US2788610A - Doll eye - Google Patents

Description

April 16, 1957 BASHOVER 2,788,610)

DOLL EYE F iled Dec. 12, 1955 INVENTOR. ALBERT BASH OVER AT TORNE Y5 v having a soft skin-like texture.

t d tates Patent '0 DOLL EYE Albert Bashover, Livingston, N. L, assignor to Margon Corporation, Newark, N. 3., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 12, 1955, Serial No. 552,492

Claims. (Cl. 46-159) This invention relates to dolls, especially small dolls with flexible heads, and more particularly to movable or sleeping eyes therefor.

Rigid doll heads have been provided with movable eyes connected together and to a common weight arm. That construction has been carried down from large dolls to very tiny dolls. There has been a more recent trend to the use of flexible rubber-like doll heads, particularly heads made by slush molding of vinyl compound slurries, because that process is inexpensive, uses inexpensive molds, and results in one-piece heads of fine detail and material may be used to help support the flexible head. Such heads have led to the use of substantially enclosed eye sockets molded integrally with the head, each socket receiving an individual housing carrying an eye and weight. A recent example is shown 'in' U. S. patent to Wolfe et a1. 2,696,064, granted December 7, 1954,'and entitled Eye Assembly for Use in Dollslleads.

The. housing of the eye 'assembly there disclosed encloses the eye except for an elliptical openingconforming to and acting as the eye opening of the head. The partial enclosure at the front of the eyewas deemed essential in order to maintain clearance for free movement of the eye, for the material of the doll-head at'the eye opening is soft and flexible and would not itself assure maintenance of the desired clearance.

Although such eye assemblies have proved eminently successful in flexible heads of large and medium size, they are not satisfactory or feasible for use in miniature flexible heads. One main difficulty isthat in a very tiny doll the eyes become recessed or deeply set within the head. This is so because the eye must be set back of the housing, which is turn is set back of the eye opening in the head, and the distances for clearance and for thicknesses .of inaterialwhich are. relatively small and tolerable in large and medium size heads, become relatively excessive ina miniature head. Moreover, in a miniature doll the cost factor becomes increasingly important, and-these eye assemblies are 'notinexpensive.

The primary object of thepresent invention is to generally improve doll eyes. A more particular object isto overcome the foregoing difficulties, and to provide a doll and doll eye construction suitable'for miniature flexible heads. Further objects are to provide a doll eye construction in which the eye-is readily assembled with A suitable fibrous filling its housing, and the assembly in turn is readily applied more specific objects which will hereinafter appear, my

invention resides in the doll and eye assembly elements, and their relation one to another, as arenereihafter more 2,788,610 Patented Apr. 16, 1957 particularly described in the following specification. The specification is accompanied by a drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through a doll head at one of the eyes;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the eye and housing ofan eye assembly embodying features of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is .a front view of the assembly;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section through a doll head taken at one of the eye openings;

Fig. 5 is a section similar to Fig. 1, but showing a modification;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a housing having notches for orientation;

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a housing having keys for orientationgand Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a housing having flats for orientation.

Referring to the drawing, and more particularly to Fig. 4, I there show a doll head 12 having an eye opening at 14 with a substantially enclosed eye socket 16 within the head behind the eye opening 14. This receives an individual or independent eye assembly preferably comprising only two parts, a rigid housing 18 and an eye 20.

The head 12 is preferably soft and flexible or rubberlike. Indeed it may be molded of rubber, but in recent yearsthese heads have been made by slush molding vinyl compound slurries. Such a molding operation requires only an outside mold, and the head may be molded in one piece and subsequently pulled from the mold through the neck opening. The eye sockets 16 are provided during the molding operation, and for this purpose the mold is provided with cores or so-called plugs which provide the eye openings 14 and the sockets 16. The material is sufiiciently flexible to be pulled from the plugs as it is.

pulled from the mold.

InFig. 4 it will be observed that the front of the eye 29 conforms generally to the surface of a sphere, and that the head 32 immediately in back of the eye opening 14 conforms concavely to the surface of a sphere having a radius somewhat larger than the radius of the eye, as shown at 22. The head in back of the concave surface 22 is preferably stepped outward to form a ledge 24 against which the front edge of the housing 18 abuts, thereby fixing the spacing of the housing 18 from the eye opening 14 an amount which properly positions the eye 2!) in the eye opening. The front edge of the housing 18 supports the material of the head at the eye opening, and this material is greatly thickened immediately around the eye opening. In the miniature doll sizes here contemplated this results in the part 22 being fairly stilt or rigid, despite the flexible nature of the head Wall elsewhere. For example, ifone pushes inward at the rim of the eye opening, the entire rim or wall of the head around the opening moves inward as a whole. The ledge 24 results in the thickened edge being buttressed against inward movement. Both the housing 18 and the thickened edge at the opening help maintain the desired clearance between the eye and the concave surface 22 for free movement of the eye.

Referring now to Figs. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawing'the eye assembly comprises an eye member generally designated 20 and a rigid housing 18. The eye member 29 includes a weight portion 26 and trunnions 23. The housing 18 is a one-piece cup-shaped housing which is open at the front and closed at the back, as shown at 34 The closed rear end is preferably greatly tapered, as shown at 32, in order to facilitate insertion of the assembly through the eye opening 14 into the socket 16. The open front end of housing 13 is large enough to receive the eye 20 from theft-out, and indeed it would in all practical cases have the largest diameter, for a taper facilitates molding of the housing when made of plastics material, as here shown, and would facilitate drawing of the housing if it were made of metal.

The housing 18 has bearings 34 (Figs. 2 and 3) to receive the trunnions 28 of the eye. The bearings are in the form of slots which extend from the front end 36 of the housing. Thus the bearings are open at the front to receive the trunnions as the eye is inserted in the housing. The bearings may be open slots with no undercut, for once the assembly has been inserted in the doll head the eye is retained by the spherical surface 221 of the eye opening. However, in prefered form the bearings are slightly undercut, as shown at 38 in Fig. 1. In such case the bearings receive the trunnions with a snap fit, and this is useful to retain the eye and housing in assembled relation prior to insertion in a doll head. It is a convenience during manufacture, shipment and han dling of the eye assemblies, for it must be kept in mind that in present-day practice the eye assemblies are made by one manufacturer, and are sold to doll manufacturers for insertion in the doll heads.

The eye 20 may be of known type. In that here shown the eye 20, the weight 26, and the trunnions 28 all are molded integrally out of a single body of a suitable plastics material. A simulated eyelash indicated at 40 may also be molded integrally with the eye. The plastics material is preferably a transparent but slightly tinted material which may be tinted blue for a blue eye and brown for a brown eye. An annular part of the eye is preferably serrated or roughened, as shown at 42, thus causing the same to be light reflective, in simulation of the brown or blue iris portion of an eye. The center part 4 is smooth and non-reflective. When, as in the present case, the eye is used in a region to which no light is admitted, this center or pupil portion 44 appears black. Outside the iris the eye is painted white, and above the lash it is painted with a flesh color to match the color of the head. The lash is painted black or brown. The transparent eye feature is described more fully in Patent No. 2,657,500, issued November 3, 1953, to Hans W. Samolewitz, and entitled Transparent Doll Eye. To enhance the desired result the housing 18 here is preferably molded out of a black plastics material.

The weight portion 26 is limited in dimension. It is limited upwardly because the iris and pupil parts 42 and 44 are preferably exposed at the back to facilitate molding of the eye, and thus the weight is concave or troughlike at the top, as shown at 46 in Fig. 2. The weight is limited in rearward dimension because it must afiord sufficient angular movement of the eye. Thus in the present case the opening movement of the eye is stopped when the weight bears against the bottom of the housing, as shown in Fig. 1. When the doll is turned from erect to supine position the closing movement of the eye is limited by the top of the weight reaching the opposite side of the housing, and this preferably coincides with movement of the simulated lash 4th to the bottom of the eye opening. Indeed, to provide sufiicient motion the weight is preferably cut away or beveled at the top, as shown at 48 in Fig. 1.

With these limitations on the dimension of the weight, and with its specific gravity limited by the transparent plastics material, it is found possible to improve the action of the weight by eliminating some material on the other side of the trunnion axis. The bottom portion of the eye is cut away, as shown at St in Fig. l. The cut away part is below the eye opening of the head, and therefore is not exposed to View. This is described in greater detail in a co-pending application of Robert I. Prupis, Serial No. 487,095, filed February 9, 1955, and entitled Movable Doll Eye.

Referring now to Figs. 2 and 3, it will be seen that the side walls of the housing are thickened on the inside, as by providing flats indicated at 52. These flats provide increased thickness of wall material in which the trunnion bearings are formed. They also help limit side-toside movement of the eye, and the latter may be molded with mating flats at the sides, as shown in Fig. 3. These flats are outside the ends of the eye opening in the head, the size of this opening being indicated by the elliptical dot and dash line in Fig. 3, and therefore the flats are not visible.

Referring to Fig. 3, the opening movement of the eye is here limited by a pair of stops 9% molded near the rear end of the housing. A similar pair of stops is provided at the top so that the housing is symmetrical and may be used with either side up. The bottom of the weight 26 is grooved or channeled slightly to mate with the stops 9%. This is done so that there will be no wedging action of the weight between stops. In other words, the Weight rests on the stops primarily on the substantially horizontal parts or surfaces.

The use of two spaced stops is preferred over the use of one stop at the bottom (and one at the top) because with one stop there may be a tendency of the weight to move to one side or the other on the stop, thus shifting the trunnions and also the line of sight of the eye. A bottom groove 92 (Fig. 3) is preferably provided, because the gate for the eye molding operation is led into this groove, and thus when the gate is broken away there is no need for a finishing operation to remove any slight projection at the break.

This stop arrangement as so far described may be used with an eye having no lash. When the eye has a rigid integrally molded lash 40, as here shown, the lash may itself be used as a stop device, for it then bears against the top of the eye opening when the eye is open, and it bears against the bottom of the eye opening when the eye is closed. In that respect the eye shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 has dual stop means, this being done for purposes of illustration, but either is alone sufficient.

In the housing shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 the front or open edge of the housing lies in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the housing. This is a simple and preferred form. The outside peripheral corner of the front edge 36 of the housing is preferably beveled, as shown on the drawing. This has two advantages, one being to facilitate stripping of the newly molded head from its mold, and more particularly from the eye plugs, and, second, to increase the thickness of the material of the head around the eye opening in order to better buttress and maintain the clearance at 22, as previously described. It will be observed that the housing constitutes the sole enclosure for the eye with the latter being unenclosed forwardly of the front peripheral edge 36 of the housing prior to the insertion of the eye assembly in the doll head.

Fig. 5 shows a modification of the invention in which the front edge of the housing lies in intersecting planes which intersect in a horizontal line. The eye 20' may be like that previously described, except that the lash is a hair lash passing through a slit. The housing 60 is generally cylindrical, and is closed and convex at its rear end 62, and open at its front end, all as previously described. It is also provided with slotted bearings to receive the eye trunnions from the front, and the bearings are preferably slightly undercut. The front edge of the housing is carried forward at the top, as shown at 64, and at the bottom, as shown at 66. This helps support the soft material of the head 68 at the eye opening 70. It

will be understood that the plugs secured in the mold to form the sockets are appropriately shaped to receive the housing 60, and thus differ from the plugs used to make the socket 16 to receive the housing 18. The housing 60 shown in Fig. 5 incidentally helps insure proper orientation of the trunnion axis and eye relative to the eye opening, that is, it guards against improper rotation of the generally cylindrical housing about its axis. Nevertheless, the configuration shown in Fig. 1 is preferred because it facilitates the molding operation and the a /same orientation of thehousing in the doll head. Thus in Fig. 6the housing 72 may resemble that shown in Fig. 1 in substantially all respects, but is provided with notches 74 at the top and bottom. The head as molded is provided with 'mating lugs or keys which are received in the head. Thesaid recesses are molded as apart of the molding operation; it being understood that in each case the plugs orcores areappro'priately shaped toconform to the housing 76. Indeed the manufacturer of the doll eyes may make the plugs'and 'siipplythe same to the doll manufacturer, thus insuring a proper relationship between the socket in'the doll'head'and the eye assembly intended to be used therein.

In Fig. 8 the housing 80 may be like those previously described except that it is provided with a number of flats on the outside. In the present case there are two flats 82 at the top and bottom, and two flats 84 at the sides.

In the specific case here shown the head is about two inches in width and depth, and about two and a half inches in height. The doll trade commonly refers to this as a number six size. The dimension is given merely by way of example of a tiny or miniature head, and is not intended to be in limitation of the invention.

The housing 18 is preferably made of a black styrene or butyrate (cellulose acetate butyrate) plastics material. The eye 20, if transparent as here shown, may also be made of a styrene or butyrate plastics material, and, of course, should be a material obtainable in transparent form. However, the eye need not be transparent, and instead may be made of metal, or of an opaque flesh colored or white plastic, with a circular lens inserted therein to act as the iris and pupil portion. In that case only the lens need be transparent. Indeed, in cruder form the entire eye may be opaque, and the pupil and iris simply painted on the eye. The head is preferably made of polyvinyl chloride, highly plasticized to obtain a rubber-like consistency.

it is believed that the construction and method of use, as well as the advantages of my improved doll and eye assembly, will be apparent from the foregoing detailed description. The invention may be used in soft doll heads,

even in miniature size. Excessive deep setting of the eyes is avoided. The eye will strongly resist an inward push from the front, and the bearings, although open at the front, are closed behind the trunnions where strength is needed. The bearings are also closed beneath the trunnions for easy eye movement. The bearings may be fully open, but are preferably somewhat undercut, for convenience in holding the assembly together, and to keep the eye from rubbing against the eye opening. The housing may be molded with a substantial taper at the rear, which greatly facilitates insertion of the assembly into the head through the eye opening. The front of the socket fits against the ledge, which accurately determines the location of the eye in the eye opening. The desired clearance around the eye at the eye opening is maintained because of the support afforded by the housing, combined with the greatly increased thickness of the material of the head around the eye opening. To obtain this increased thickness is no problem because in the slush molding process it is easy for material to gather around the plug or core in a corner where it joins the head, that is, to form a fillet. The housing, although open at the front when not in use, is light proof when inserted inthe socket, so that a transparent pupillo'oks black.

It will be understood that while I have-shown and described my invention in several preferred forms, changes may be made in-the structure shown, without departing from the scope of the invention, as sought to be definedin the following claims.

I claim:

1. A dolls it eye assembly for use in a flexible head having eye openings and individualeye sockets within the head to receive independent unconnected eye assemblies; said eye assembly comprising a housing-and an eye pivotally 'mounted therein, saidhousing being of onepiece cup-shaped generally cylindrical construction which is open at the front and closed atthe back,.said front housing opening beingsutfieientlylarge to receive'said eye from the front, said eye having a weight andtrunnions and said housing having bearings to receive companion trunnions of said eye to provide for the pivotal mounting thereof, said one-piece housing constituting the sole enclosure for said eye and having provision for retaining said trunnions in said bearings.

2. A dolls eye assembly for use in a flexible head having eye openings and individual eye sockets within the head to receive independent unconnected eye assemblies, said eye assembly comprising a housing and an eye pivotally mounted therein, said housing being of one-piece cup-shaped construction which is open at the front and closed at the back, said front housing opening being sufficiently large to receive said eye from the front, said eye having a weight and trunnions and said housing having hearings to receive companion trunnions of said eye to provide for the pivotal mounting thereof, said housing being generally cylindrical with said closed back being tapered to facilitate insertion of the assembly through the eye opening into the socket, and the front peripheral edge of said housing lying in a plane generally perpendicular to the cylindrical axis thereof, said eye being unenclosed forwardly of said front peripheral edge of the housing, the latter having provision for retaining said trnnnions in said bearings.

3. A dolls eye assembly for use in a flexible head having eye openings and individual eye sockets within the head to receive independent unconnected eye assemblies, said eye assembly comprising a housing and an eye pivotally mounted therein, said housing being of one-piece cup-shaped generally cylindrical construction which is open at the front and closed at the back, said front hous ing opening being sufliciently large to receive said eye from the front, said eye having a weight and a pair of oppositely extending trunnions, and said housing having opposite side walls provided with hearing slots which initially open to the front of the housing to receive companion trunnions of said eye, said one-piece housing constitutin'g the sole enclosure for said eye, and means for preventing the withdrawal of said trunnions from said bearing slots for retaining said eye and housing in as sembled relation prior to insertion in a doll head.

4. A dolls eye assembly for use in a flexible head having eye openings and individual eye sockets within the head to receive independent unconnected eye assemblies, said eye assembly comprising a generally cylindrical housing and an eye pivotally mounted therein, said housing being of one-piece cup-shaped construction which is open at the front and closed at the back, said front housing opening being sufiiciently large to receive said eye from the front, said eye having a weight and trunnions and said housing having bearings to receive companion trunnions of said eye to provide for the pivotal mounting thereof, said housing constituting the sole enclosure for said eye and being molded of plastic material, and said eye including its weight and trunnions being molded out of a single integral body of transparent plastic tinted for iris color, the pupil portion having a smooth relatively non-reflective back surface and the iris portion having a roughened reflective back surface, said housing having provision for retaining said trunnions in said bearings.

5. In combination, a doll head and an eye assembly therefor, said doll head being formed of a flexible material and having an eye opening and a substantially enclosed eye socket within the head behind said eye opening for the reception of said eye assembly, the latter comprising a generally cylindrical housing and an eye pivotally mounted therein, said housing being of onepiece cup-shaped construction which is fully open at the front and closed at the back, said front housing opening being sufiiciently large to receive said eye from the front, said eye having a weight and trunnions and said housing having hearings to receive companion trunnions of said eye to provide for the pivotal mounting thereof, means for retaining said trunnions in said bearings, the front of said eye conforming generally to the surface of a sphere and the head immediately around the eye opening conforming concavely to the surface of a sphere having a radius somewhat larger than the radius of said eye to provide clearance between said eye and the concave surface of the head at the eye opening, the head in back of said concave surface being stepped outward to form a peripheral shoulder against which the front peripheral edge of the housing abuts so as to fix the spacing of the housing from the eye opening to properly position the eye in the eye opening, said eye being enclosed forwardly of said front peripheral edge of said housing by said concave surface of the head.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,652,777 Geisler Dec. 13, 1927 2,039,928 Popovich May 5, 1936 2,133,635 Schaeffer Oct. 18, 1938 2,601,742 Kusold .Tuly 1, 1952 2,667,013 Tommarchi et a1 Jan. 26, 1954 2,696,064 Wolfe et al. Dec. 7, 1954 2,753,660 Brudney July 10, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 634,266 Great Britain Mar. 15, 1950

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