WO1993025291A1

WO1993025291A1 - A plaything

Info

Publication number: WO1993025291A1
Application number: PCT/GB1993/000191
Authority: WO
Inventors: Malcolm Pollard; Anthony Wills
Original assignee: The Astrobatic Company Limited
Priority date: 1992-06-09
Filing date: 1993-01-29
Publication date: 1993-12-23
Also published as: AU3456293A

Abstract

A plaything having a streamer which can be made to move in the air, comprises an elongate rod (1) manually graspable adjacent one end thereof. A line (2), manually graspable at one end, has a weight (5) attached to a remote end of the line. An elongate streamer (6) is attached to the line at or adjacent to its remote end. The rod is either a hollow tube or has means along its exterior to constrain the line to extend along at least a portion of the length of the rod. The plaything can be manually operated to describe patterns in the air, which patterns are variable under manual control.

Description

A P laything

The present invention relates to a plaything. More particularly it relates to a plaything having a streamer which can be made to move in the air.

It is known to provide kites with streamer tails which kites may be controlled from the ground to cause the streamer trails to describe patterns in the air. However, such kites can only be used out of doors and in an area which is free of obstructions. They also need at least a certain degree of wind in order to make them airborne.

Our earlier patent application no. 2220581 provides a plaything which can be manually operated to provide similar patterns. Additionally, the patterns made may be variable under manual control.

According to the present invention there is provided a plaything comprising an elongate rod manually graspable adjacent one end thereof, a line manually graspable adjacent one end thereof with weight means attached to a remote end of the line, and elongate streamer means attached to the line at or adjacent to its remote end, the rod being adapted to constrain the line to extend along at least a portion of the length of the rod.

The advantage of this arrangement is that tangling of the line in use is largely avoided.

Preferably, the manually graspable end of the line is provided with tab means for controlling the length of line between the tab and the weight means. This permits different skill levels.

In order that the present invention be more readily understood, embodiments thereof will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows diagrammatically a plaything embodying the invention;

Figure 2 shows diagrammatically in more detail parts of the plaything embodying the invention;

Figure 3 shows to a larger scale a further part of the plaything embodying this invention; and

Figure 4 shows another embodiment of the plaything.

The plaything comprises a rod 1 in the form of a hollow tube which, for use by children is preferably in the region of 500 mm long, but may be longer if so desired. This is intended to be held in one hand by the user grasping a handle portion 2. A line 3 is provided with a manually graspable tab 3a at one end and passes through the hollow rod, thence to a head 5 which is of sufficient weight to extend the line from the rod 1. The rod may be telescopically extendible and if so may then be provided with means for locking the extending portion at any convenient intermediate position.

The ends of the rod 1 are preferably provided with friction reducing members 15 in the form of low friction bushings and the interior of the rod can be either made from or coated with a low friction material.

A streamer 4 of, for example plastics material is attached at the end of the line 3. The connection is preferably by means of a swivel joint 6 to a resilient bifurcated connector 8 having opposed legs 8a which pass through apertures in the head 5 and are received in the open ends of a fixing tube 9 to which the end of the streamer 4 is attached. The length of the streamer is not vital and it may vary within quite wide limits. When the ends of the connector 8 are received in the tube 9, the assembly can be fitted in a shaped recess 5a which serves to lock the assembly together.

Figure 2 also shows a keeper 20 around which the streamer 4 can be rolled for storage purposes. A slot 21 in the keeper can be used for a spare fixing tube 9.

Referring now to Figure 3, this shows in more detail the tab 3a at the manually graspable end of the line 3. This is preferably a ball or other easily graspable shaped member ^'having a bore 31 through which the line freely passes. The tab 3a has a cleat 32 into which the line 3 can be placed by moving the line 3 in the direction of the arrow whereby to fix the tab 3a to the line 3 at any desired position along its length thereby altering the length of line between the tab 3a and the head 5 which affects the shape of the patterns formed by the ribbon 4.

A further embodiment of the invention is shown in Fig. 4 where the same reference numerals are used for the same parts. Consequently a detailed description will not be given of all aspects of this embodiment,

The differences between the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 and that in Fig. 4 are that the line 3 runs along the outside of rod 1 in Fig. 4 and is constrained by a number of guides in the form of eyelets two of which are shown in Fig. 4 as 14a and 14b. The line 3 passes through the eyelets. At least the eyelet 14a which is at the tip of the rod may be on a swivel. The number and disposition of eyelets 14b along the length of the rod 1 depends on the length of the rod and how close to the butt end of the rod it is wished to have the last eyelet 14b. The closer to the butt the last eyelet is positioned, the less likely it is that the line will become tangled, in use.

A further difference is that in Fig. 4, the end of the line is attached at or near the butt end of the rod and a tubular handle 13 is provided through which the line passes. This arrangement results in a pulley effect as the handle 13 is moved away from the rod 1 ie. for 1 foot of movement the length of line between the tip of the rod and the weight 5 is reduced by 2 feet. The handle 13 may be provided with a cleat and may be ball shaped as shown in Fig. 3. If a cleat is provided, the pulley effect is negated.

It will be appreciated that the pulley effect could be added to the embodiment of Fig. 1, if desired by attached the end of the line to the rod.

Claims

CLAIMS :

1. A plaything comprising an elongate tubular rod manually graspable adjacent one end thereof, a line manually graspable adjacent one end with weight means attached to a remote end of the line, an elongate streamer means attached to the line at or adjacent to its remote end, the rod being adapted to constrain the line to extend along at least a portion of the length of the rod.

2. A plaything according to claim 1, wherein the rod is a hollow tube and the line extends through the bore of the tube.

3. A plaything according to claim 1, wherein the rod is provided with external line guides through which the line passes.

4. A plaything as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein said streamer means is attached by means of swivel connection.

5. A plaything as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein at least one end of the rod is provided with a friction reducing member.

6. A plaything as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the rod is telescopically extendible.

7. A plaything as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the manually graspable end of the line is provided with a tab member through which the line passes.

8. A plaything as claimed in claim 5, wherein the tab member is provided with a cleat whereby to enable the tab member to be fixed to the line at any desired point along the length of the line.

9. A plaything as claimed in claim 7 or 8 wherein the end of the line passing through the tub member is attached to the rod at or adjacent said one end of the rod.

10. A plaything as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein streamer means is attached to a tubular member and the weight means is provided with a recess for receiving the tubular member.

11. A plaything as claimed in claim 11, wherein the weight means is attached to the remote end of the line by a resilient bifurcated element, the legs of which extend through holes in the weight means and the ends of the legs are received in the ends of the tubular member whereby the ends of the legs of the bifurcated element are strapped between the ends of the tubular member and the walls of the recess in the weight means.

12. A plaything substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.