GB1325121A - Toy - Google Patents

Abstract

1325121 Toy motor cycles &c M I GLASS [trading as MARVIN GLASS & ASSOCIATES] 17 Jan 1972 [8 Feb 1971] 2154/72 Heading A6S A two-wheeled toy vehicle driven by a battery-powered electric motor has the battery and motor so positioned in the vehicle frame that the centre of gravity of the vehicle is sufficiently low to allow the vehicle to lean substantially to one side before the centre of gravity moves outside the path of contact of the wheels with a supporting surface. As shown, a toy motor cycle, Figs. 2, 3, has an electric motor 80 driving through gearing 76, 70 to a toothed rim 68 of a wide, rubber tyred rear wheel 56 and carries batteries to the sides of and below the motor in housings 149, 152. The centre of gravity of the machine is so low that it may tilt sideways to some extent without toppling. Should it tilt too far, projections (160), Fig. 4 (not shown), at the forward, outer edges of the battery housing 152 engage the ground and bounce the cycle upright back into its stable position. A spring 88 rattles over a stub 86 on the gear 70 to simulate the engine noise of a motor cycle. The front wheel 50 of the toy can pivot with a pin 104 relative to its frame, and a simulated seat 148, tank 94, &c. are provided. The circuit of the motor 80 includes the socket (173) of a jack plug, mounted at the side of the toy frame and below the simulated tank 94. Adjacent the socket (173) is a lever (176), Fig. 5 (not shown) simulating a kick starter. To connect the batteries carried by the toy cycle to the motor 80, the simulated kick starter (176) is pivoted to contact the jack plug socket (173). Alternatively, a jack plug (340), Fig. 17 (not shown), can be inserted into the plug socket (173), either to connect the batteries carried by the toy to an external source of power, if they are rechargeable, or to connect the motor 80 to an external, controllable source of power.. The toy cycle may be connected by an adjustable-length tether line 222, Fig. 6, to a pylon 220 about which it tracks. The pylon 220 contains a counter 330 which records the number of times the toy cycle passes round it, and batteries which are connected via a conducting line passed through a shallow tunnel 228, together with the line 222, to a speed control rheostat 224 and thence back through the tunnel 228 and the pylon to the jack plug (340) and the motor of the toy cycle. The tether line 222 is also connected to the speed control rheostat, which can be pulled away from or released towards a base 226, thus shortening or increasing the length of the tether line between the toy cycle and the pylon 220. The base 226 contains a clockwork timer which, when wound, acts through a mechanical interlock (242, &c.), Fig. 9 (not shown), to release a simulated flag 236 from the vertical to a horizontal position and, when the timer has unwound, returns it to the vertical position shown. The clockwork timer also acts through a cam (268), Figs. 7, 8 (not shown) to close, &c. contacts (262) in the circuit powering the cycle motor 80; when the timer has unwound and raised the flag 236, the current to the cycle motor is switched off. An arm 306 journalled in the pylon 220 carries the tether line 222 &c. and has a depending finger (320), Figs. 16, 17 (not shown) to operate the counter 330 engaged with teeth of a digits counter wheel carrying numerical indicia and stepped round each time the arm rotates: the digits wheel also driving a tens unit wheel.