US3604146A

US3604146A - Rectangular and triangular blocks with means enabling one pin to connect three blocks

Info

Publication number: US3604146A
Application number: US759732A
Authority: US
Inventors: David A Winer
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1968-09-13
Filing date: 1968-09-13
Publication date: 1971-09-14
Anticipated expiration: 1988-09-14

Abstract

A set of rectangular and triangular building blocks of uniform thickness having holes around their peripheral side faces with the centers of the holes being spaced apart a distance equal to the thickness of the blocks and the centers of the end holes being a distance of about one-half the block thickness from the respective face ends. The holes include some enabling a single straight dowel to connect two rectangular blocks, each parallel to a respective side face of a triangular block lying therebetween.

Description

United States Patent [72] Inventor David A. Winer 88 Balcort Drive, Princeton, NJ. 08540 [2]] Appl. No. 759,732 [22] Filed Sept. I3, I968 [45] Patented Sept. 14, I971 [54] RECTANGULAR AND TRIANGULAR BLOCKS WITH MEANS ENABLING ONE PIN TO CONNECT THREE BLOCKS I Claim, 4 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl 46/26 A63h 33/12 Field of Search 46/26, I6, 17

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 604,708 5/1898 Burton 46/26 1,216,840 2/1917 Ramsey et al 46/26 Primary ExaminerF. Barry Shay AttorneySmythe & Moore ABSTRACT: A set of rectangular and triangular building blocks of uniform thickness having holes around their peripheral side faces with the centers of the holes being spaced apart a distance equal to the thickness of the blocks and the centers of the end holes being a distance of about one half the block thickness from the respective face ends. The holes include some enabling a single straight dowel to connect two rectangular blocks, each parallel to a respective side face of a triangular block lying therebetween.

PATENTED SEP 1 415m 3504.14

mv mg; Dav/0 wz/ ATTORNEYS RECTANGULAR AND TRIANGULAR BLOCKS WITH MEANS ENABLING ONE PIN TO CONNECT THREE BLOCKS The present invention relates to toy building blocks and more particularly to such building blocks of rectangular and triangular shapes having holes along their peripheral faces so that blocks may be interconnected by dowel pins inserted in corresponding holes in the adjoining blocks.

A wide variety of forms of toy building blocks has been devised in order that different structures may be constructed. Such building blocks may be generally classified as those which may be'interconnected to each other and those which merely rest upon each other. Various structures have been provided for interconnecting blocks in which the interconnecting structures are either integral with the blocks or separate therefrom, such as dowel pins or the like. While it is desired that the block and interconnecting structures be as simple as possible, nevertheless, certain dimensional relationships are desired between the blocks and their interconnecting structures so as to facilitate the assembly of the blocks into rather complicated structures such as buildings and the like. For many purposes, blocks having sockets in their faces into which dowels are inserted so as to interconnect adjacent blocks have been found to be suitable since the resulting structures are rigid yet simple to assemble. However, such blocks are generally unsatisfactory since the dimension relationship between the block size and the spacing of the socket holes does not permit the ready assembly of the blocks into complex structures.

An object of the present'invention is to provide an improved set of building blocks.

Another object of the invention is to provide building blocks having sockets along their faces for the insertion of dowels therein, there being a particular dimensional relationship between the spacing of the sockets and the sizes of the blocks.

A further object of the invention is to provide a set of toy building blocks of rectangular and triangular shapes which are interconnected by dowels inserted in sockets positioned in the faces of the blocks.

In one aspect of the invention, a rectangular block may be provided having a uniform thickness with opposed parallel rectangular surfaces and side faces around the peripheral edges. A plurality of holes are provided in the side faces along the centerlines with the holes terminating short of the opposite side face. The centers of the holes are spaced apart a distance substantially equal to the thickness of the block. The centers of the end holes on on each face are a distance equal to onehalf the block thickness from the respective face end. The holes are perpendicular to their respective faces.

The triangular blocks have parallel opposing faces in the shape of right triangles with holes provided in the side faces. The end hole in the longer side away from the right angle passes through the block to the hypotenuse face of the block.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings, which are merely exemplary.

In the'drawings:

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a rectangular building block according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the building block illustrated in FIG. I;

FIG. 3v is an elevational view of an assembly of building blocks according to the invention and showing a triangular block; and

FIG. 4 is an overall perspective view of a roof block accordingto the invention. 7

In the drawings and description hereafter, like reference symbols indicatethe same partsthroughout the various views and specific embodiments of the-invention.

As may be'seen in'FIG. I, there is illustrated a rectangular building block 10 having opposed parallel, rectangular faces I1 and I2, opposed

longer side faces

13 and 14, and opposed

shorter side faces

15 and 16. The thickness of the block is indicated by T.

Along the centerlines of each of the faces 13-16 there is provided a plurality of holes 17 which terminate short of the opposed face and may be said to be in the nature of sockets. The distances between the centers of the holes is T, and the distance between the center of an end hole and its respective end face is one-half the thickness of the block or T/2.

Each hole 17 is perpendicular to its respective face and snugly receives a dowel pin 18. The length of the dowel pin is about twice the depth of a hole so that half the length of an inserted pin protrudes beyond the face of a block as may be seen in FIG. 2. y

In FIG. 3, there is illustrated a triangular block 20 in accordance with the present invention which has opposed triangular faces 21 in the shape of a right triangle and

side faces

22 and 23 interconnected by a hypotenuse face 24. A plurality of holes 25 are similarly spaced along the side faces 22 and 23 with the same dimensional relationship of the holes as described above. Hole 26, which is the end hole in the longer face 23 away from the right angle, passes through the block to open on the hypotenuse face 24. A dowel pin 27 may be positioned in a rectangular block 10 and passes through the triangular block 21 to project beyond the hypotenuse face 24.

To increase the variety-of structures which may be made and to facilitate the assembly, it is preferred that the longer side of a rectangular block should be twice the length of a shorter side. The same relationship should exist between the longer and shorter sides of the triangular building block. By way of example, the longer sides of the rectangular and triangular building blocks may be 4 inches and the shorter sides 2 inches.

When using the blocks to construct a building, the triangular blocks may be used to determine the pitch of the roof. Thus, the rise of the roof will be 2 inches over a 4-inch run, and the hypotenuse of the triangular block will be approximately 4% inches. The roof may be formed by roof blocks 30, FIGS. 3 and 4, the width of the roof blocks being 1% inches so that three of the blocks may be positioned along the hypotenuse of the triangular blocks, as shown in FIG. 3. The roof blocks 30 have inclined sockets or openings 31 in at least one face thereof to receive the protruding end of the dowel pin 27 as shown in FIG. 3. In addition, socket openings 32, having the same relationships as the corresponding openings I7 in the rectangular blocks, are provided along the edges of the roof blocks.

The length of roof block 30 may vary but preferably would be 8 inches or twice the length of the longer sides of the rectangular and triangular blocks. While intended primarily for the construction of roofs of buildings, the roof blocks may be used for a variety of other structures because of their elongated, flat characteristic and the disposition of the socket openings adjacent the ends thereof.

While a preferred dimensional relationship between the lengths and widths of the rectangular, triangular, and roof blocks has been set forth above, it is pointed out that other length relationships may be employed depending on the specific applications intended for the blocks. However, regardless of the length relationships of the blocks, the same spacing is employed between the centers of the holes so that a wide variety of sizes of blocks may be interconnected to assemble a number of different structures.

Thus, it can be seen that the present invention employs a set of toy building blocks comprising essentially rectangular, triangular, and roof blocks which, because of the dimensional spacing between socket holes and their faces, may be assembled into a wide variety of shapes by the use of interconnecting dowel pins. The use of the dowel pins insertedin socket openings producesa rigid structure but permits easy assembly of the blocks so that children of young ages may enjoyfull use of the blocks.

It is to be understood that changes in various details of construction and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention except as defined in the appended claims.

1. In combination with a plurality of rectangular blocks of 5 uniform thickness having opposed parallel rectangular faces and opposed side faces, a plurality of triangular blocks of said uniform thickness, each having parallel opposed surfaces in the shape of a right triangle with one side being longer than the other, there being side faces and a hypotenuse face around the peripheral edges thereof, there being a plurality of holes in each of said side faces and in said hypotenuse face along the centerlines thereof, the centers of the holes in said side faces being spaced apart a distance substantially equal to the thickness of the block, the centers of the end holes on said side faces being a distance equal to one-half the block thickness from the respective face end, the end hole in said longer side face away from the'right angle passing completely through said triangular block to the hypotenuse face thereof, the holes in the side faces being perpendicular to the respective side faces and the holes in said hypotenuse face being perpendicular to the longer opposed side face of the respective triangular block, at least one of said rectangular blocks having a hole in one of its rectangular faces, said rectangular face hole being inclined relative to said rectangular face to have its axis aligned with the axis of said end hole when said rectangular face is parallel to said hypotenuse face, so that a pin can pass through said end hole in the longer face into rectangular blocks placed on either side thereof to hold the blocks in assembled relation, and the remaining holes in said side faces and hypotenuse face terminating short of an opposing face.

Claims

1. In combination with a plurality of rectangular blocks of uniform thickness having opposed parallel rectangular faces and opposed side faces, a plurality of triangular blocks of said uniform thickness, each having parallel opposed surfaces in the shape of a right triangle with one side being longer than the other, there being side faces and a hypotenuse face around the peripheral edges thereof, there being a plurality of holes in each of said side faces and in said hypotenuse face along the centerlines thereof, the centers of the holes in said side faces being spaced apart a distance substantially equal to the thickness of the block, the centers of the end holes on said side faces being a distance equal to one-half the block thickness from the respective face end, the end hole in said longer side face away from the right angle passing completely through said triangular block to the hypotenuse face thereof, the holes in the side faces being perpendicular to the respective side faces and the holes in said hypotenuse face being perpendicular to the longer opposed side face of the respective triangular block, at least one of said rectangular blocks having a hole in one of its rectangular faces, said rectangular face hole being inclined relative to said rectangular face to have its axis aligned with the axis of said end hole when said rectangular face is parallel to said hypotenuse face, so that a pin can pass through said end hole in the longer face into rectangular blocks placed on either side thereof to hold the blocks in assembled relation, and the remaining holes in said side faces and hypotenuse face terminating short of an opposing face.