Combination Rotational Novelty and Candy
A combination rotary novelty and confection includes a manual energy storage such as a spiral spring wind-up to power gears and shafts that rotate a confection and novelties. The components include a pawl and ratchet control and a speed control using a vibrator gear and oscillating plate.
1. Field of the Invention
A manual energy storage drives gears on shafts for rotating or moving a confection and novelty.
2. Description of Related Art
The art has many examples of novelty devices including rotating or spinning confections. Examples of these included your applicant's own patents, U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,692, issued May 11, 1993, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,535, issued Nov. 25, 1997, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,885, issued Aug. 1, 2000. All of these patents incorporate battery power as the source of power.
The prior art also has many examples of novelty devices that use windup springs as a power source. These springs can be wound by hand turning a shaft directly or by pulling on a string wound around a shaft to turn the shaft. U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,598 issued Sep. 26, 2000, to R. Cook, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,375, issued May 10, 1994, to S. Kanauchi, are examples of an animated character having a spring wound up by use of a pull string. Both spring motion per se, U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,223, issued Jan. 5, 1993, to S. Ito, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,746,302, issued Jun. 8, 2004, to R. Morikawa; and in combination with objects to give repetitive motions to them, U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,448, issued Apr. 30, 1991, to K. Asano, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,646, issued Jan. 11, 1994, to F. Fekete et al are known.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe novelty consists of a combination of shafts and gears that can rotate to provide motion for one, two, or three objects attached to the upper ends of the shafts. A manual energy storage such as a flat or spiral spring is provided to rotate the shaft and gears. It is shown wound by a knob under control of a pawl and ratchet mechanism that includes a push button control. To prevent runaway speed, a speed control unit is included with the shafts and gearing. To accommodate different seasons and events, different caps cooperate with main gear housing and shafts to vary the overall appearance and operation of the novelty.
The motion of the novelty is provided by a spring and gearing best seen in
Energy for causing rotation is stored in the spring 14. The spring 14 is wound about the shaft 2 by turning the knob 13 and prime shaft 2 within the lower housing 12. The lower housing is attached to the upper gear housing 11. A control device 50, best seen in
The speed of rotation is controlled by a regulator 20, best seen in
As a more detailed example, as the vibrator gear 15 turns there will be alternate contact between one plate point flat and one gear tooth 47. Counterclockwise rotation of gear 15 results in the forward slope of a gear tooth 47 contacting a plate point 45 flat 48. This collision causes the plate 19 to pivot counterclockwise about the shaft 3. This is followed by contact between the plate point flat 49 and a gear tooth 47 forward rotating surface. Contact between the plate opposite point side 44 and the gear tooth propels the plate in the opposite clockwise direction. This reciprocating arcuate action acts as a brake to restrict the rotational speed of the device. The relative rotational speed between the shafts 2, 3, and 4 is controlled by the ratio of the diameter of the gears 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
It is believed that the construction, operation and advantages of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is illustrative only and that changes, variations, substitutions, modifications and equivalents will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art and that such may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.
Claims
1. A novelty and confection turning device comprising;
- a housing for gears and shafts;
- gears and shafts in said housing;
- a manual energy storage means for driving said gears and said shafts;
- a means for winding said manual energy storage means;
- a means for controlling unwinding of said manual energy storage means for driving said gears and rotating said shafts;
- said shafts including a first shaft for rotating a confection; and,
- a coupling means attached to said first shaft for holding a confection.
2. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 1 wherein:
- said manual energy storage means is a spiral spring;
- said means for winding said spiral spring is a second shaft attached to said spiral spring inner end.
3. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 2 wherein:
- said means for controlling unwinding of said spiral spring includes a spring loaded pawl and ratchet and a push button release.
4. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 1 including:
- a speed control means for limiting the rotation speed of said gears and shafts.
5. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 4 wherein:
- said speed control means includes a vibrator gear and an oscillating plate.
6. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 5 including:
- a third shaft extending through said oscillating plate and a fourth shaft supporting said vibrator gear.
7. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 6 including:
- said oscillating plate having an internal arcuate slot adjacent a first end with said second shaft extending through said arcuate slot;
- said oscillating plate second end having an arcuate recessed central area to accommodate an end portion of said vibrator gear.
8. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 7 including:
- said arcuate recessed central area in said oscillating plate end in points that are spaced apart;
- said vibrator gear extending into said oscillating plate second end arcuate recess so that there is a small gap between teeth on said vibrator gear and said points of said arcuate recess in said vibrator plate so that rotation of said vibrator gear causes alternate contact between said oscillating plate points and oscillation of said oscillating plate.
9. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 2 including:
- a cap for said housing;
- said cap having a first coupling for holding a first novelty;
- a third shaft rotated by said spiral spring;
- said coupling for holding a first novelty is secured to said third shaft.
10. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 9 including:
- said cap having a second coupling for holding a second novelty;
- a fourth shaft rotated by said spiral spring;
- said second coupling for holding a second novelty is secured to said fourth shaft.
11. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 2 including:
- a cap for said housing;
- said cap being in the form of a replica;
- a tapered abutment inside said cap replica;
- a recess inside said cap replica;
- a third shaft rotated by said spiral spring;
- a fourth shaft rotated by said spiral spring;
- a first mover attached to said third shaft;
- a second mover attached to said fourth shaft;
- said first mover engages said tapered abutment inside said cap replica;
- said second mover engages said recess inside said cap replica.
12. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 8 wherein:
- said means for controlling unwinding of said manual energy storage means includes a spring loaded pawl and ratchet and a push button release.
13. A novelty and confection turning device comprising:
- rotary shafts for moving a confection and a novelty;
- gears for rotating said shafts;
- a spring for powering said rotary shafts and said gears;
- control means for operating said device;
- control means for limiting the rotational speed of said shafts and gears.
14. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 13 wherein:
- said control means for operating said device includes a spring loaded pawl and ratchet operated by a push button.
15. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 13 wherein:
- said control means for limiting the rotational speed of said shafts and gears includes a vibration gear and an oscillating plate.
16. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 13 wherein:
- said rotary shafts include a first confection rotating shaft, a second prime shaft, a third vibrating plate shaft and a fourth vibrator gear shaft.
17. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 13 wherein:
- said gears for rotating said shafts include a primary drive gear, a confection gear for rotating a first confection shaft, a transfer gear for rotating a vibrating plate gear, a speed reduction gear joined to said vibrating plate gear for rotating a vibrator drive gear, a vibrator gear joined to said vibrator drive gear.
18. A novelty and confection turning device as in claim 17 wherein:
- said rotary shafts include a first confection rotating shaft, a second prime shaft, a third vibrating plate shaft and a fourth vibrator gear shaft.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 21, 2006
Publication Date: Jun 26, 2008
Inventors: Thomas J. Coleman (Abingdon, VA), William K. Schlotter (Fredericksburg, VA), Princess Ann Coleman (Abingdon, VA), Ann M. Schlotter (Fredericksburg, VA)
Application Number: 11/614,485
International Classification: A63H 11/00 (20060101);