven webs, most preferably open pored non-woven plastic webs made of polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinylchloride, polystyrene, or nylon. 
     The inner upper chamber 21 has at least one side opening 33 which passes through the side 34 of the inner upper chamber 21. Securely attached to the side 34 and surrounding the side opening 33 is the pump water outlet conduit 35 having an entrance opening 47 communicating with the side opening 33. The outlet conduit 35 passes through the outer chamber 23, through a hole or opening 36 in the side 28 of the outer chamber 23, the outlet conduit 35 also having a water exit hole 48 or opening with a fluid passage connecting holes 47 and 48 so that water can flow from within the inner upper chamber 21 outside the pump. 
     The exit hole or opening 48 of the outlet conduit 35 is connected to the entrance hole or opening 49 of delivery conduit 37 preferably through a right angle elbow 16. The delivery conduit having an exit hole or opening 50 at the other end with a fluid passage connecting the delivery entrance 49 and exit 50. The delivery conduit 37 extends vertically to a height of between about 20 and about 40, preferably between about 20 and about 30 centimeters above the bottom of the aerator 10. In a preferred embodiment, the height is adjustable, for example it can be telescopic in nature as in FIG. 2. 
     The outlet conduit 35 is attached to the side 34 of the inner upper chamber 21 so that a line through the horizontal center of the conduit 35 and into the inner chamber 21 does not pass through the vertical center of the inner upper chamber 21 and forms a cord with the circle made by the outer edges of the rotating impeller blades 14. The outlet conduit 35 and delivery conduit 37 serves to pass water from the pump to the delivery head 17. 
     The water delivery head 17 having a bottom hole or opening 51 is securely and sealingly connected to the delivery conduit 37 so that the delivery conduit exit 50 is in open communication with the bottom opening 51. The vertical sides of the head may form the shape of a polygon, preferably a regular polygon of greater than five (5) sides or a cylinder. A cylindrically shaped head 17 is the most peferred as shown in FIG. 3. The head 17 is preferably between about 1.5 and about 5.0 centimeters in height and has a maximum cross-section width of less than about 5 centimeters and a minimum cross-section width of greater than about 2, preferably less than about 3.5 and greater than about 2.5 centimeters. Passing through the vertical side or sides of the head 17 are a plurality of holes or openings 39 with an entrance 40, seen in FIG. 6, which is higher than the exit 41 so that a line through the center of the length of the hole 39 forms an angle with a vertical line through the cross-sectional center of the hole 39 of between about 30 degrees and about 55 degrees, preferably between about 37.5 degrees and about 47.5 degrees and most preferably between about 38 degrees and about 42 degrees. The preferred angle is 40 degrees. 
     The diameter of the holes, openings or passages 39 is between about 0.25 and 0.40 centimeters, preferably between about 0.27 and about 0.33 centimeters. The length of the hole 39, measured from the entrance 40 to the exit 41 is between about 0.35 and about 0.55, preferably between about 0.40 and about 0.50 centimeters, most preferably between about 0.42 and about 0.48 centimeters long. The preferred length is 0.46 centimeters. 
     The side holes 39 are substantially evenly spaced over the side of the head. The holes 39 are preferably placed in a single horizontal plane about the circumferance 38 of the delivery or water discharge head 17 so as to produce a single circular pattern of streams of water, but can be placed on more than one horizontal plane (FIG. 1) to produce a series of circles or evenly spaced patterns of streams of water on the surface of the water. 
     FIG. 4 shows the bottom 42 of the motor housing 11 with an outer portion 43 having the eye 20 of the attachment means 18, the shaft 13 of the sealed motor and the blades of the impeller 14. This bottom forms the top of the outer chamber 23 and the top of the inner upper chamber 21 and sealingly separates these two chambers or compartments. 
     FIG. 5 shows the bottom 44 of the multi-chambered housing 15 which in this version of the invention forms the bottom of both the outer and the inner lower chamber 22 and 23. The bottom holes 31 which open into the outer chamber 23 are shown. Attached to the bottom 44 are attachment means 45 for attaching the aerator 10 to the bottom of the container 12 into which it is submerged. The preferred type of bottom attachment means 45 is suction cups, preferably rubber. 
     The length of the delivery conduit 37 is of such a length that it extends between about 21 and about 4.5, preferably between about 18 and about 7 centimeters above the surface of the water into which the aerator 10 is placed. The inner diameter of the conduit is between about 1.5 and about 2.5, preferably about 1.8 centimeters. The overall height of the motor housing 11 and the multi-chambered housing is such that it will be totally submerged within the typical non-commercial bait container; between about 9 and about 14, preferably between about 10 and about 12 centimeters. 
     The aerator 10 may be made of metal, wood or plastic, but is preferably made of plastic. The preferred plastics are polyvinylchloride, polyethylene, polypropylene, acrylonitrite-butadiene-styrene resins, polystyrene and the polyacrylates. The preferred plastic is polyvinylchloride. 
     The aerator 10 is attached by the bottom or container attachment means 45 to a container so that the head 17 is approximately in the center of the container and about 9 to about 22 centimeters above the surface of the water. The poles of the motor of the aerator 10 are connected to a battery so that the outside edge of the impeller 14 turns toward the opening 33 in the side 34 of the inner upper chamber 21. Water is drawn into the outer chamber 23 through the side holes 29 and the bottom holes 31 setting up water circulation within the container. The water passes through the filter material 32 and into the inner lower chamber 22 through the side holes 26 and into the inner upper chamber through the passage 25. The water is forced by the rotating impeller 14 into the hole 33 and through the conduits 35 and 37 to the water delivery head 17. Water in the head 17 is forced in a plurality of streams at an angle relative to a line through the center of the delivery conduit 37 of between about 38 degrees and about 42 degrees down onto and below the surface of the water, thereby capturing air containing oxygen as bubbles and sending them at least 6, preferably at least about 7.5 centimeters below the surface, where the circulation set up by the pump helps distribute the oxygen throughout the container. 
     The preferred number of head side holes 39 per head is between about 5 and about 15, more preferably between about 5 and about 10 and most preferably between 7 and about 9 inclusive.