US3360811A - Waterway marker - Google Patents

Description

2, 1968 R. H. BARTLEBAUGH 3,360,811

WATERWAY MARKER Filed Oct. 22, 1965 INVENTOR. 526%? H flaw/Yeazy/z BY I SWIM SWIM AREA AREA United States Patent 3,360,811 WATERWAY MARKER Robert H. Bartlebaugh, 5371 Cooley Lake Road, Pontiac, Mich. 48054 Filed Oct. 22, 1965, Ser. No. 500,634 2 Claims. (Cl. 9-8) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A waterway marker including a buoyant member with a close fitted skin covering and having a tie rod forced therethrough to expand the buoyant member into retaining engagement with the covering and protectively re tained engagement therein.

This invention relates to waterway markers in general, and more particularly to waterway safety markers for swim areas and the like.

Numerous efforts have been made to devise a simple and inexpensive waterway marker suitable for identifying a swim area and to provide protection for those using it. Most markers either lie too low in the water or have too much of the marker submerged and underwater to be practical.

It is important that a good swim area marker stand upright a reasonable amount above the water so that it is visible. At the same time it must have suflicient stability to prevent it from laying over or bobbing out of sight too often without being too much under water. The part under water is most subject to deterioration, particularly to salt water, and the less the better.

Efforts to use cork and lightweight plastic foam materials of good cellular construction have not been too successful. Although a number of new materials have good internal cohesive strength, they are easily damaged and broken when subjected to external forces. Boats, beach balls, and the flailing arms and legs of youngsters, are usually more than they can take.

It will also be appreciated that trying to tie an anchor or float line to buoys of such material also presents a problem and a cause of wear and eventual deterioration.

It is an object of this invention to disclose a waterway marker which is simple in construction and inexpensive in materials and labor to make and sell.

The waterway marker of this invention is made out of a light weight plastic foam material known as etheltone, and which has a cellular structure which makes it very buoyant. It includes only two pieces and has them secured together with a tie rod which also serves to hold the anchor rope. The tie rod is forced through both pieces in the assembly operation but is prevented from splitting the one which serves as a marker because of its outer vinyl plastic skin covering.

It is an object of this invention to disclose the use of an outer protective skin covering for members of a cellular material which require another member to be forced through them, and which might otherwise split.

It is also an object of this invention to teach the use of such protective skin coverings for plastic foam and like materials to make them more serviceable for use as waterway markers and to teach printing on the insides thereof for self-protection against the elements.

These and other objects and advantages will be better known and appreciated upon a reading of the following specification having reference to the accompanying drawings and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a waterway marker made in accord with the teachings of this invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the ice waterway marker of this invention, with the mid-section part broken away, to show the general construction of the disclosed type marker.

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of the protective skin covering as spread open and laid flat.

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of the marker, in a different dimensional scale than the other figures.

The waterway marker 10 of this invention is intended to float on top of the water 12 and to include a base part 14, which provides stability, and an upright part 16 that serves as the visual marker.

The base part 14 and upright part 16 are made of a lightweight pre-formed plastic foam material known as etheltone. It has a styrofoam like cellular structure which makes it very light in weight and very buoyant in the water.

The base part 14 in square, as best shown by FIGURE 4, and the upright part 16 is cylindrical in shape. For a 16" square base the cylinder is about 6" in diameter and 36" long. This causes the marker to be quite visible for considerable distances, because of how high it stands out of the water.

A tie rod 18 holds the two marker parts 14 and 16 together. It is formed to include an eye 20 at one end and it is threaded or otherwise formed at the other end to receive some form of fastener means. In this instance a large washer 22 and nut 24 are used The tie rod 18 has a weight-mass 26 provided on its lower disposed end before it is used with the marker parts. This is simply a piece of sewer crock or other short length cylindrical member 28 which receives the tie rod through it and provides a form for a wet concrete mass 30' that forms a hard and practically indestructable weight after it sets.

In general practice, the end of the tie rod 18 is stuck in the ground in a piece of sewer crock or the like 28, and wet concrete is poured into the crock with the rod standing upright therein.

The tie rod 18 is forced through the etheltone base and upright parts 14 and 16. This is done in a fixture, to be sure of alignments, but is without the benefit of any preformed hole in either the base or upright cylindrical parts. This is no problem as regards the base part 14 which has a relatively large surface area in comparison to its thickness. However, absent the teaching of this invention as regards a skin covering 32 about the upright part 16, it would not be possible or practical for the upright member of smaller cross-sectional area.

The member 16 includes a vinyl plastic skin covering 32 which is Wrapped completely around it and extends substantially from one end to the other. It is normally of a translucent material fiat printed on the inner side for whatever designs or legends are required. It may be made up as a tube or sleeve and be fitted to the columnar part or it may be wrapped around it, overlapped and sealed in place. It need not be glued or otherwise made to adhere to the cylindrical column but is preferably made sufiiciently tight fitting to avoid doing so.

In the present instance the symbol 34 and color bands 36 in orange, with black letters reading swim area on a white background, provide both an attractive and visually effective waterway marker.

The skin covering 32 provides both a weather protective covering for the upright part 16 and also a retaining form which enables the tie rod 18 to be forced through it lengthwise, from one end to the other, without having it split open.

The weight-mass 26 serves as a retainer or keeper on one end of the tie rod 18 and butts against the base member 14. The upright part 16 has one end engaged to the base and the tie rod extended clear through it. Upon I tightening down the nut 24 on the tie rod 18, all of the parts are held together securely.

The waterway marker is placed in use by fastening an anchor line 38 to the eye under the mass-weight 26 and tying it in turn to an anchor 40 of one form or another.

The broad base part 14 serves as a good stabilizer and the mass-Weight 26 provides a sufficiently low center of gravity for the waterway marker to ride well on the water and not lie over and bob about too much.

Should any parts become damaged or broken, they may be easily replaced and the waterway marker made as good as new since the parts are not glued together but are only held by the tie rod.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that a new and significantly different Waterway marker has been proposed and that both the marker and the method of making it are of commercial significance and importance.

Although a preferred embodiment of this invention has been shown and described in detail, it will be appreciated that certain modifications and improvements are within the scope of the teachings set forth. Accordingly, such of these improvements and modifications as are within the spirit of the invention and are not specifically excluded by the language of the hereinafter appended claims, are to be considered as inclusive thereunder.

I claim:

1. A waterway marker, comprising:

a solid core cylindrical member of buoyant material having a base member of like material and larger circumferential size received in engagement with one end thereof,

a close fitted sleeve member of pliable and protective plastic sheet material open at opposite ends and received about said cylindrical member throughout substantially the full length thereof,

a weighted member for attachment to said base member opposite said cylindrical member, and means for attaching said weighted member to said base member and said base member to said cylin- 5 drical member received centrally through said base member and axially through said cylindrical member, said means including a rod for forming its own bore in said cylindrical member and forceably displacing the material thereof radially outward into retaining engagement with said sleeve member and protectively retained engagement therewithin. 2. The method of making a Waterway marker, comprising:

enclosing the side walls of a solid core cylindrical member of buoyant material within a close fitted sleeve of pliable plastic sheet material open at opposite ends, forcing a tie rod of sufiicient girth relative to the cylindrical member through the solid core member for forming its own bore and displacing the material thereof into retaining engagement with said sleeve and protectively retained engagement therewithin, and attaching a weighted member to the lower end of said tie rod. References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,716,758 9/1955 Hajecate 98 3,116,498 1/1964 Larson 98 3,132,417 5/1964 Irwin 98 X 3,167,793 2/1965 Keats 9-8 MILTON BUCHLER, Primary Examiner.

T. MAJOR, Assistant Examiner.

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