US1521573A - Wheeled toy - Google Patents

Description

1,521,573 P. MYERS wHEaLED T Y Filed sept. 1v, 192:5 2 sheetssheet 1 Dec, 30, 1924.

P. MYERS WHEELED TOY Filed Sept. 17, 1923 2 sheds-shea 2 UW e Patented Dec. 30, 1924.

I Unirse srarasrarsnr or rIIILIP MYERS; or G'Lnnvrnw," ILLINOIS.

WHEELED TOY.

Application filed September 17, 1923. Serial No. 663,077.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIP MYERS, a citizen of the United States, residing` at Glenview, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful. Improvements in a INheeledv'loy; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe Same.

My invention relates to wheeled toys of the general class adapted to be drawn along the floor by a child. Vith such vehicles as heretofore offered on the market in a large varietyr of forms, the pleasure of the child y using the same is often interrupted by his having the vehicle tipped over on its side, or by getting some one of the wheels caught on adjacent furniture. IlVith al small child,

such an occurrence not only interrupts hisv play and leads to his crying over the mishap, but also often necessitates. the assistance of some older person to right or extricate the toy. Consequently, toys of this kind have not heretofore afforded the uninterrupted enjoyment of a child having no supervision for his'play.

l.sive in construction andV which will readily of novel configuration.

My present invention aims to overcome this handicap by providing a construction for a toy vehicle which will cause the vehicle to right itself automatically after encountering any obstacle in its path which would up- Set a wheeled toy of ordinary construction;

also, to provide a construction which will cause the toy vehicle'to extricate itself Vautomatically when one of its wheels catches on a table leg, chair leg or the like. Furthermore, my invention provides a wheeled toy' construction which will automatically permit the toy vehicle to vary its shape while' being drawn about, which will Abe inexpen- Fig. Y3 is a transverse vertical section taken along the line 3 3 of Fig. 2. j

Fig. 4 is a plan view showing how the toy vehicle can extricate itself after one of its rear wheels has caught on a table leg or chair leg-in the path of this wheel.

q Fig. 5 is an enlarged section through a portion of Fig. 4, showing how the perforate 4members strungupon the elastic cord roll on each other and elongate thecord. Fig. 6 is a horizontal section similar tov Fig. 2 but showing a simplified embodiment of my invention.. i I

Fig. 7 is a plan view of another simplified l embodiment.

In the embodiment of Figs. l to j5,' inclusive, the toy of my invention comprises a pair of wheel-carrying axles spaced byran FICE."

elastic reach which permits these axles to be moved lout of their normal parallel relation to each other, each of the wheel shafts being rotatable about the` adjacent portion of the reach as an axis. `The reach proper,l or the member which extends longitudinally of the vehicle and which connects'the two wheel-carrying axles', desirably consists of a number of consecutively disposed elements which are movablewith reszpectvto each other and which normally space the wheel axles from each other by a fixed distance. For this purpose, I desirably employ a series of perforated elements, vsuch a wooden beads, anda flexible memberl extending through these perforated elements and normally holding the two wheel axles respectively vagainst the two end elements of the series. I also desirably' employ this same flexible element as a support for another v member which extends in front of the forward wheel shaft to form a. tongue for the vehicle. Ifl the tongue and reach portions simulate parts of an animal in configuration, I may likewise employ the flexible member as means for supporting a 'rearwardly projecting extension of the reach in simulation of the tail of thisV animal, aS shown in'Figs. l and 4.

Furthermore, I desirably employ an elastic, such as a soft rubber cord for the flexible member which carries these reach, tongue and tail'portions, and I preferably assemble the perforated elements: .ont this elastic when the latter is under tension, so

that the resiliency of the elastic will tend to maintain at least the'portion between the two wheel axles substantially straight and will automatically aline the series of perforate elements' after they have. been inoved out or' alineinent by the encountering of any obstacle in the path ot the Vehicle. Moreover, l desirably arrange the wheel sha'l'ts and the adjacent perlforate elements so that each shaiit will be piyoted freely upon these adjacent elements and will be lrept by the latter from direct engagement with the elastic cord. Y

Illustrative ot' such a construotionthe drawings show a vehicle having two wheel shafts 1 and 2, each oil which has its central portion enlarged to lforni a ring 2. rlhis ring spaces; two beads 4 and 5 respectively slipped upon the shalt lrom oppositie ends o'tthe latter and these beads in turn space the wheels 6 and 'i' from the ring portion 3,

each of the wheels being desirably sleeved upon a metal bushing 8 slippedover the adjacent end oi't-he'shalit7 and being desirably retained on the shaft by slipping` a metal washer 9 on the adjacent end andthenexpanding the tip of the shaft as shown in Fig 3. Y

lnterposed'between the two wheel shafts are a series of perforated beads 107 all of which are strung loosely upon apsolit rubber cord 11, the cord being desirably smaller in diameter than the bore otthe ring portions o or" each wheel shaft. At the liront ot the Vehicle, thn cord 11 is also shown as extending loosely through the main. portion ot the bore ol a head piece 12 and the cord has its ior ward end doubled back upon'itself into a loop 18 wedged in the forward end otthe said bore.

At the rear end of the vehicle7 the rubber cordll is shown as extending loosely through a series of beads 14e and as being tightly wedged in the tail end bead 15, this wedning f action being readily secured by sliding theV tail end bead over the elastic cord when the latteris stretched to such an extent as to reduce its diameter considerably. and then releasing the tension on the cord.

In assembling the beads and the wheel shaifts. the elastic cord 11 is placed under tensiomso that the length et' the part otthis cord between the 'forward `bead l'and rear bead 15 is considerably greater than the nor.-

mal length of that portion of vthe elastic. @wing to this stretching' ofthel cord, its tensioi'i automatically normally holds the consecutive beads in tightlyabutting relatioin while its flexibility permits the consecutive beads toroll upon each other as shown in Figs. 4: and 5, thereby allowing the reach of the'vehi-cle tofloe disposed in the lorin of a curve and hence permitting the Vehicle tov extricate itself'whenerer one ofits wheels encounters an obstacle. such as the legy oit' a chair or table, as shown for example in Fig. 4t. Thatnis to say, ifone offthe. rear wheels catches on the leg 19 of a chair or table, thi.` continued forward pulling ot' the Vehicle by the usual cord 16, which is here shown as having a knob 17 secured to its forward end, will cause the reach portion of the bead series and of the rubber cord to be flexed until the wheel engaging such'an obstacle can extricate itself, after which the elasticity oit the rubber cordautomatically straightens the reach.

By forming the ring portion 3 ot `each wheel axle with a bore of ample size, l' cause the two beads at opposite sides oif'this shaft to extend into the bore of the ring into direct engagement with each other, so that they will combine -in affording a'pivotal mounting for the axlev `with respect to the reach olf ythe vehicle. ln doingso, these adjacent beads also prevent the metal ring portion o iroin contacting directly with the elastic .v cord and hence avoid the possibility of hai'-v by correspondingly tipping the shaft carrying thisV wheel without tiltingithe vehicle as a whole and lhence Withoutupsetting the latter, as shown for example in Fig. 1. So also, il the- Vehicle is lifted or tossed on the floor from any angle? the .independent rotatahilily of the wheel axles with respect te th:` reach connecting;` the saine will cause each axle to swing automaticallyfinto itsI normal horizontal position whenever one wheel on this axle encounters the floor? so that the toy vehicle even when hand-led roughly and without thev exercise oit any judgment will still keep its wheels-in proper operative disposition. Consequently, the pleasure et the chld in using such a toy is uninterrupted and no yattention oraid on the part *of aniY older when amusing-'himself with a toy vehicle :is

above disclosed.

lowerer.` while. .lf have heretofore dcscribec-my invention in a form in which the body or the vehicle resembles an animal and .1; composed mainlyv of spherical beads, l do not wish to be limited to any particular configuration oit thefvarious parts,y nor de wish to be limited to theyarious details ot construction and arrangement as above described. Obviously. these might be varied v in many ways without departing either :trom

'the spirit oi: "my invention; or from the appended vclaims@For example, Fig. 6 shows a section through a simplified embodiment in which the reach otthe-yehicle is composed oit' two 'i tubes presentingnconyexedV 'ends towards'teachy other `and` each extending through one of the wheel-carrying-axles.

Y uo

Fig. 7 shows a still more simplified form in which a single-piece reach 20 extends through medial perforations in the two wheel-carrying axles l and 2, thereach being kept by spring cotters 21 from sliding lengthwise of the axles.

I claim as my invention- 1. A toy vehicle having two wheel-carrying axles and a reach extending through both thereof and spacing the axles, both axles being pivoted upon the reach so as to be freely and completely rotatable abo-ut the axis of the reach.

2. A toy vehicle comprising a resilient and normally straight reach and two normally parallel wheel-carrying axles connected by the reach and both rotatable about the latter as an axis, the resiliency of the reach being such as to permit the axles to move o-ut of their normal parallelrelation.

3. A toy vehicle comprising a pair of normally parallel wheel-carrying axles, and a resilient member Vextending transversely through both axles medially of the latter to form a reach and a tongue, both axles being pivoted upon the reach so as to be freely rotatable about the reach as an axis.

fl. A toy vehicle comprlsing a stem extending longitudinally of the vehicle and a plurality of wheel-carrying axles pivoted upon the stem for rotation about the stem as an axis, the portion of the stemrbetween the axles being flexible and having inherent resiliencytending to maintain the samev straight.

A toy vehicle comprising a stem member consisting of beads strung upon a flexible element, a pair of axles each having a medial portion provided with a perforation through which the flexible element freely extends, and a pair of wheels mounted on each axle, each axle having its perforated medial portion disposed between two adjacent beads.l

6. A toyvehicle comprising a stem member consisting of beads strung upon a flexiblc element, a pair of wheel-carrying axles each having a medial portion provided with Y a perforation through which the flexible element freely extends, and a pair of wheels mounted on each axle, each axle having its perforated medial portion disposed between two of the beads and having its said medial perforation of such a size as to permit the two beads between which the axle is disposed to contact with each other so as to space the flexible member from the bore of the perforation.

7. A; toy wheeled vehicle. comprising a pair of spaced and wheel-carrying axles each having a medial perforation transverse thereof, an elastic flexible member extending through the said perforations, and a plurality of spacer members strung upon the flexible member between the two axles, the normal length of the flexible member between the two axles being lessthan the joint'length of the spacer members.

8. A toy vehicle comprising a palr of wheel-carrying axles, an elastic cord 'connecting the medial portions yof the two axles, i

and spacer elements strung upon the elastic cord between the two axles and having a` joint length greater thanl the normallength of the portion of the elastic cord between the two axles.

9. Atoy vehicle comprising a pair kof wheel-carrying axles, an elastic cord connecting the medial portions of the two axles,

and spa'cer elements strung upon the elastic vvcord between the two axles andhaving a 'joint length greater than the normal length" of the portion of the elastic cord between the two axles, the spacer elements disposed b etween the axles having bores greater in diameter than the elastic cord.

11. A toy vehicle comprising a pair of l2. A toy vehicle comprising a pair of wheel-carrying axles each having a transverse perforation, an elastic member ex tending through both perforations, and perforate members strung upon Vthe elastic member, the perforate members including spacer' members disposed between the two axles and othermembers disposed respectively ahead of the front axle and. behind the rear axle, the elastic memberbeing secured to the endmost ofthe perforate'members andl projecting `beyond therearmostk perforate member to form a tall-for the vehicle.

PHILIP MYERS.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, Sept., 13th,

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