US3646703A

US3646703A - Sparking toy top

Info

Publication number: US3646703A
Application number: US96378A
Authority: US
Inventors: Albert R Baginski; Jacob De Gelder; Gabriel Marason Jr
Original assignee: Mattel Inc
Current assignee: Mattel Inc
Priority date: 1970-12-09
Filing date: 1970-12-09
Publication date: 1972-03-07
Anticipated expiration: 1989-03-07

Abstract

A toy top having a housing with a gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freely rotatable shaft that extends below the housing and terminates at a spinning tip which supports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface, the toy including pyrophoric means such as flints mounted on a shaft-encircling casing which has axial freedom but which is keyed to the housing, the flints slidably resting upon abradant means such as a sandpaper disc mounted on top of the top''s rotor so that sparks are created by the rotation of the shaft with respect to the housing which are visible to its user through a transparent portion of the top''s housing.

Description

United States Patent Baginski et a].

[ Mar. 7, 1972 [54] SPARRING TOY TOP [72] Inventors: Albert R. Baginski; Jacob De Gelder, both of Torrance; Gabriel Marason, Jr., Los

Angeles, all of Calif.

[73] Assignee: Mattel, hm, Hawthorne, Calif.

[22] Filed: Dec. 9, 1970 [21 1 Appl. No.: 96,378

Primary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant Examiner--Robert F. Cutting Attorney-Seymour A. Scholnick [5 7] ABSTRACT A toy top having a housing with a gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freely rotatable shaft that extends below the housing and terminates at a spinning tip which supports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface, the toy including pyrophoric means such as flints mounted on a shaftencircling casing which has axial freedom but which is keyed to the housing, the flints slidably resting upon abradant means such as a sandpaper disc mounted on top of the tops rotor so that sparks are created by the rotation of the shaft with respect to the housing which are visible to its user through a transparent portion of the top s housing.

4Claims,3 Drawing Figures SPARRING TOY TOP BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The background of the invention will be set forth in two parts.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention pertains to the field of toy tops, and more particularly to spinning toy tops with spinning tips and having means for providing an amusing and entertaining pyrotechnic display within the top.

2. Description of the Prior Art The use of the gyroscopic effect of spinning bodies for scientific and amusement purposes has long been known. Generally, in the amusement or toy field, these devices are known as tops or spinning tops. Such tops may take any of many different forms, some being very simple in construction, comprising only a disc transversely mounted along a shaft which is rotated merely by twisting between the users fingers. Others are more elaborate and require that a cord be wound about a portion of the top, which cord when pulled briskly by its user, imparts to the top a desired rotation.

As the toy top art developed over the years, the tendency has been to develop tops having less classical appearance and which utilize more sophisticated configurations, such as tops having housing which conceal and protect the rotating annular rim of a rotatable hub member so that it will not accidentally come into contact with obstructions or the user's hand and cause it to lose momentum.

In more recent times, the toy industry has moved away from top configurations having fixed pivot arms which support the top and has developed spinning tops which have a housing enclosing an elongated, rotor-carrying shaft freely rotatably supported in and extending from the housing, and with a spinning tip in spinning engagement with a playing surface for supporting the housing, but being independently rotatable with respect to the housing. Such a toy is fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,386, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

Even with the above-described attributes, these spinning tops all have the disadvantage of easily becoming boring to watch. in order to provide an entertaining feature, the prior art does utilize sparking mechanism, but these are generally cumbersome, erratic and use spring-biasing means to hold the pyrophoric material against an abradant surface. This causes excessive wear on these components and also causes excessive drag on the rotating-portion of the top, so that these tops will only function for a relatively short period of time. Although separate accessories may be obtained to increase interest in these toys, it should be evident that a technique which would cause such added interest and amusement without requiring additional accessories constitutes a significant advancement of the art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing factors and conditions characteristic of the prior art, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved sparking toy top not subject to the disadvantages enumerated above, and which includes an internal arrangement that produces an interesting display of sparks visible to the user.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a sparking toy top which utilizes a floating flint carrier to reduce flint wear and drag on the tops rotor.

It is also another object of the present invention to provide an economical to manufacture sparking toy top having relatively simple and reliable components.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a significantly different and amusing sparking toy top utilizing an appreciable number of standard components of a very popular conventional toy top such as described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,386.

According to the present invention, a sparking toy top is provided which is basically of the type having a housing with a gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freely rotatable shaft that extends below the housing and terminating at a spinning tip which supports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface. Included is abradant means, including an abradant surface, carried by and moving with the tops rotor, viewing means in the housing for allowing at least a portion of the abradant surface to be seen, and pyrophoric means disposed in the housing between the abradant surface and the viewing means for slidably engaging the abradant surface and producing a pyrotechnic display visible through the viewing means when the rotor is revolving relative to the tops housing.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The present invention, both as to its organization and manner of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by making reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which like referenced characters refer to like components in the several views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an exploded view, in perspective, of a sparking toy top having a spinning tip in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section of the assembled toy top shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. I.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring again to the drawing, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a sparking toy top 11 of the type having a housing 12 with an upper section 13 and a lower section 15, and with a gyroscopic-type rotor 17 mounted on a freely rotatable shaft 19 supported at its tapered upper end 21 by an upper bearing structure 23, and at its lower portion by a lower bearing 25 mounted in a neck portion 27 of the lower housing section 15. The shaft 19 extends below the lower bearing 25 and terminates at a spinning tip 29 which supports the top 11 in spinning engagement with a playing surface 31.

The materials used in fabricating the various components of top 11 are not critical and synthetic materials such as high-impact styrene may be used for the housing 12, material such as Teflon or nylon, for the bearings 23 and 2S, and a metallic composition such as an aluminum alloy or steel for the rotor and shaft.

The upper bearing structure 23 includes an upper tubular body portion 33 and a smaller diameter lower tubular bearing portion 35 wherein the taper shaft end 21 is positioned. The upper portion 33 is provided, in the molding process, with a recessed opening 37 having a diameter just sufficient to slip over the end portion 39 of a tubular bearing holding structure 41 depending from an inner surface 43 of the transparent upper housing 13. With the holding structure 41 being in coaxial alignment with the axis of rotation 45 of the shaft 19, the rotor 17 is free to rotate within the housing 12 without the possibility of touching the housing even when roughly handled.

The axial movement of the shaft 19 is limited by lower ends 47 of several longitudinal ridges 49 on the shaft itself and by the length of the holding structure 41 and the depth dimension of the upper and lower recesses in the bearing structure 23. A relatively small amount of axial play is provided to insure that the shaft will not bind in its bearings which would cause undesired friction in the bearing areas.

A cylindrical casing structure 51 is also provided. It may also be molded from high-impact styrene material and includes a decreased diameter upper rim portion 53 with radial slots 55 therein, and a pair of oppositely extending holders 57 in which are respectively held bodies of pyrophoric material such as a pair of depending flints 59. The flints may be molded in the form of rods and may be integrally molded with the easing 51. The diameter dimension of the opening 61 in the casing structure 51 is such that the latter will easily move in an axial direction over the upper bearing structure 23 and its holding structure 41.

in order to prevent the casing 51 from rotating with the rotor 17, the inner surface 43 of the upper housing 13 includes a plurality of depending radially distributed ribs 63 which correspond to the slots 55 in the casing rim portion 53. The slots 55 are slightly wider than the width of the ribs 63 which allows the casing structure 51 to move up and down while being keyed to the top housing 12.

The flints 59 are slidably supported on an abradant means such as an annular disc 65 having an abradant upper surface 67. The abradant means may be an integral part of the rotor 17 or, as shown, it may be an appropriately fashioned piece of conventional sandpaper or the like glued to the rotors upper rim 69.

The top 11 may be assembled by first inserting and either crimping and/or bonding the lower bearing 25 in an aperture 71 at the bottom of the neck portion 27. The tip 29 is then inserted through the bearings central aperture 73 as far as the ribs 49 will allow and a starting tip 75 of a soft rubberlike material such as urethane is forced on a splined portion 77 of the shaft 19, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 2. As noted above, the abradant disc 65, is then mounted on the rotors rim 69, Of course, the disc may be attached prior to the shaft being rotatably held in the housing lower section 15.

The upper bearing 23 is then mounted over the shafts tapered upper end 21, as shown, and the casing structure 51 slipped over the upper tubular body portion 33 of the upper bearing before the upper housing 13 is placed over the assembly so that its ribs 63 move into the corresponding slots 55 in the casing 51, Conversely, the upper housing 13 may be first inverted and the casing properly inserted over the holder 41 so that the slots 55 register with the ribs 63 before inserting the upper bearing 23, with its largest opening 37 over the rim 39 of the holder structure 41, coaxially within the casings aperture 61. The lower housing 15, with its rotor, etc., is then inverted and positioned over the upper housing 13 so that the upper end 21 of the shaft 19 is inverted in the bearing opening of the bearing portion 35, before permanently joining the housing halves at their common seam 79 by any conventional means such as an adhesive or bonding agent, for example.

In operation, the top 11 is activated by gripping the housing and moving the top in a generally lateral or curved direction with an outer surface 81 of the starting tip 75 in contact with the playing surface 31, whereby the shaft 19, the rotor 17 and the abradant disc 65 are caused to rotate relative to the housing 12 and the flint holding casing structure 51 which is keyed thereto. Because of the sliding fit between the casing and the keying rib 63, the casing exerts an even but not excessive pressure between the flints 59 and the abradant surface 67 of the disc 65 for a relatively long and active life. This sliding action between the flints and the disc surface causes a very interesting and entertaining pyrotechnic display by a shower of sparks 83 visible through the transparent upper housing section 13.

From the foregoing, it should be evident that a very entertaining and simple-to-fabricate sparking toy top has been described which may be economically fabricated from the basic components of prior art toy tops of the spinning tip variety, for example.

It is again to be pointed out that the materials and processes specifically identified in the fabrication of the invention are not critical and any material or process generally considered suitable in the art may be utilized.

It should be further clear from the foregoing that the invention is susceptible to numerous modifications and embodiments which are all within the attainment of one skilled in the art.

We claim:

1. In a toy top of the type having a housing with a viewing portion and an abrasive disc-carrying gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freely rotatable shaft rotatably supported by upper and lowerbearings, theshaft extending below the housing and terminating at a spinning tip which supports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface and pyrophoric means disposed in and keyed to the housing between the abrasive disc and the viewing portion, the improvement comprismg:

a cylindrical casing having a pair of flints depending therefrom said casing having a centrally positioned axial opening through which an upper portion of said shaft is disposed and having an upper rim portion with at least one radially disposed slot therein; and

a keying tab depending from an inner surface of said housing and slidably registering with each of said slots.

2. In a toy top according to claim 1, wherein said housing also includes a cylindrical structure disposed coaxial with the axis of rotation of said shaft and depending from an uppermost portion of said housing; and wherein said upper bearing includes an upper tubular body portion with an inner dimension to slidably fit coaxially over the lower portion of said cylindrical structure and with an outer dimension less than the inner diameter of said axial opening in said casing, said upper bearing also including a lower tubular body portion with an inner bearing aperture axially disposed in the bottom thereof to rotatably hold the upper extremity of said shaft.

3. In a toy top according to claim 1, wherein the lower portion of said casing includes a pair of relatively short oppositely extending arms, each fixedly holding one of said depending flints.

4. In a toy top according to claim 2, wherein said keying tabs extend between the upper portion of said cylindrical structure and said inner surface of said housing.

Claims

1. In a toy top of the type having a housing with a viewing portion and an abrasive disc-carrying gyroscopic-type rotor mounted on a freely rotatable shaft rotatably supported by upper and lower bearings, the shaft extending below the housing and terminating at a spinning tip which supports the top in spinning engagement with a playing surface and pyrophoric means disposed in and keyed to the housing between the abrasive disc and the viewing portion, the improvement comprising: a cylindrical casing having a pair of flints depending therefrom said casing having a centrally positioned axial opening through which an upper portion of said shaft is disposed and having an upper rim portion with at least one radially disposed slot therein; and a keying tab depending from an inner surface of said housing and slidably registering with each of said slots.