Hair braiding apparatus
AssigneeMattel, Inc.
InventorJurgis Sapkus
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hand held, hand operated hair braiding apparatus having a plurality of aligned gear members, each having an aperture therethrough for passage therethrough of a strand of hair, with a first pair of adjacent gear members having the positions interchanged in response to actuation of a lever member in a first direction with the remaining gear member then being interchanged with the adjacent one in response to pivoting of the lever member in the reverse direction. There is also disclosed an accessory device for facilitating the use of the hair braiding apparatus.
Claims11
In hair braiding apparatus, the combination comprising:
- housing means configured for being hand held;
- lever means pivotally supported within said housing, said lever means being configured for hand operation;
- rack means operable in conjunction with said lever means;
- first, second and third gear means in aligned relation, each of said gear means being movably supported within said housing means and having aperture means for passage therethrough of a strand of hair to be braided;
- and
- means operable by said rack means and coacting with said first, second and third gear means for interchanging the positions of a first two adjacent ones of said gear means in response to pivoting of said lever means in one direction, and for interchanging the positions of the third of said gear means with the adjacently positioned gear means in response to pivoting of said lever means in the opposite direction, whereby repeated pivoting of said lever means cause the braiding of the strands of hair.
In hair braiding apparatus, the combination comprising:
- housing means configured for being hand held;
- lever means pivotally supported within said housing, said lever means being configured for hand operation;
- arcuately configured rack means on said lever means;
- bias means coacting with said lever means for urging said lever means in a first direction;
- first, second and third generally identically configured elliptical gear members positioned in aligned relation, each of said elliptical gear members being movably supported within said housing means and having aperture means for passage therethrough of strands of hair to be braided;
- first and second generally identically configured sector gear members positioned between adjacent ones of said elliptical gear members, one of said sector gear members and the adjacent ones of said elliptical gear members being configured for providing a rotatable composite gear member;
- a pinion gear member having the axle thereof mounted within a pair opposing elongate slots within said housing means, said pinion gear member being in constant meshing engagement with said rack means and movable into meshing engagement with a first composite gear member for interchanging the positions of a first two adjacent ones of said elliptical gear members in response to pivoting of said lever means in one direction, and movable into meshing engagement with a second composite gear member for interchanging the positions of the third of said elliptical gear members with the adjacently positioned elliptical gear member in response to pivoting of said lever means in the opposite direction, whereby repeated pivoting of said lever means causes braiding of the strands of hair.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.