US1607990A - Supporting device for artificial eyes - Google Patents

Description

Nov 23 1926.

A. KONOFF SUPPORTING DEVICE FOR ARTIFICIAL EYES Filed March 1 1924 w 3 M Z G v Patented Nov. 23, 1 926.

I UNITED STATES ALEXANDER xonorr, or imw Yoax, N. Y

ASSIGNOR TO OVERLAND METAL NOVELTY CO. INC., OF YORK, N. Y, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

SUPPORTING DEVICE FOR ARTIFICIAL EYES.

Application ii led March 19, 1924. Serial No. 700,872.

This invention relates to a supporting device for artificial eyes such as are used 1n the manufacture of childrens dolls and the like.

It is now common practice'to make these eyes as a pair of suitably ornamented spherical members mounted upon a carrying rod which is supported interiorly of the dolls head upon a suitable bracket and to connect a weighted lever with this rod so that the rod and eyeballs will be oscillated back and forth as the doll is moved from upright to reclining position. I In the manufacture of dolls heads 1t appears to be quite V impractical, if not impossible, to make a number thereof of exact-l the same shape and proportion, and this is particularly true with respect to the sockets into which the eyeballs are intended to fit. On this account various means have been provided for enabling convenient ad: justment of the eyeballs with respect to each other upon their supporting rod so that the eyeballs may be made to properly cooperate with the sockets of diflerent heads.

In many of these devices the bracket uplon which the carrying rod is supported as been held in position by being cemented to the material of the dolls head, and, in many instances it has been found that the cement used, in drying and hardening has resulted in a certain amount of distortion of the doll head suflicient in many cases to cause. the eyeballs to bind against the walls of their sockets.

It is .an object of the present invention therefore to provide a bracket, and a means of adjustment therefor by which the use of cement is eliminated and by which no occasion is givenfor any distortion of the doll head or eye sockets due to the presence of said bracket or its attaching means, and a further object is to'so construct the bracket that it may be readily and efiiciently adjusted, after attachment, to properly seat the eyeballs in their respective sockets.

A more detailed object is to provide a bracket designed to be held in POSltlOD within the dolls head by a suitable retaining bolt, and comprising means whereby, after the bracket hasbeen set and ltsfastemng bolt fully applied, spaced ortions of the bracket may be individual-y ad usted to bring the a jacent respective eyeballmto a proper fitting relation with its socket.

which is mounted in bracket Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less specific than those referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in the course of the following description of the elements, combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principles, constituting the invention, and the scope of protection contemplated will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as a part of'this specification, and in which I have shown merely a pre- Eerred form of embodiment of the inven- 1011 Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view through a dolls head having eyes and a supporting bracket therefor constructed in accordance with this invention.

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially upon the plane of IIII of Fig. 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view taken izubstzi ntially upon the plane of IIL-III of Referring to the drawings for describing in detail the structure therein illustrated, the I reference character L indicates the dolls head having the usual eye sockets 2 and 3 therein. The eyeballs are indicated by the reference character G and are shown to be carried upon a common supporting rod' 4.- and to which is connected the usual weighted lever 5. The rod 4 is adapted to oscillate in spaced bearings 6 provided by the bracket H'under the influence of the lever 5 whenever the doll is moved from an upright to a reclining position. and vice versa. It will be apparent that the eyeballs although requiring to have a proper close fit with the sockets 2 and 3 must nevertheless be sufiiciently clear of engagement with the walls of said sockets so that no impediment will be offered to the free movement of the eyeballs whenever the doll is moved.

The bracket H comprises an upper plate 7 from which depends an extension 8 to which the rod 4 is connected. The late 7 has at its upper end an opening 9 t rough which extends a bolt 10. This bolt is carried in an opening 11 formed through the material of the doll head at the top of the forehead port1on thereof and its outer end is preferably concealed beneath the scalp part as 12, of the doll head. f

The purpose of this bolt is to hold the upper end portion of the plate 7 rigidly connected with the adjacent portion of the doll head. and to this end the drawing illustrates the use of a nut 13 at the inner end of the .bolt disposed for pressing an interposed with the opening 11 of the doll head, and on this account the opening 9, as illustrated, is made considerably larger than the opening 11 and bolt 10, and the washer 14 is made in such proportions as to straddle the opening 9 and to thereby serve as an eflicient clamp element between the nut and plate 7.

This washer 14 is also preferably made so as to be slightly resilient for thereby providing a certain amount of resiliency in the structure so that the tightening of the nut will not be likely to injure the material of the doll head, while yet permitting a slight movement of the plate relative to the head upon occasion.

Suitable projections 15 may be provided upon the plate adjacent to the opening 9 for being forced into the material of the doll head, when the nut is screwed home, to prevent accidental movement of the plate with respect to the doll head.

Spaced downwardly from the plane of the fastening bolt 10 is a pair of adjusting screws 16 and 17 carried by the plate and disposed one adjacent each of the eyeballs G. These screws extend through threaded apertures 18 provided in the plate and have their inner or forward ends arranged for engaging against the adjacent inner surface portions of the doll head whereby inward or forward adjustment of the screws will operate to spring or bend the plate back for lifting the respective eyeballs freeof engagement with the walls of their sockets.

By disposing these screws spaced apart and in close proximity to the respective eyeballs it is possible to lift either of the eyes balls independently of its neighbor. If one eyeball continues to bind against its socket walls it is simply necessary to rotate the adjacent screw and thereby lift that particular eyeball free. I

The resilient character of the plate 7 will permit the easy backward movement of the eyeballs by meansof these screws and yet will at all timesthereafter exert a suflicient resilient pressure against the screws and of the screws against the opposing doll head surfaces, to prevent any unintentional rotation or consequent failure of adjustment, of the screws.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A supporting device for doll eyes comprising a bracket adapted for carrying the eyes in the usual manner, means for fixing the bracket within a doll head, and means carried by the bracket associated with said eyes independently of each other and being manually adjustable upon the bracket for thereby adjusting the eyes indep .ndently of each other with respect to the doll head.

A supporting device for doll eyes comprising a bracket for carrying the eyes in the usual manner, means for fixing the bracket within a doll head. said bracket being flexible, and a pair of adjusting screws carried by the bracket one adjacent each of the eyes having parts arranged to engage adjacent portions of the doll head whereby to adjust the eyes independently with respect to the doll head. a

3. A supporting device for doll eyes comprising a bracket adapted for carrying the eyes in the usual manner, said bracket being flexible. means for fixing the bracket within adoll head interengaging between the doll head and a portion ofthe bracket spaced relatively far from the eyes, and means relatively closer to the eyes associated with the eyes independently of each other and being manually operable to flex the bracket for thereby adjusting the eyes independently of each other with respect to the doll head.

4. A supporting device for doll eyes comprising a plate to which the eyes are connected and which has a part adapted to rest againstthe inner surface of the doll head when the eyes are arranged in their sockets, means for fixing said mentioned part of the plate within the doll head, and a par of screws carried by another partof the plate spaced away from each other one adjacent each eye being rotatably adjustable to adjust the relation of the eyes to their sockets respectively.

5. A supporting device for doll eyes comprising a plate to which the eyes are connected and which has a part adapted to rest against the inner surface of the doll head when the eyes are arranged in their sockets, means for fixing said mentioned'part of the plate within the doll head, said plate being flexible, and a pair of manually operable devices one adjacent each of the eyes operable to flex the plate and to thereby adjust the position of the eyes respectively with relation to their sockets. v

6. A supporting device for doll eyes comprising a plate to which the eyes are con- .nected and which has a part adapted to rest against the inner surface of the doll head when the eyes are arranged m their sockets.

a bolt carried by the doll head, said mentioned part of the plate having an opening therethrough to receive thebolt, said opening being enlarged in all radial directions with respect to the diameter of the bolt for thereby allowing variation in its position'in all radial directions with respect to the bolt, and a clamp memberprovided upon said bolt for clamping the plate in any adjusted posi -i tion against the doll head.

7 A supporting device for doll eyes comprising a plate to which the eyes are connected and which has a part adapted to rest against the inner surface of the doll head when the eyes'are arranged in their sockets,

against the doll head, and a spring washer 25 member and Ipurpose set orth.

ereof I aflix my slgnature.

ALEXANDER KONOFF.

interposed between said clam the platefor the In testimony w

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