US3856030A - Automatically openable and closable umbrella - Google Patents

Abstract

An automatically openable and closable umbrella comprising a telescoping shaft incorporated with first and second coil springs, main ribs pivotably connected at one end thereof to said shaft, auxiliary ribs adapted to strut said ribs, supporting rods adapted to strut said auxiliary ribs, and spokes adapted to retain said ribs in a manner of controlling the opening of the ribs, said coil springs being adapted to be compressed by the telescoping action of said shaft to accumlate an elastic energy to be consumed for automatically opening the umbrella, said spokes being made of elastic belt members adapted to be elastically deformed when the umbrella is opened to accumlate an elastic energy to be consumed for automatically closing the umbrella.

Description

[ Dec. 24, 1974 41 AUTOMATICALLY OPENABLE AND CLOSABLE UMBRELLA [75] Inventor: Yoshio Sato, Nagareyama, Japan [73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Ideal, Tokyo,

Japan 22 Filed: Mar. 5, 1973 21 Appl. No.: 338,261

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 19, 1972 Japan 47-049756 [52] US. Cl. 135/22, 135/24 [51] Int. Cl A45b 25/16 [58] Field of Search 135/20-26 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,658,077 4/1972 Sato 135/22 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,130,562 5/1962 Germany 135/22 Primary Examiner-J. Karl Bell Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Cushman, Darby & Cushman [57] ABSTRACT An automatically openable and closable umbrella comprising a telescoping shaft incorporated with first and second coil springs, main ribs pivotably connected at one end thereof to said shaft, auxiliary ribs adapted to strut said ribs, supporting rods adapted to strut said auxiliary ribs, and spokes adapted to retain said ribs in a manner of controlling the opening of the ribs, said coil springs being adapted 'to be compressed by the telescoping action of said shaft to accumlate an elastic energy to be consumed for automatically opening the umbrella, said spokes being made of elastic belt members adapted to be elastically deformed when the umbrella is opened to accumlate an elastic energy to be consumed for automatically closing the umbrella.

4 Claims, 16 Drawing Figures FATENTEB [1EC24 I974 snmugg PATENTEB DEC 2 41974 sxaznsu g AUTOMATICALLY OPENABLE AND CLOSABLE UMBRELLA BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to an automatically openable an closable umbrella adapted to be automatically opened or closed by operation of button means.

2. Description of the Prior Art An automatically openable and closeable umbrella adapted to be automatically opened or closed by the operation of push button means has already being proposed by the applicant as disclosed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,077. In the prior art, the umbrella comprises a shaft having a tubular shaft member slidably housing therein an upper, an intermediate and a lower tubular shaft members, a first ring fixed to the upper portion of said upper shaft member and pivotably carrying ribs and umbrella closing spring means fixed at one end to an intermediate portion of said ribs and at the other end to said fixed ring at a spaced position from the rib pivoted to said fixed ring, a second ring mounted on said shaft below said first ring and fixed to said outer shaft member and pivotably carrying extensible rods pivotably supporting said ribs, a third ring mounted on said shaft below said second ring and pivotably carrying supporting rods pivotably supporting said extensible rods, a fourth ring mounted on said shaft below said third ring and pivotably carrying, at a site other than the pivotal point of each of said extensible rods, spokes pivotably supporting said ribs, compressible first spring means for opening the umbrella and provided between said intermediate and said lower shaft members to urge them apart, compressible second ring means for opening the umbrella mounted on said shaft between said third ring and a washer ring securely attached to said intermediate shaft member so as to slide on said outer shaft member, said second spring means being capable of urging said upper and intermediate shaft members apart with respect to said outer and lower shaft members, latch means for opening the umbrella capable of disengageably engaging said fourth ring, and latch means for closing the umbrella provided in the lower portion of the lower shaft member and capable of releasing the outer shaft member from its engagement with the lower shaft member.

ln the umbrella of the prior art, the umbrella kept in a closed condition is opened by said first latch means being pressed, whereby the restriction of said fourth ring carrying each one end of said spokes is released and the ribs are turned up to their open positions by being pushed up'by said extensible rods which in turn are lifted up by said supporting rods under the application of elastic force of said first and second spring 7 ing the ribs in the extended open position. Then the elastic energy accumulated in said umbrella closing spring means in the process of opening the umbrella becomes active, and the ribs are turned down to their closing positions. After said fourth ring carrying said spokes has been returned to its umbrella closing position and latched there by said first latch means, the relatively extended condition between said lower shaft member and said outer shaft member is resumed to its original umbrella closing condition by actually compressing the telescoping shaft of the umbrella, while recompressing said first and second compressible spring means to reaccumlate elastic energy for reopening the umbrella.

[n this umbrella of the prior art, the force for closing the umbrella is exerted by said umbrella closing compressible spring means acting with a relatively short arm of moment, the length of arm of moment rapidly decreasing almost to zero as the ribs approach to their final closing positions, whereby relatively strong umbrella closing spring means are required to make the umbrella satisfactorily close. However, the strong umbrella closing spring means are not favorable in the view point of obtaining a right and well balanced frame structure of the umbrella.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, it is the object of this invention to improve the automatically openable and closable umbrella of the prior art with respect to the mechanism for exerting the force for closing umbrella, and to provide an improved umbrella'wherein the force for closing the umbrella is much increased without strengthening the umbrella closing spring means.

The abovementioned object is accomplished, according to this invention, by an automatically openable and closable umbrella comprising a shafthaving a tubular outer shaft member slidably housing therein an upper, an intermediate and a lower tubular shaft members, a first ring fixed the upper portion of said upper shaft member and pivotably carrying ribs, a second ring mounted on said shaft below said first ring and fixed to said outer shaft member and pivotably carryextensible rods pivotably supporting said ribs, a third ring mounted on said shaft below said second ring and pivotably carrying supporting rods pivotably supporting said extensible rods, a fourth ring mounted on said shaft below said third ring and pivotably carrying, at a site other than the pivotal point of each of said extensible rods, spokes pivotably supporting said ribs, compressible first spring means for opening the umbrella and provided between said intermediate and said lower shaft members to urge them apart, a compressible second spring means for opening the umbrella mounted on said shaft between said third ring and a washer ring securely attached to said intermediate shaft member so as to slide on said outer shaft member, said second spring means being capable of urging said upper and intermediate shaft members apart with .respect to said outer and lower shaft members, latch means for opening the umbrella capable of disengageably engaging said fourth ring, and latch means for closing the umbrella provided in the lower portion of the lower shaft member and capable of releasing the outer shaft member from its engagement with the lower shaft member, characterized in that said spokes are pairs of elastic belt members, each pair belonging to each one of said ribs, wherein the elastic belt members belonging to adjacent BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is a side elevation partly in section of the frame of an umbrella according to this invention, showing the condition when the umbrella is closed and the ribs are gathered with the beads formed at the free ends of the ribs being engaged with the open top of a bead anchoring ring;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation partly in section of the-umbrella frame shown in FIG. 1, showing the condition when it is opened;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation partly in section of the unbrella shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, showing the state when the umbrella has just been closed from the opened condition;

FIG. 4 is the same view as FIG. 1, showing only a lower portion thereof in a larger scale;

FIG. 5 is the same view as FIG. 3, showing only a lower portion thereof in larger scale;

FIG. 6 is a partial view of the frame, especially showing the spokes and the ribs;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the spoke formed as the elastic belt member;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the fourth ring partially disassembled for the purpose of illustration;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the second latch means;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a bead ring;

FIG. 11 is a same view as FIG. 4, showing a little modification of the structure;

FIG. 12 is a same view as FIG. 5, showing the same modification as in FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a same view as FIG. 2, showing the same modification as in FIG. 11;

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the fourth ring used in the modified structure shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, partially disassembled for the purpose of illustration;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the second latch means used in the modified structure shown in FIGS. 11 and I2; and,

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a bead ring used in the modified structure shown in FIGS. 11 and 12.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the following, this invention will be described in more detail of preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to the drawings, the shaft of the umbrella comprises an outer tubular shaft member 1 and three inner tubular members, i.e., an upper shaft member 2, an intermediate shaft member 3 and a lower shaft member 4, said inner shaft members being slidably received in said outer shaft member. The upper shaft member 2 is protruding from the upper end of the outer shaft member 1, and is carrying an upper ring 6 firmly mounted thereto, said upper ring 6 carrying pivotably each one end of ribs 5. The upper shaft member 2 is formed with a pair of elongated openings 8, through which is passed a pin 7 passed through the walls of the outer shaft member 1 and fixed thereto, whereby the relative up and down movement of the inner shaft member 2 with respect to the outer shaft member 1 is allowed as long as the pin 7 slides in the elongated openings 8.

The lower shaft member 4 is protruding from the lower end of the outer shaft member 1 and is mounted into a central bore of a grip 9. Within the outer shaft I member 1 and between the intermediate inner shaft member 3 and the lower inner shaft member 4 is mounted a'coil spring 10 adapted to be selectively compressed between the intermediate and lower inner shaft members. A second ring 11 is fixedly mounted to the outer shaft member 1 by opposite ends of the pin 7 passed through the outer shaft member 1, and between the second ring 11 and fittings 12 each mounted at an intermediate portion of the rib 5 are extended auxiliary ribs 13 pivotably connected at opposite ends thereof to said second ring and said fittings. Below the second ring 11, the outer shaft member 1 is further mounted with a sleeve member 14 carrying a third ring at its upper end, and between the third ring 14a and fitting 15 each mounted to the auxiliary rib 13 at a portion relatively close to the second ring 11 are extended supporting rods 16 pivotably mounted at opposite end thereof to said third ring 14a and the fitting 15. The sleeve member 14 is formed with elongated openings 17 at diametrically opposite wall portions thereof. Corresponding to the elongated openings 17, the outer shaft member 1 is also formed with elongated openings 18 at diametrically opposite wall portions thereof, and through the openings 17 and 18 is passed a pin 19, which is also penetrated through an upper end portion of the intermediate inner shaft member 3 and is carrying by opposite ends thereof a ring 20 slidably mounted over the sleeve member 14. Around the sleeve member 14, there is mounted a coil spring 21 adapted to be compressed between the ring 20 and the third ring 140.

Below the third ring 14a, the outer shaftmember l is further slidably carrying a fourth ring 22 carried by a grip sleeve member 23, and between the fourth ring 22 and fittings 24 mounted to the ribs at a portion adjacent to the fitting 12 are extended elastics spokes 25.

The elastics spokes 25 are formed of pairs of elastic belt members 26 and 27, the two elastic belt members of each pair being closely joined over an extent between one end pivotably connected to said fourth ring 22 and a portion where a cramp fitting 28 is mounted, then separated apart to form curved portion 260 and 27a to be combined with each one of elastic belt members of the adjacent pairs at portions where second cramp fitting 28a are mounted thereto, and extended over the remaining portion as closely joint members to the other end where they are together pivotably connected to the fitting 24. The elastic belt member 25 or 26 is shown in FIG. 7 as an element. Here it is to be noted that FIG. 6 shows the spokes 25 and 26 in an elastically extended condition or in a condition where the umbrella is opened, while in a condition as shown in FIG. 1 and 3 where the umbrella is closed, all of the elastic belt members 26 and 27 extend almost straight in their unstressed natural condition. Thus, when the umbrella is opened as shown in FIG. 2 by the action of the springs 10 and 21, the operation of which are explained later, and the elastic belt member 26 and 27 have been deformed as shown in FIG. 6, the spokes 25 changed with an elastic energy which will act to close the umbrella.

The intermediate inner shaft member 3 is formed with elongated openings 29 at diametrically opposite wall portions thereof adjacent the lower end thereof, through which is passed a pin 30 which is penetrating through and carried by a core member 31. From the lower end of the core member 31 is extending a core rod 32 firmly mounted at one end to the core member, and after having passed through a ring 33 firmly mounted at the lower end of the intermediate shaft member 3, the core rod is firmly connected to a core member 35 which is firmly mounted at the upper end of the lower inner shaft member 4 by way of a pin 34. Therefore, the aforementioned coil spring is actually sitting on the ring 33 and the core member 35 at the opposite ends thereof.

At a side portion of the grip sleeve member 23, there is pivotably mounted a latch 36, a tip portion 36a thereof is engaged into a small opening 1a formed in a wall of the outer shaft member 1 through a corresponding opening of the grip sleeve member.

In the lower inner shaft member 4, there is mounted a second latch 38 having a tip portion 38a protruding through an elongated opening 39, the protruded tip portion 38a being adapted to engage into a small opening 1b formed in the wall of the outer shaft member 1 at a portion a little below the small opening 10. The latch 38 is further formed with a push button portion 38b extruded through the elongated opening 39 of the lower inner shaft member 4, while the grip sleeve member 23 is formed with a longitudinal groove 23a framed with protecting wall members 23b to provide a space for housing the push button portion 38b in the umbrella closed condition as shown in FIG. 1 so that the push button portion 38b is not carelessly operated.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 through 5, the grip 9 is provided with a bead ring 40 adapted to be movable for an extent along the axis of the grip 9 so as to selectively engage with and collect the tip portion of the ribs 5 as well as to cover the push button portion 38b.

In operation, starting from the fully closed condition as shown in solid lines in FIG. 1, the bead ring 40 is first shifted downward, whereby the tip of the ribs 5 are released and take a little opened condition as shown by phantom lines in FIG. 1. In this condition, if the latch 36 is pressed so as to disengage the tip portion 36a from the small opening la of the outer shaft member 1, whereby the anchoring of the grip sleeve member 23 to its lowermost portion is released and the grip sleeve member goes upward under the action of the elastic force exhausted by the compression coil springs 10 and 21 until the grip sleeve member 23 comes to the position as shown in FIG. 2 where the umbrella is fully opened. In more detail, when the grip 9 is held by a person, the lower inner shaft member 4 is stationary, and as long as the tip portion 38a of the latch 38 is engaged into the opening lb of the outer shaft member 1, the outer shaft member 1 is held fixed with respect to the inner lower shaft member 4.,Thus, if the restrictions exerted on the coil springs 10 and 21 by the frame assembly including the ribs 5, the auxiliary ribs 13, the supporting rods 16 and the spokes 25 are removed by the grip sleeve member 23 being released, the springs will extend and actually the spring 10 extends by enlarging the space between the ring 33 and the core member 35, thus urging the intermediate inner shaft member 3 upward with respect to the outer shaft member 1. At the same time, the coil spring 21 wound around the sleeve 14 will extend, and since the lower end of the coil spring 21 is supported by the ring 20 which is connected with the intermediate inner shaft member 3 by way of the pin 19, the spring force of the coil spring 10 and that of the coil spring 21 act in opposition via the pin 19, and when the two counter forces have balanced, the extension of the coil spring 10 is once held and thereafter the extension force of the coil spring 21 acts mainly to urge the sleeve 14 and the third ring 14a upward along the outer shaft member 1. After the extension force of the coil spring 21 has somewhat weakened, the coil spring 10 will act again to urge the ring 20 upward, and in this manner the coil springs 10 and 21 are interrelatedly extended while extending the shaft of the umbrella. And as the third ring 14a comes close to the second ring 11, the auxiliary ribs 13 are turned up and the umbrella is opened. In the process of opening of the umbrella in the abovementioned manner, the spokes 25 are opened as shown in FIG. 6 by deforming the elastic belt members 26 and 27, whereby an elastic energy is accumlated in the assembly of the spokes. As the spokes are opened and deformed, the fourth ring 22 and the grip sleeve member 23 are pulled up until they take the positions as shown in FIG. 2.

When the umbrella which has been opened as shown in FIG. 2 is next to be closed, the push button portion 38a of the latch 38, which is now exposed out of the housing by the grip sleeve member 23, is pressed to disengage the tip portion 38a out of the small opening 1b of the outer shaft member 1, whereby the anchoring of the outer shaft member 1 to the lower inner shaft member 4 is released and the outer shaft member 1 is moved upward with respect to the lower inner shaft member 4 under the action of the elastic force of the coil spring 10. Due to the relative extention of the outer shaft member 1 and the lower inner shaft member 4, the coil spring 10 is extended so much that the extention force thereof is reduced almost to zero, and at the same time as the coil spring 10 loses its extention force, the coil spring 21 is also relieved from its counter force, and thus the coil spring 21 extends and loses its extention force. As the coil springs 10 and 21 lose their extention force in the abovementioned manner, the elastic energy accumulated in the assembly of the spokes 25 starts to act and close the umbrella as the elastic belt members 26 and 27 will resume their straightened shape. As the ribs 5 are turned down to the closing position, the grip sleeve member 23 is lowered until it takes the position as shown in FIG. 3, wherein the tip portion 36a of the latch 36 is again engaged into the small opening 10 of the outer shaft member 1. In this condition, the pin 19 is positioned at the lowermost position of the elongated openings 18 and the coil springs 10 and 21 are in their extended and substantially unstressed condition.

As a next and the final step of the series of operations of the umbrella, the shaft in the extended condition as shown in FIG. 3 is contracted by applying compression force at opposite ends of the shaft, i.e., at the tip of the upper inner shaft member 2 and the grip 9, wherein as the compression force is applied, the lower inner shaft member 4 is inserted more deeply into the outer shaft member 1 by compressing the coil springs 10 and 21 until at last the tip portion 38a of the latch 38 engages into the small opening 1b of the outer shaft member 1. On the other hand, as the contraction of the shaft proceeds in the abovementioned manner, the pin 19 connected with the intermediate inner shaft member 3 is pushed upward through the elongated openings 18, while the relative spacing of the upper inner shaft member 2 to the intermediate inner shaft member 3 is shortened, and thus the initial condition as shown in FIG. 1 is resumed. In this final condition, the push button portion 38b of the latch 38 is again housed by the protecting wall portions 23a of the grip sleeve member 23. In order to make the umbrella completely closed, it is of course additionally required to push up the bead ring 40 to collect the tips of the ribs 5.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 11 through 16, wherein the portions corresponding to those shown in FIGS. 1 through are designated by the same reference numerals, a slight modification is effected to make the operation of the second latch 38 to be more favorable.

In the former embodiment shown in FIG. l.through 10, when the umbrella is opened as shown in FIG. 2, the push button portion 38b of the second latch 38 is exposed to present a substantial projection extending out of the shaft of the umbrella.

Therefore, in this case there is a drawback that the push button portion 38b is subject to being carelessly touched when the umbrella is to be kept opened,-

whereupon the umbrella is closed contrary to the intention of the user. To avoid the abovementioned careless operation of the second latch 38, in the modification,

shown in FIGS. 11 to 16, the push button portion 38b of the latch 38 is reduced to be a small projection formed with an inclined edge adapted to come in engagement with an upper end of of a sleeve portion 40a of the bead ring 40. In this case the grip 9 is formed with a counterbore 41 at its upper end portion adapted to receive the lower end portion of the sleeve 40a and a coil spring 42 is housed in the counterbore 41 in a manner of being wound around the lower inner shaft member 4 and lightly urge the bead ring 40 upward so that the bead ring 40'is kept in a position to automatically engage with the tips of the ribs but can be easily lowered to release the tips of the ribs when required. In this embodiment, when the umbrella is to be automatically closed starting from the open condition as shown in FIG. l3, wherein the upper end of the sleeve 40a is lightly pressed against a lower portion of the inclined edge of the push button portion 38b of the latch 38, the bead ring 40 is pushed upward by fingers so that the upper end of the sleeve 40a slides over the inclined edge of the push button portion 38b by urging the latch 38 to its disengaging position where the tip portion 38b of the latch 38 is disengaged from the small opening 1b of the outer shaft member 1. In FIGS. 11 and 15, it will be noted that in this case the sleeve member 23 is formed with a cover portion 23b adapted to cover the push button portion 38b of the latch 38 in the fully closed condition as shown in FIG. 11.

I claim:

1. An automatically openable and closable umbrella member and pivotably carrying said extensible rods pivotably supporting said ribs;

a plurality of supporting rods;

a third ring mounted on said shaft below said second ring and pivotably carrying said supporting rods pivotably supporting said extensible rods;

a plurality of spokes;

a fourth ring mounted on said shaft below said third ring and pivotably carrying at a site other than the pivotal point of each of said extensible rods, said spokes pivotably supporting said ribs;

compressible first spring menas for opening the umbrella and provided between said intermediate and said lower shaft members to urge them apart;

a washer ring;

compressible second spring means for opening the umbrella, said second spring means being mounted onsaid shaft between said third ring and said washer ring, said washer ring being securely attached to said intermediate shaft member so as to slide on said outer shaft member,

said second ring menas being capable of urging said upper and intermediate shaft members apart with respect to said outer and lower'shaft members;

first latch means for opening the umbrella, said latch means being capable of disengageably engaging said fourth ring;

and second latch means for closing the umbrella, said second latch means being provided in the lower portion of the lower shaft member and being capable of releasing the outer shaft member from its engagement with the lower shaft member,

characterized in that:

said spokes are constituted by pairs of elastic belt members, each pair being associated with a corresponding one of said ribs, wherein the elastic belt members belong to adjacent pairs are interconnected intermediate the span thereof, whereby, as the umbrella is opened, the ribs of each pair are elastically bowed laterally intermediate the span thereof to store force for aiding collapsing the umbrella; 1

said fourth ring including means housing said second latch means when the umbrella is closed, to prevent accidental finger-release of the second latch means.

2. An automatically openable and closable umbrella according to claim 1, wherein each individual of said elastic belt members of each pair belonging to each one of said ribs is interconnected with each other individual in the same pair intermediate thespan thereof between the one, outer end thereof which is pivotably connected to said rib and the site where the adjacent pairs are connected with that pair.

3. An automatically openable and closable umbrella according to claim 2, wherein where each one of the elastic belt members belonging to each pair is joined with the other one, the members of that pair are jointly pivoted to the fourth ring.

4. An automatically openable and closable umbrella according to claim 1, further including a bead ring, and wherein said second latch means for closing the umbrella is adapted to be operated by engagement with said bead ring for collecting the tips of the ribs in the umbrella closed condition.

Claims (4)

1. An automatically openable and closable umbrella comprising a shaft having a tubular outer shaft member slidably housing therein an upper inner, an intermediate inner and a lower inner tubular shaft members; a first ring fixed to the upper portion of said upper shaft member and pivotably carrying a plurality of ribs; a plurality of extensible rods; a second ring mounted on said shaft below said first ring, said second ring being fixed to said outer shaft member and pivotably carrying said extensible rods pivotably supporting said ribs; a plurality of supporting rods; a third ring mounted on said shaft below said second ring and pivotably carrying said supporting rods pivotably supporting said extensible rods; a plurality of spokes; a fourth ring mounted on said shaft below said third ring and pivotably carrying at a site other than the pivotal point of each of said extensible rods, said spokes pivotably supporting said ribs; compressible first spring menas for opening the umbrella and provided between said intermediate and said lower shaft members to urge them apart; a washer ring; compressible second spring means for opening the umbrella, said second spring means being mounted on said shaft between said third ring and said washer ring, said washer ring being securely attached to said intermediate shaft member so as to slide on said outer shaft member, said second ring menas being capable of urging said upper and intermediate shaft members apart with respect to said outer and lower shaft members; first latch means for opening the umbrella, said latch means being capable of disengageably engaging said fourth ring; and second latch means for closing the umbrella, said second latch means being provided in the lower portion of the lower shaft member and being capable of releasing the outer shaft member from its engagement with the lower shaft member, characterized in that: said spokes are constituted by pairs of elastic belt members, each pair being associated with a corresponding one of said ribs, wherein the elastic belt members belong to adjacent pairs are interconnected intermediate the span thereof, whereby, as the umbrella is opened, the ribs of each pair are elastically bowed laterally intermediate the span thereof to store force for aiding collapsing the umbrella; said fourth ring including means housing said second latch means when the umbrella is closed, to prevent accidental fingerrelease of the second latch means.

2. An automatically openable and closable umbrella according to claim 1, wherein each individual of said elastic belt members of each pair belonging to each one of said ribs is interconnected with each other individual in the same pair intermediate the span thereof between the one, outer end thereof which is pivotably connected to said rib and the site where the adjacent pairs are connected with that pair.

3. An automatically openable and closable umbrella according to claim 2, wherein where each one of the elastic belt members belonging to each pair is joined with the other one, the members of that pair are jointly pivoted to the fourth ring.

4. An automatically openable and closable umbrella according to claim 1, further including a bead ring, and wherein said second latch means for closing the umbrella is adapted to be operated by engagement with said bead ring for collecting the tips of the ribs in the umbrella closed condition.

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