US3046692A

US3046692A - Whirling toy

Info

Publication number: US3046692A
Application number: US114349A
Authority: US
Inventors: Albert M Steiner
Original assignee: BROMO MINT Co
Current assignee: BROMO MINT Co
Priority date: 1961-06-02
Filing date: 1961-06-02
Publication date: 1962-07-31
Anticipated expiration: 1979-07-31

Description

July 31, 1962 A. M. STEINER WHIRLING TOY Filed June 2, 1961 IN VEN TOR.

BY M/VM AW /ma.

Afro/9M9):

United States Patent P 3,046,692 WHIRLING TOY Albert M. Steiner, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Ilromo Mint Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporat on of elaware I p D Filed June 2, 1961, Ser. No. 114,349

4 Claims. (Cl. 46-52) This invention relates to a whirling toy having both visual and variable sound efiects.

An object of this invention is to provide a toy which will be a source of amusement to children. A visual efiect is provided by the selective attachment :of elongated, light-weight streamers to a weighted cord which is whirled about in desired patterns by means of a baton, so as to cause the attached streamer to follow a path described by the end of the weighted cord.

Sound is produced by means of attaching the cord to the wall of a hollow, tubular baton so that during use of the toy, the cord will be chafed against an edge of the baton so as to produce a vibratory sound in the baton. The pitch of the sound may be varied by manipulauon of the fingers to selectively open and close apertures provided in the wall of the sounding portion of the baton.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an action toy which is completely safe for childrens use and which combines a means of developing certain simple feats of co-ordination skills so as to provide amusement for children. 1

To the foregoing objects, and others, which hereinafter more fully appear, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts, as will be more specifically referred to and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the toy in use.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged top plan, partially broken away View of the baton member of the toy.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing the attachment of the Weight member to the cord.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged plan view of an alternate form of streamer for use with the toy. 7

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along lines 55 of FIGURE 4 showing the tow clamp attached to the front portion of the streamer.

As can be seen in FIGURE 1, the device comprises a baton member 1, a cord or tension member 10, a weight member 2%) and an elongated flexible streamer 30. The toy is operated by grasping the baton in the hand and by swinging the baton in a desired pattern, such as the figure 8 illustrated in FIGURE 1, so that the weight member 26 will pursue the same general pattern and cause the lightweight, flexible streamer 39 to follow, in much the same path. 7

With reference to FIGURE 2, it may be seen that while the hollow baton member 1 is of substantially cylindrical or tubular configuration, the tube is tapered inwardly at its opposite open ends 5 and 6. These tapers provide an enlarged waist portion 7 intermediate the ends of the tube in which is mounted a membrane 2. The membrane 2 is positioned in a plane coincident with an interior diameter of the baton to divide the baton into a sounding chamber 3 and a chafing chamber Si). Sounding chamber 3 is provided with a plurality of openings 4 which can be opened and closed by the fingers while the device is in use so as to vary the pitch of the sound emanating from the open end 5 of'sound chamber 3.

With regard to the broken away portion of FIGURE 2, it will be noted that the tension or cord member is secured to the central portion of membrane 2 by passing the end of the cord 10 through a small aperture 8 in the membrane 2 by such means as .a knot and plug arrangement such as is shown at 9.

As shown particularly in FIGURE 3, the extended end of cord member 10 is received in a bore 21 in weight member 20 and made fast to a doubleended hook 22 as shown at knot 25. The double ended hook 22 terminates in a large streamer hook 23 at one end and a smaller cord engaging hook 24 at the other. The double ended hook is provided with a centrally located, axially disposed shield member 26 which snugly engages the outer circumference of weight member 20 in an area immediately adjacent the bore 21 when the small cord hook 24 is sunk into weight member 20, to keep hook 23 from engaging the surface of weight 20.

With reference to FIGURE 5, it may be seen that the streamer used with the device, while extremely light in Weight and flexible, is provided with a stiifening tow rod 31 around which the end of the streamer 30 is looped and which is then press-fit into longitudinal tow yoke 34 in towing clamp 32. As shown in FIGURE 4, the lead portion of the tow clamp 32 is provided with an aperture 33 which can be engaged upon streamer hook 23 to removably attach the streamer to the toy.

When the device is whirled as is shown in FIGURE 1, the cord member 10 is chafed against the periphery of the open end 6 of the baton 1 to produce a vibration which, in turn, creates a sound in the sounding chamber 3. The faster the Weight is whirled, the louder the sound. At the same time, the weight is being whirled, the child operating the baton can manipulate his fingers to open and close the apertures 4 so as to vary the pitch of the sound and add interest to the use of the toy.

The device lends itself to the use of different types and colors of streamers which can be made to produce novel visual results in conjunction with the sound means previously described. The streamers should be of sufiicient length so that it is possible for a child to create large patterns in which the weight member 20 of the device al most catches the tail 39 of the streamer so as to give the illusion of a complete pattern or design. While the use of polyethylene sheeting is preferred in the construction of the streamers, it is, of course, possible to use any material which is extremely light in weight and extremely flexible so that it will follow the path of the weight member 20 and create a design described by the weight member 20 as the weight is whirled by the baton 1.

In the preferred embodiment as disclosed in FIGURE 1, it can be seen that the streamer 30 is composed of three

separate streamers

36, 37, and 38 which are colored blue, yellow and red respectively. When the weight member 20 is whirled, the three separate streamers follow closely behind and create a rainbow illusion as the colors blend together when the streamers entwine.

FIGURE 4 discloses an alternate streamer for use with the toy in which the streamer 30 is composed of a solid sheet of light weight, flexible, filmy material which is imprinted with a design having two basic colors as indicated at 41 and 42. When this streamer is whirled, an illusion is produced in which the two

colors

41 and 42 appear to be blended into an intermediate color. In the preferred embodiment, the weight member 20 is composed of a rubber ball which has enough weight to operate the device successfully and is soft enough not to damage any article into which it might be hurled. The baton member 1 is preferably composed of a non-breakallale plastic which is light in weight and easy to manipu ate.

If preferred, the streamers may be made of sufliciently heavy material so as not to require the use of weight 20.

Although the invention has been described in its preferred form, with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred Patented July 31, 1962 7 formhas been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangements 'of'par'ts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

I claim: V 1. A toy for producing visual and sound 'efiect's comprising a hollow, tubular baton member, a diaphragm mounted in said baton member interiorly thereof, a cord secured to the diaphragm and extending outwardly therefrom and streamers secured to the extended end of the cord whereby swinging of the baton extends the streamers and the simultaneous chafing of the cord against the baton edge produces a sound effect.

2. In a whirling toy for producing visual and sound eifects comprising an extended cord length having streamers secured to an end thereof; the improvement to whirl said cord, means dividing said baton into a sound chamber and a cord chafing chamber, the unweighted end of said cord being fastened at a point within said chafing chamber, said cord extending through said chafing chamber to chafe against the rim of the open end of said chamber to produce a sound in said sound chamber upon the manipulation of said baton to whirl said streamer rapidly about;

4. A whirling toy comprising a cord length having a streamer removably attached adjacent one end thereof, a tubular baton to whirl said cord, means dividing said baton into a sound chamber and a cord chafing chamber, the other end of said cord being fastened at a point within said chafing chamber, said cord extending through said chafing chamber to 'chafe against the rim of the open end of said chamber to produce a sound in said sound chamber upon the manipulation of said baton to comprising a tubular baton member for swinging said 4 cord length, said baton member comprising a hollow tube and a diaphragm mounted in said tube intermediate the ends thereof, and having the cord length secured thereto, whereby swinging of the baton causes the cord Whirl the streamer rapidly about, the walls of said sound chamber having a plurality of apertures defined therein to vary the pitch of said sound upon the selective opening and closing of said apertures.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,966,895 Kuhns July 17, 1934 FOREIGN PATENTS 429,361 Germany May 29, 1926