Back to results
US 6,296,542 B1Granted
Toy
OwnerDavid Yearickinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hand held toy having a power source with a rotating shaft. A crank is connected with an end of the shaft and extends radially therefrom. An elongated flexible member is connected with the crank at a location radially spaced from its axis. An anchor member is connected with an opposite end of the elongated member and is adapted to control that end of the member. In use, rotation of the shaft causes the elongate member to form controlled substantially uniform convolutions and, selective relative movement between the power source and anchor causes the convolutions to form into varying controlled sizes and shapes.
Claims2
A toy comprising:
- a drive including a hand held housing containing an electric motor connected with a power source which is operative to drive said motor and a control including an on/off switch and a rheostat which is operative to activate, deactivate and control said motor to rotate in a single direction at between 100 and 10,000 RPM's;
- said motor including a drive shaft extending outwardly of said housing;
- a wheel having a diameter greater than 1″ connected along its axis of rotation with said drive shaft;
- a segmented string of metal balls connected at one end with said wheel at a point adjacent its periphery;
- an anchor comprising a suction cup connected with an opposite end of said segmented string of metal balls, said anchor maintaining said opposite end secured with a fixed surface;
- whereby,
- upon activation of said motor combined with movement of said housing relative to said anchor said segmented string of metal balls is caused to move through patterns in space of varying sizes and shapes.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.