Wall-based Rolling Ball Sculpture
A rolling ball sculpture is comprised of modular track parts, connected together to form a contiguous pathway for balls. Magnetic wall mount parts are assembled to a wall in an array with even spacing in order to hold magnetic support pieces that may be moved into various locations. Track pieces may be held by support pieces that mount onto the moveable supports that are magnetically mounted to permanent magnetic pieces. Track parts include straight parts, turns, and mechanisms such as chimes, switches for diverting balls along differing paths, funnels, and conveyor parts that lift balls to the top of the sculpture. Parts may be constructed of 2-dimensional parts that may be cut or stamped from flat materials, such as laser-cut plywood.
This application claims an invention which was disclosed in Provisional Application No. 62/460,840, filed Feb. 19, 2017, entitled “Wall-based 2-D cut wood Rolling Ball Toy Kit”. The benefit under 35 USC § 119(e) of the United States provisional application is hereby claimed, and the aforementioned application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONMarble toys have existed for a long time. Generally, a marble starts at the top of a track and rolls downward along a path, sometimes winding and sometimes traveling through various mechanisms along the way down. In some cases the path is modular and/or adjustable in some way so that a user can enjoy making changes to a design.
Some examples of such toys are:
- “Rolling Ball and Track Toy” Stair, U.S. Pat. No. 2,532,521, issued Dec. 5, 1959
- “Marble Runway” Cook, U.S. Pat. No. 2,729,914, Jan. 10, 1956
- “Knockdown Marble Railway Toy” Grosser, U.S. Pat. No. 3,145,501, Aug. 25, 1964
- “Jump Chute Marble Race Toy” Klitsner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,342, Oct. 17, 1989
- “Marble race toy with elevator and supporting infrastructure” U.S. Ser. No. 08/657,856, Sep. 1, 1998
- “Tube toy and method”, Gilman, U.S. Ser. No. 08/326,278, Sep. 19, 1995
- “Suspended runway”, Quercetti, EP1427498B1, Dec. 17, 2008
- “Track Segments Providing A Convoluted Path”, Horowitz, U.S. Pat. No. 8,568,188B2, Oct. 29, 2013
- “Wall mounted toy track set”, O'Connor, U.S. Pat. No. 8,608,527B2, 2015 Pending
All of these examples incorporate a track with an upper starting point, and a pathway down to an endpoint below. Some require manual operation to drop balls into the top of the track, while others incorporate a means of conveying marbles back up to the top starting position.
As evidenced by these examples of prior art, the concept of a rolling ball sculpture has long been appreciated. While there have been many attempts to enable users to re-configure track designs, many of these attempts result in a limited ability to re-configure track. Oftentimes the device is assembled on a table or floor at least temporarily dedicated for the purpose. These concepts also generally lack forethought as to ease of assembly, as well as ease of manufacturing.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONObjects of the present rolling ball sculpture are:
to semi-permanently mount magnetic components to a wall in an array with even spacing;
to construct a track comprised of modular track components;
to align modular track components to one another with interlocking features;
to rigidly connect modular track pieces to one another with u-shaped clips;
to mount the track to a wall using support members attached to wall via magnetic mounts;
to enable re-configuration of modular track pieces to one another and to wall mounts;
to convey balls to the top of the sculpture using a motorized conveyor
The rolling ball sculpture is comprised of modular track parts which connect to one another using u-shaped clips. Said modular track parts align to one another with interlocking features to ensure that a rolling ball does not get stuck in transition between track parts. An array of magnetic wall mount parts are assembled to a wall in an array with even spacing. Support pieces with magnets may be moved into various locations where they latch to the magnetic wall mount parts magnetically. Track pieces may be connected to support pieces that mount onto moveable supports that are magnetically mounted to permanent magnetic pieces. Track parts include straight parts, turns, and mechanisms such as chimes, switches for diverting balls along differing paths, funnels, and conveyor parts that lift balls to the top of the sculpture. The parts may be constructed of 2-dimensional parts that may be cut or stamped from flat materials, such as laser-cut plywood. In this manner a large sculpture kit could be flat packaged into a relatively small box. A motorized conveyor belt moves balls back to the top of the sculpture to enable continuous motion of balls along the track.
The rolling ball sculpture 100 shown in
An array of evenly spaced magnetic wall mount parts 101 is shown in
Modular track part 110 is supported by track support part 106 which is hooked onto magnetic support part 102.
Claims
1. A kinetic sculpture of the rolling ball type comprising:
- a plurality of individual parts including:
- a modular wall-mounted support structure composed of an evenly-spaced array of magnetic mounts, semi-permanently adhered to the wall;
- support struts with magnets at either end which latch magnetically to said magnetic mount parts;
- various track support parts which mount to said support struts via mechanical interlocking features and which support said track parts;
- a plurality of modular interlocking track parts which mount to said support struts and which align to one another to form a contiguous track to accommodate rolling balls;
2. The kinetic sculpture in claim 1, wherein said modular interlocking track parts are held together with u-shaped press-fit clips that hold parts together.
3. The kinetic sculpture in claim 1, wherein all parts are comprised primarily of flat pieces that can be manufactured from laser-cut sheet materials such as wood, plastic, metal, etc.
4. The kinetic sculpture in claim 1, wherein the modular parts are aligned to one another with interlocking features to ensure smooth transitions of the ball between parts.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 19, 2018
Publication Date: Aug 23, 2018
Inventors: Andrew Lewis Johnston (Redwood City, CA), Keith Barker Johnston (Eugene, OR)
Application Number: 15/899,315