US3411237A

US3411237A - Toy having magnetically actuatable appendage

Info

Publication number: US3411237A
Application number: US591847A
Authority: US
Inventors: Dorland L Crosman
Original assignee: De Luxe Topper Corp
Current assignee: De Luxe Topper Corp
Priority date: 1966-11-03
Filing date: 1966-11-03
Publication date: 1968-11-19
Anticipated expiration: 1985-11-19

Description

Nov. 19, 1968 D. L. CROSMAN 3,411,237

TOY HAVING MAGNETICALLY ACTUATABLE APPENDAGE Filed Nov 5. 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet l DoPLAM/b 620x444 BY W! 46 ATTORNEYS Nov. 19, 1968 0.1.. CROSMAN 3,411,237

TOY HAVING MAGNETICALLY ACTUATABLE APPENDAGE Filed Nov 3, 1966 4 Sheets-sheaf 2 INVENTOR: 9026 .0 4. ceaswmv BY g 1 3 7ATTORNEY$ v Nov. 19, 1968 D. CROSMAN 3,411,237

TOY HAVING MAGNETICALLY ACTUATABLE APPENDAGE Filed Nov. 5, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 A Z3 ffig 79/ Q 47 E l3 4 I 59 43 9 INVENTOR.

002444/0 4. QOSMAM BY g a g zTTORNEYS Nov. 19, 1968 D. 1.. CROSMAN 3,411,237

TOY HAVING MAGNETIQALLY ACTUATABLE APPENDAGE Filed Nov. 3, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR:

BY- W & rwda,

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,411,237 TOY HAVING MAGNETICALLY ACTUATABLE APPENDAGE Dorland L. Crosman, Glen Ridge, N..I., assignor to De Luxe Topper Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Nov. 3, 1966, Ser. No. 591,847 11 Claims. (Cl. 46239) This invention relates to animated toys in which there is at least one appendage movable with respect to a body, and has particular reference to an improved mechanism for controlling the movements of such an appendage.

The invention will be described and illustrated in connection with a human-like doll provided with movable arms, but many phases of the invention are applicable to a wide variety of animated toys, such as toy animals.

A general object of the invention is to provide an appendage-moving mechanism, for placement within the body of the toy, capable of being actuated by a magnetic field. It is contemplated that the actuating magnetic field be produced by a control magnet of a size which can be easily held in a childs hand. Thus, by holding the control magnet near an appropriate point of the toy body, the mechanism can be actuated causing the appendage to move.

It is, therefore, another object of the invention to provide a toy in which an appendage can be moved without touching the toy. I

It is a further object of the invention to provide a mechanism of the type mentioned capable of being actuated with equal efficacy regardless of the orientation of the toy.

It is an additional object of the invention to provide a mechanism powered by a spring for moving the appendage of a toy, e.g. the arms of a doll, which accomplishes the result without the usual snap action associated with spring actuated functions.

It is still another object of the invention to provide such a mechanism including a magnetically-operated latching means for controlling the operation of the mechanism by the force of a spring, and in which the latching means is extremely sensitive despite the relatively large spring force employed.

The improved mechanism comprises, in brief, a shaft rotatably mounted in the toy body and carrying an appendage at one, or each, end. A spring for constantly urging the shaft to rotate in one direction is connected between.- a stationary point within the body and an eccentric point on a drive gear mounted on and rotatable with the shaft. For the purpose of slowing down the springinduced rotation of the shaft, and to serve as part of the latch mechanism, a train of reduction gearing is coupled to the drive gear. The last member of the train is a trigger wheel having a single tooth. When the appendage is moved manually to a cocked position, the tooth on the trigger wheel is engaged by a pawl carried by a pivotally mounted lever. A magnet is mounted on one arm of the lever with one of its poles facing an adjacent wall of the toy body. When the opposite pole of a control magnet is brought close to the body wall and opposite to the magnet within the body, the attraction between the magnets causes the lever to pivot whereupon the pawl releases the tooth of the trigger wheel, and the spring is permitted to rotate the drive as well as the remainder of the gearing. Rotation of the drive gear causes rotation of the shaft and movement of the appendage.

Additional features of the invention include the follow- Mounting of a weight on the opposite arm of the lever to balance the lever about its pivot axis so that the lever is unaffected by the force of gravity regardless of the orientation of the toy;

3,411,237 Patented Nov. 19, 1968 Providing a cam surface on the drive gear and a cooperating follower on the lever to keep the pawl out of engagement with the trigger wheel tooth except when the shaft is moved to its cocked position;

Providing a member of magnetic material near the lever magnet to constantly attract the magnet and thereby keep the follower in light contact with the cam surface and the pawl poised to engage the trigger wheel tooth; and

Providing cooperable abutment means on the lever and toy body to limit the movement of the lever and thereby prevent the lever magnet from moving too far from the magnetic member to insure continuous magnetic attraction between the two regardless of the orientation of the toy.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a doll according to the invention showing the arms holding an object at the waist level of the dolls body;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the doll showing the arms in an elevated position wherein the object has been brought to the dolls mouth;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view through the doll body showing the actuating mechanism which controls the motion of the dolls arms;

FIG. 4 is a section taken along line 44 of FIG. 3, showing the mechanism of the doll when the arms are in their cocked position of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 after the mechanism has been actuated by a control magnet and the arms have moved to their released position of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a section taken along line 66 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a section taken along line 7--7 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a section taken along line 88 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 9 is a section taken along line 99 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a section taken along line 10-10 of FIG. 8; and

FIG. 11 is an exploded view of the mechanism of FIGS. 3-10.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a doll according to the invention constructed from a relatively rigid material, such as a suitable plastic. The doll has a hollow body portion 11 to which

legs

15 and 16 are pivotally mounted at one end. A pair of

arms

12 and 13 are mounted at the shoulder region of body 11 in such a manner as to move along the length of the body. The dolls head 14-is pivotably mounted to the top of the body 11 at its neck portion. Held between the hands of the doll, in the present example, is a nursing bottle 10 which has a nipple directed toward the dolls mouth. When a control magnet 17 is brought close to the chest area of the doll body 11, a mechanism within the hollow portion of body 11 is actuated to cause both

arms

12 and 13 to move together upwardly and bring the nipple of body 10 into engagement with the dolls mouth, as shown in FIG. 2.

The mechanism forming a part of this invention and responsive to the control magnet 17 is illustrated in detail in FIGS. 3-11. Referring to FIG. 3 the actuating mechanism, shown house-d within body 11, has a main drive shaft 31 the ends of which extend through holes 20 in the doll body. Drive shaft 31 is preferably of rectangular cross section and its ends fit non-rotatably into slots in sleeves 71 and 72. Rotation of shaft 31 therefore simultaneously rotates sleeves 71 and 72. Sleeves 71 and 72 are non-rotatably joined to the upper ends of their

respective arms

12 and 13 so as to rotate the arms with the shaft 31. Therefore,

arms

12 and 13 will move at the same time upward toward the dolls mouth when the mechanism is in operation.

Arms

12 and 13 contain annular grooves 73 which fit into the circular openings 20 at the shoulders of body L11 to permit free rotation of the arms.

The actuating mechanism is contained in a U-shaped bracket 24 secured by suitable mounting studs to the inner face of the back side of the body 11. The construction of the actuating mechanism within U-shaped bracket 24 may be best described with reference to FIG. 11. In FIG. 11 main drive shaft 31 is shown broken in two sections for illustration purposes and supports drive gear 28 and idler gear 53. Gear 28 contains an axial hub 47 having a rectangular opening 58 to receive rectangular drive shaft 31. Consequently, the drive gear 28 and shaft 31 rotate together. Drive gear 28 contains gear teeth 33 disposed along approximately A of its circumference. Adjacent to one end of teeth 33 a recessed surface is formed

havng end detents

34 and 44, the latter of which lies adjacent to teeth 33. Mounted adjacent to the other end of teeth 33 and adjacent to the periphery of drive gear 28 is a cam surface 75. The end of the cam surface 75 farthest from the gear teeth 33 is bent over to form an intumed portion 41. The portion of the hub 47 extending to the left of the gear 28 (FIGS. 3 and 9) serves as a spacer maintaining the gear 28 a fixed distance from the adjacent side 79 of bracket 24.

An idler gear 53 is also supported by drive shaft 31 and rotates freely around shaft 31 which passes through the hole 54 in the gear 53. Intermediate the idler gear 53 and drive gear 28 is a pinion gear 35 formed as an integral part of idler gear 53. A spacer sleeve 59 is also inserted over shaft 31 to maintain gear 53 a fixed distance from the adjacent side 78 of bracket 24.

Shaft 31, supporting drive gear 28, idler gear 53 and spacer 59, is journaled in holes 43 in the sides of bracket 24. Drive gear 28 is of suflicient diameter to rotate in close proximity to the back wall 80 of bracket 24. The back wall has formed in it an abutment 32 projecting out toward the gear 28 and adapted to fit into the recessed portion between

detents

34 and 44. Abutment 32 thus restricts the rotation of wheel 28 t the arc defined by the

detents

34 and 44. The rotation of wheel 28 is of course confined to an angular excursion of less than the arc occupied by gear teeth 33. The left side of hub 47 maintains the gear 28 in vertical alignment with abutment 32 by its contact with the side 79 of bracket 24. Spacer '59 is of sufficient length to maintain drive gear 28, gear 53, and the

sides

78 and 79 of bracket 24 in a fixed spaced relationship.

The drive mechanism further includes a counter shaft 40 below shaft 31 for supporting a spur gear 30 and a trigger wheel 38. Spur gear 30 has a pinion 29 and a spacer 55 integrally formed with it. A hole 56 passing through gear 30, pinion 29 and spacer 55 freely accommodates shaft 40, so that the gear and pinion are rotatable on the shaft. Mounted adjacent to spur gear 30 and also rotatable on shaft 40 is the trigger wheel 38. Trigger wheel 38 has a pinion 36 integral with it. In addition, it is formed with a cam surface 39 having a single tooth 52. Counter shaft 40 is supported in holes 45 in the

sides

78 and 79 of bracket 24. When the gears and shafts are assembled (see FIGS. 3-10), pinion 29 engages gear teeth 33 of drive gear 28, gear 30 engages pinion 35, and spur gear 53 meshes with pinion 36.

The mechanism is also provided with a lever 18 pivotably mounted on shaft 27 which passes through hole 51 in the lever. Mounted on the upper arm 82 of the lever, by means of a rivet 22 is a disk-shaped magnet 21. Each circular face of the magnet is one pole, i.e., the magnetic axis extends perpendicular to the plane of the disk. The opposite arms 83 of lever 18 is provided with a counterweight 19, of such weight and so positioned that the center of gravity of the lever 18 lies along its axis of rotation, i.e., the shaft 29. The upper arm 82 of the lever 18 is also provided with a laterally-projecting pin 50 which extends into a hole 49 in the side 78 of bracket 24.

The lever 18 is mounted on bracket 24 by passing shaft 27 through holes 70 in bracket 24 and hole 51 in the lever. Pin 50 is also inserted into hole 49 to restrict the rotation of the lever to a few degrees of travel. The lateral arms 84 projecting from lever 18 are sufiiciently wide to occupy the entire space between the sides f bracket 24. Between the pin 50 and upper arm 82, the lever 18 carries a pawl 60 vertically aligned with the cam surface 39 of trigger wheel 38. The uppermost arm of actuator 18 also includes a second pin 81 directed inwardly and positioned to ride on cam surface 75 of drive gear 28.

Part of the lower portion of the back wall of bracket 24 is notched to produce a tab 42 used to secure one end of a drive spring 23. The opposite end of spring 23 is secured to a stud 48 on drive wheel 28. Spring 23 is sized so that it is held in a stretched condition throughout the movement of drive wheel 28 as defined by

detents

34 and 44 in conjunction with abutment 32. All of the moving parts of the drive mechanism are preferably constructed from non-magnetic material, such as plastic or aluminum, so that they do not have any influence on the magnetic field produced by magnet 21. A small shaft 77 of iron or other magnetic material is mounted on bracket 24 to lie immediately behind magnet 21 so that a small force of attraction will be produced between the magnet and shaft 77 to bias the pin 81 of lever 18 against the cam surface 75 of drive gear 28 (see FIG. 5). The ends of shaft 77 fit into holes 76 in the sides of bracket 24, and the portion of the shaft adjacent to the

sides

78 and 79 are crimped (FIGS. 3, 8 and 9) to keep the shaft in place.

The entire assembly, enclosed in bracket 24, is mounted against the back wall of body 11 of the toy doll by fastening it to bosses 25 and 26 (FIGS. 4, 5, and 8-10) by means of screws 84 (FIGS. 8-10). The bosses are formed integrally with the back wall of the doll body. The location and length of

bosses

25 and 26 are designed to position bracket 24 so that shaft 31 is in axial alignment with the holes 20 in the body 11.

The actuating mechanism of the toy doll according to the invention operates as follows: The arms of the doll are initially moved down to the dolls waist causing shaft 31 to rotate drive gear 28 clockwise in FIG. 4. The attraction of magnet 21 on the upper arm 82 of lever 18 toward shaft 77 provides a biasing force to urge pin 81 against cam surface 75 as the arms are moved downward. When the arms have reached the waist position of the dolls body, drive wheel 28 has rotated sufficiently to permit detent 44 to engage abutment 32 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 9. Cam surface 75, which maintains lever 18 in the position shown in FIG. 5, has now moved clockwise sufficiently to permit portion 41 to pass under pin 81 and thereby allow lever 18 to pivot counter-clockwise in FIG. 4. This rotation of lever 18 moves pawl 60 against trigger wheel cam surface 39 as the trigger wheel rotates counter-clockwise at a speed multiplied by the gear ratio of spur gears 30 and 58 and their associated pinion gears. After abutment 34 engages stop 44 of drive gear 28,

arms

12 and 13 of the doll are then released and spring 23 coupled to drive gear 28 at lug 48 urges the drive gear to rotate counter-clockwise. Drive gear 28, whose teeth 33 engage pinion 29, urges spur gear 30 to rotate clockwise. Gear 30, engaging pinion 35, urges idler gear 53 to rotate counter-clockwise. Idler gear 53 meshing with pinion 36, as shown in FIG. 6, causes trigger Wheel 38 to rotate at a multiplied speed in a clockwise direction. As camming surface 39 rotates clockwise, tooth 52 on its surface moves around and engages pawl 60 as shown in FIG. 7. This immediately halts the upward movement of

arms

12 and 13 under the influence of spring 23. The halting of the upward movement of the arms occurs after only a few degrees of rotation of drive gear 28 due to the high gear ratio between the drive gear and trigger wheel 38. Thus, a single rotation of trigger wheel 38, sufficient to engage pawl 60, will permit a maximum of only a few degrees of rotation of wheel 28. The stopping of wheel 28 occurs before portion 41 can engage pin 81 so that there is no contact between the drive wheel and the lever. Pawl 60 is maintained in engagement with catch l-obe 52 by the attraction of magnet 21 to shaft 77. The drive mechanism is held in a locked position for any orientation of the dolls body since the counterweight 19 on the lever maintains the center of gravity of the lever along its axis 51, whereby the lever is insensitive to the force of gravity. The coun-,

terweight 19 also minimizes the danger of the lever being moved as a result of shocks or jarring which may be experienced by the doll. Moreover, the positive force exerted by tooth 52 against pawl 60 is greatly reduced due to the transmission of the force of spring 23 through the gear reduction train. Thus, although a relatively strong spring 23 is employed, the latching engagement between pawl 60 and tooth 52 is relatively sensitive. Thus, when an external permanent magnet 17, having a polarity at its forward end opposite to the polarity of the outwardly facing surface of magnet 21, approaches the dolls chest, only a small force produced by the attraction of the two magnets is necessary to overcome the biasing force of shaft 77 on the lever and dislodge pawl 60 from catch 52. The attraction of magnet 17 to the magnet 21 causes lever 18 to pivot clockwise, as shown in FIG. 5. Pin 81 in turn moves outwardly away from surface 75 to permit step 41 to pass clear of the pin so that the drive wheel will rotate counter-clockwise to raise

arms

12 and 13 toward the dolls mouth. During the upward movement of the dolls arms, cam surface 75 in sliding contact with pin 81 maintains the lever in the position of FIG. 5 so that pawl 60 does not engage camming surface 39 of trigger Wheel 38 during rotation. When abutment 32 engages detent 34 of the drive gear, the cycle of operation of the dolls actuating mechanism is complete. To reset the mechanism in readiness for another cycle, it is only necessary to move the dolls arms downward toward its Waist.

From the above description it is apparent that only a very small force is required from the interaction of external magnet 17 and magnet 21 to trip the latching mechanism so as to permit the spring 23 to cause the dolls arms to move upward toward its mouth. With the actuating mechanism of the type described, one need only approach with the external magnet to within an inch or two of the chest of the doll before the magnetic force becomes sufiicient to trip the latch mechanism. It should be pointed out that if the magnet 21 has a strong enough field, an unmagnetized piece of iron, or other suitable material, may be used to actuate the mechanism in place of the control magnet 17. Such a piece of iron would, of course, have to be larger than the shaft 77 to overcome the attractionforce between the magnet 21 and shaft 77.

While'only a single embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an animated toy:

a hollow body provided with an opening,

a shaft within said body and terminating at one end near said opening, said shaft being mounted for rota-tion about its longitudinal axis,

an appendage having an end provided with means for connecting it to the end of said shaft for animation by rotative movement of the latter,

spring means within said body constantly urging said shaft to rotate in one direction toward a released position,

means for preventing shaft rotation in the spring-urged direction beyond the released position, said shaft being rotatable in the opposite direction toward a cocked position by activation of said appendage, and

a releasable latch mechanism within said body for retaining said shaft in the cocked position, said latch mechanism including a magnet responsive to a magnetic field outside said body for actuating the latch and permitting said spring means to rotate said shaft to its released position.

2. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 1, wherein said latch mechanism includes'a trigger wheel mounted to rotate along with said shaft, said trigger wheel having a radially projecting tooth, a pivotally mounted pawl adapted to engage said tooth when said shaft is in its cocked position and prevent rotation of said trigger wheel and hence said shaft, said pawl being operatively connected to said magnet, and means for maintaining said pawl out of engagement with said tooth when said shaft is not in its cocked position.

3. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 2 including a drive gear mounted on and rotatable with said shaft, said spring means being connected between an eccentric point on said drive gear and a point fixed with respect to said body, and a gear train coupled to said drive gear, said gear train including said trigger wheel.

4. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 3 wherein said means for preventing shaft rotation includes a detent carried by said drive gear and an abutment fixed with respect to said body in the path of travel of said detent.

5. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 2 wherein said latch mechanism further includes a pivotally mounted lever, said pawl being carried by said lever, and said magnet being mounted on said lever, the magnetic axis of said magnet being substantially perpendicular to the pivot axis of said lever.

6. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 5 wherein said lever has a pair of arms extending in opposite directions from its pivot axis, one of said arms carrying said magnet, and including a counterweight mounted on the other lever arm to render said lever perfectly balanced about its pivot axis.

7. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 3 wherein said latch mechanism includes a pivotal- 1y mounted lever, said pawl being carried by said lever, and said means for maintaining said pawl out of engagement with said tooth includes a cam surface carried by said drive gear, and a follower carried by said lever.

8. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 7 including means for maintaining said follower in light contact with said cam surface.

9. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 8 wherein said magnet is mounted on said lever, and said means for maintaining said follower in contact with said cam surface is a magnetic member located between said lever and said cam surface, said member serving to constantly attract said magnet.

10. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 9 including means for limiting the pivotal movement of said lever in the direction which separates said cam surface and follower to insure the continuity of magnetic attraction between said magnet and magnetic member regardless of the orientation of said toy.

11. In an animated toy, the arrangement defined in claim 10 wherein said limiting means includes a detent carried by said lever, and an abutment fixed with respect to said body in the path of movement of said detent.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,942,377 6/1960 Beebe 46-119 3,053,008 9/1962 Pelunis 46-1 19 3,287,847 11/1966 Gardel et a1. 46-119 X LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner.

R. F. CUTTING, Assistant Examini.

Claims

1. IN AN ANIMATED TOY: A HOLLOW BODY PROVIDED WITH AN OPENING, A SHAFT WITHIN SAID BODY AND TERMINATING AT ONE END NEAR SAID OPENING, SAID SHAFT BEING MOUNTED FOR ROTATION ABOUT ITS LONGITUDINAL AXIS, AN APPENDAGE HAVING AN END PROVIDED WITH MEANS FOR CONNECTING IT TO THE END OF SAID SHAFT FOR ANIMATION BY ROTATIVE MOVEMENT OF THE LATTER. SPRING MEANS WITHIN SAID BODY CONSTANTLY URGING SAID SHAFT TO ROTATE IN ONE DIRECTION TOWARD A RELEASED POSITION,