GB2244658A - Float for toy purposes - Google Patents

Abstract

A float e.g. for use in the bath, has upper and lower walls 1 and 2 to delimit a buoyancy chamber 8 and a ballast chamber 9 with a diaphragm 4 therebetween supporting a temperature-responsive means 5 such as a thermochromic panel thermometer. The admission of air and/or liquid into the buoyancy and ballast chambers is made possible by manually operable inflation mouthpieces 10, and the diaphragm 4 and the upper wall 1 of the upper chamber 8 are at least in part transparent to enable the thermometer 5 to be seen from above when the float is buoyant in a liquid medium. In another embodiment (figure 2). the thermometer 5 is incorporated in an extension of peripheral seal 3. The float may take the form of a whale or duck or submarine. <IMAGE>

Description

FLOAT The present invention relates to a float, and in particular to one which can be used in the bath time environment as a childrens toy and as an indicator of the bath water temperature.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a float comprising at least one inflatable chamber and temperature-responsive indicator means visible from outside the chamber, for indicating the temperature of a liquid medium in which the float is buoyant.

In order that the present invention may more readily be understood the following description is given, merely by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, in which: FIGURE 1 is a schematic sectional view showing a first embodiment of a float in accordance with the present invention; and FIGURE 2 is a view corresponding to Figure 1, but showing a second embodiment of the invention.

Figure 1 shows the first embodiment as comprising a float body formed from an upper flexible sheet 1 sealed around its periphery to a lower flexible sheet 2 along a seal line 3.

Also sealed between the two sheets 1 and 2 along the seal line 3 is an at least partially transparent diaphragm 4 to which is attached a temperature-responsive device 5 by way of a further sheet 6 sealed along a peripheral seal line 7.

The diaphragm thus divides the interior of the float into upper and lower chambers 8 and 9.

In order to impart buoyancy to the float, the upper and lower sheets 1 and 2 both include closeable opening means 10. In this case the opening means 10 in the upper sheet 1 is shown in the open configuration while the opening means 10 in the lower sheet 2 is shown closed.

The opening means 10 are inflation mouthpieces equipped with integral resilient stoppers, known per se, and provide a readily operable means of ballasting and adding buoyancy to the float, for example as will now be described.

The float is sold in a flat condition with the upper and lower sheets 1 and 2 substantially intimately in contact with the respective upper and lower surfaces of the diaphragm 4. When it is desired to deploy the float, for example in the bath tub, the opening means 10 are opened manually and an appropriate fluid can be introduced through the opening means 10 for the purposes of adding buoyancy and ballast.

In the Figure 1 embodiment the upper chamber 10 includes a gas which may be atmospheric air blown in by the user.

The lower chamber 9, on the other hand, is filled with a liquid such as water, and any remaining space within the chamber 9 may be occupied by atmospheric air. The introduction of water into the lower chamber 9 is effected simply by opening the opening means 10 in the lower sheet 2 and holding the float under the water, preferably in the environment e.g. the bath tub where it is about to be deployed, by the rim of that opening means 10 until some water has entered the chamber 9.

With the two opening means 10 in the upper and lower sheets 1 and 2 closed, the device can then be placed in the water. The fact that the chamber 9 is full of bath water, when deployed in the bath, means that the temperature-responsive means 5 is in thermally conductive relationship with the bath water by virtue of the water within the chamber 9 between the lower sheet 2 and the diaphragm 4, causing the additional sheet 6 enclosing the temperature-responsive means to transmit heat to the temperature-responsive means 5 while there is a temperature differential between the bath water and the device 5. If any other source of liquid, e.g. water from a previous bath time, is used, there will be a time delay while that water equilibrates thermally with the environment where the float is deployed.

At least part of the upper sheet 1 is transparent, in order to allow the user to observe changes in the upper surface of the temperature-responsive means 5 to indicate the temperature of the water.

The temperature-responsive means 5 may, for example, be a flat liquid crystal (thermochromic) thermometer, or an alcohol thermometer, or a digital electronic matrix.

The seal line 7 by which the sheet 6 is fastened to the diaphragm 4 must be water-tight in order to keep the temperature-responsive means dry.

Preferably the seals 3 and 7 are heat seals, but any other bonding mechanism such as ultrasonic welding may be used.

The device shown in Figure 1, and that of Figure 2 to be described shortly, may be of any suitable shape, for example a shape capable of amusing a child in the bath, and the purely diagrammatic illustration used for Figures 1 and 2 is deliberate in order to avoid limitation. The float may, for example, be in the shape of a mammal such as a whale, a bird such as a duck, a boat such as a submarine, or any other floating toy.

The alternative embodiment shown in Figure 2 has the temperature-responsive means 15 outside the buoyancy and ballast chambers 18 and 19 of the device, and this time sealed in place by virtue of the main seal 13 intersecting the further seal 17 of U-shaped form, so as to define an external compartment for the temperature-responsive device 15 as an appendage to the main float.

In Figure 2 the sealable opening means 20 are shown in purely schematic form to illustrate that any suitable form of opening means, and not simply the inflation mouthpieces 10 of Figure 1 are possible.

The material for the upper and lower sheets 1 and 2 of Figure 1 and sheets 11 and 12 of Figure 2 may, for example, be polyvinylchloride, although any other suitable impervious material capable of being sealed to itself or to another material chosen for the diaphragm 4 in Figure 1 or the other of the two panels 11 and 12 at seal line 17 in Figure 2, may be employed.

The closeable openings are optional in that it is quite possible for the device to be manufactured with an appropriate buoyancy and ballast medium in the chambers 8 and 9 of Figure 1 or chambers 18 and 19 of Figure 2.

For example, the device of Figure 2 may be manufactured with its upper chamber 18 filled with helium or any other gas which is lighter than air, in order to ensure that the device will float with the upper chamber 18 above the lower chamber 19, in order to ensure that the appropriate temperature-indicating face of the thermally responsive means 15 faces upwards. With the "lighter-thanair" gas in the upper chamber 18, ordinary atmospheric air, possibly together with some solid or liquid ballast, can be sealed in the lower chamber 19, either during manufacture or by provision of an appropriate mouthpiece such as that shown in Figure 1, in order to allow the float to settle the right way up.

Although the above description refers mainly to the use of a liquid as the ballasting medium, it is of course possible for the ballasting to be achieved by way of a solid ballast weight fastened to the wall of the lower chamber, preferably near the centre of the lower sheet 2 or 12, with the result that if desired the rest of the space within the lower chamber can be atmospheric air inserted by inflation.

This option is more'effective for the Figure 2 embodiment where the temperature-responsive device 15 will in any case be in thermally conductive relationship with the water in which the float is deployed, rather than the Figure 1 embodiment where a gas space between the temperature responsive device 5 and the exterior of the chamber 9 will provide an insulator giving an inadequate temperature reading.

Claims (13)

CLAINS

1. A float comprising at least one inflatable chamber and temperature-responsive indicator means visible from outside the chamber, for indicating the temperature of a liquid medium in which the float is buoyant.

2. A float according to claim 1, and including means enabling the float to be ballasted for ensuring that a temperature-indicating aspect of the temperature-responsive means can be viewed from above the surface of the liquid medium in which the float is buoyant.

3. A float according to claim 2, wherein there are two chambers of which one is intended to be the upper chamber when the float is buoyant, and the other contains or is adapted to contain ballast means for ensuring that this will be the lower chamber when the float is buoyant.

4. A device according to claim 3, wherein said upper chamber has a wall which is at least partially transparent to allow the temperature-responsive indicator means to be seen from above the float.

5. A device according to claim 4, wherein said temperature-responsive means is positioned between said chambers, within the device, and the upper wall of said upper chamber is at least partially transparent.

6. A float according to claim 5, wherein said upper and lower chambers are separated by a transparent diaphragm and said temperature-responsive means is attacher to said diaphragm with a temperature-indicating aspect thereof visible through said transparent diaphragm.

7. A float according to claim 4, wherein said temperature-responsive means is sealed between the upper wall of said upper chamber and the lower wall of said lower chamber, but as an extension of the chambers; and wherein at least that part of the upper wall of the upper chamber in contact with said temperature-responsive device is transparent.

8. A device according to any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein said means for enabling the lower chamber to be ballasted comprises a manually openable and closable means for allowing introduction of ballasting liquid into said lower chamber and manually openable and closable means in the wall of said upper chamber for allowing the introduction of a gas therein.

9. A float according to claim 8, wherein said manually operable opening and closing means comprise manually openable inflation mouthpieces with resilient stoppers.

10. A float according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the inflatable chamber is defined by flexible sheet material capable of being heat sealed to itself.

11. A float according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said temperature-responsive means is a thermochromic panel, or an alcohol thermometer, or a digital electronic matrix.

12. A float according to any one of the preceding claims, when shaped as a bird, a fish, a mammal, or a boat.

13. A float substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.