Tandem swing
AssigneeHedstrom Corporation
InventorsJoel C. Cunard, Robert J. Boudreau
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A children's swing has an elongated beam with opposite ends and a mid portion providing a seating platform for at least two children. Pivotally attached to the opposite ends of the beam are a pair of rigid rockers, each rocker having an upper end defining hand grips and a lower end defining a foot rest. To use the rocker, the children sit on the beam back to back with their hands and feet on the hand grips and foot rests of the rockers in front of them. When the children rock the rockers in synchronism, the swing will swing to and fro with ever increasing amplitude due to the inertia of the children's limbs and changes in the included angles between the rockers and the beam.
Claims8
A children's swing comprising an elongated rigid beam having opposite ends and means between said ends defining a seating platform for at least two children;
- a pair of elongated rigid rockers, each rocker having upper and lower ends, a mid portion between the ends, hand grip means at said upper end and foot support means at said lower end;
- first and second hinge means for pivotally connecting the mid portions of said rockers to the opposite ends of the beam so that each rocker can pivot about a pivot axis, the longitudinal axes of the beam and rockers being in a common plane which is perpendicular to said pivot axes;
- means for confining the movement of each rocker relative to the beam substantially to movement about the pivot axis of said each rocker;
- means for limiting the pivoting motion of each rocker about the corresponding pivot axis so that each rocker can swing between a first position wherein the included angle between the rocker axis and the beam is an acute angle and a second position wherein said included angle is an obtuse angle;
- elongated support means spaced above the ground, said support means having a longitudinal axis;
- first flexible suspension means having upper and lower ends;
- first and second connection means connecting the upper and lower ends of said first suspension means to said support means and one rocker of said pair of rockers, respectively;
- second flexible suspension means having upper and lower ends, and
- third and fourth connection means connecting the upper and lower ends of said second suspension means to said support means and the other rocker of said pair of rockers, respectively, so that said beam axis is substantially perpendicular to said support means axis, said first and third connection means being spaced apart a distance less than the spacing of said first and second hinge means, so that when said swing is at rest, the rockers and the suspension means converge toward said support means.
A children's swing comprising:
- an elongated rigid beam having opposite ends and means between said ends defining a seating platform for at least two children;
- a pair of elongated rigid rockers, each rocker having upper and lower ends, a mid portion between the ends, hand grip means at said upper end and foot support means at said lower ends;
- first and second hinge means for pivotally connecting the mid portions of said rockers to the opposite ends of the beam so that each rocker can pivot about a pivot axis, the longitudinal axes of the beam and rockers being in a common plane which is perpendicular to said pivot axes, said first and second hinge means each comprising:
- a hemispherical recess in the mid portion of said rocker;
- a hemispherical bulb on an end of said beam and slidably received in said recess, and
- a pivot pin extending through said rocker mid portion and said bulb perpendicular to the rocker axis and the beam axis, and
- means for confining the movement of each rocker relative to the beam substantially to movement about the pivot axis of said each rocker.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.