US409972A

US409972A - Merry-go-round

Info

Publication number: US409972A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1889-08-27
Anticipated expiration: 1906-08-27

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID G. JOHNSON, OF TRENTON, NElV JERSEY.

MERRY-GO-ROUND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 409,972, dated August 27, 1889.

Application filed April 16, 1889. Serial No. 307,393. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID G. JOHNSON, of Trenton, in the county of Mercer and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Merry-Go-Round, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to an apparatus designed more especially for use at seaside or summer resorts or in roller-skating rinks, to exercise and amuse persons on roller-skates or in fancy vehicles by pulling or drawing them over a floor or platform in larger or smaller circles or in an elongated endless track; and the invention has for its object to provide a simple, durable, inexpensive, and efficient apparatus of this character.

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction of the merry-go-round, all as hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both the figures.

Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved merry-go-round; and Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation thereof, taken on the line at a: in Fig. 1.

The frame or frames A in which my merrygo-round is supported may have any desired dimensions and general construction as the length of the apparatus or the conditions of its use may require.

The apparatus in its preferred form is made with two somewhat large wheels or pulleys B B, which are journaled to rotate horizontally by means of their vertical shafts b b, which are fitted into any suitable hearings on the frame A. The wheels have grooved peripheries, into which is fitted an endless rope, chain, or cable 0.

To the shaft b of one of the wheels B is fixed a gear-wheel D, which meshes with another g'ear-wheel or pinion E, which is fast on a shaft F, journaled in suitable bearings on a bed-plate G, sustained below the floor H of a building, or below a platform erected a little above the ground at a seaside or pleasure resort. This shaft carries a pulley I, to which a power-transmitting belt will be run from any convenient motor to rotate the shaft, and through the gearing D E to rotate one of the wheels 13, which, through the traveling endless rope or chain C, also rotates the other,

wheel B. I am not limited to any particular style of driving-gearing to operate either of the rope-wheels, nor to any particular form of engine or motor to actuate the drivinggearing, as a steam or gas engine or horse or man power may be employed, as the size of the apparatus may make necessary.

To the spokes of each of the wheels B B, and also to the endless rope or belt or chain 0 at more or less regular intervals, are at- I tached the upper ends of a series of pull or draft ropes J, the lower ends of which hang down nearly to the floor H; hence as the wheels B are rotated the pull-ropes on them will be carried around larger or smaller circles and at faster or slower speed of rotation, accordingly as the ropes are attached farther from or nearer to the shafts or axles of the wheels, while the pull-ropes J on the endless rope or cable G will be carried around in semicircles at the outer peripheries of the wheels 13 and along in comparatively straight lines for the whole distance between the two wheels, however long or short it may be. The wheels B B and the rope or cable C will preferably run from eight to ten feet above the floor.

It is obvious that persons on roller-skates and grasping one of the ropes J or vehicles of any desired plain or fancy structure hold-, ing one or more persons and hitched to these ropes will be carried around in larger or smaller circles and at faster or slower speed by grasping or being hitched to the ropes hung from the spokes of the wheels B B; or if they grasp or be hitched to any of the ropes J on the endless traveling rope or cable 0 they will be carried half-way around both wheels and straight along in opposite directions between the wheels or in the path of the englor cable running on said Wheels, and pull or draft ropes or devices hung from the endless rope or cable, substantially as herein set forth.

DAVID Gr. JOHNSON.

Witnesses:

GEORGE FRANCIS, JOHN H. VAN FLEET.