Audible sound emitting toy

• US 4,179,842 A
• Filed: 08/26/1977
• Issued: 12/25/1979
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/1977
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: MEGO Corporation
• Original Assignee: MEGO Corporation
• Inventors: Fauls, Thomas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kinsey, Russell R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yu, Mickey
• Application Number:
  US05/827,933
• Time in Patent Office: 851 Days
• Field of Search: 46/117, 46/232, 46/169 R, 46/175 R, 46/44, 274/1 A
• US Class Current: 446/190
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 3/31 Bellows, cylinders or the like for sound production

Abstract

A toy such as a doll which is capable of alternately emitting one of a plurality of different audible sounds, depending on the orientation of the toy, i.e., each sound corresponds to a different orientation of the toy. Typically when the toy is a doll, the doll emits the sound of giggling or laughter when in the upright vertical position and the sound of crying when in the reclining horizontal position. At least a portion of the interior of the toy is hollow, and an arrangement is provided within the hollow interior capable of alternately emitting at least two audible sounds. A pivoted weight and a switch arrangement are disposed in the hollow interior of the toy, the switch arrangement being connected with the pivoted weight and with the arrangement for emitting sound. The pivoted weight moves to alternate positions when the orientation of the toy is changed, so that a change in the relative position of the pivoted weight causes the switch arrangement to controllably change the audible sound emitted by the arrangement for alternately emitting at least two different audible sounds.

Claims

1. A doll capable of emitting different sounds in each of at least two orientations of which a first orientation of the doll is an upright vertical position and a second orientation of the doll is a reclining horizontal position comprising an enclosure constituting at least a portion of the doll and having a hollow interior and a foraminous portion communicating said interior with the exterior of the doll;

means in said hollow interior for emitting sounds, including at least two sections each operative for emitting the sounds associated with one of the orientations; and

means for controlling the operation of said emitting means in dependence on the orientation of the doll, including a weight so mounted in said hollow interior as to be gravitationally displaced toward a different position relative to said enclosure in each of the orientations, switch means including a control portion attached to said weight for movement therewith and operative for energizing a different one of said sections of said emitting means in each of said positions of said weight, and time-delay means for retarding the displacement of said weight toward at least one of said positions thereof and for delaying the energization of the corresponding section of the emitting means upon change of the orientation of the doll by a finite time interval, said emitting means simulating sounds of giggling when the doll is in the upright vertical position and crying when in the reclining horizontal position.

2. The doll of claim 1 in which the enclosure is the torso of the doll.

3. The doll of claim 1 in which the weight is mounted on a pivoted beam.

4. The doll of claim 3 in which the pivoted beam extends in one direction to the weight and in another direction to a pin.

5. The doll of claim 4 in which the doll has at least one recess, said recess containing a pivoted member having a weighted bias, and the pin alternately displaces said pivoted member when the pin is extended, or releases the pivoted member when the pin is retracted.

6. The doll of claim 5 in which the recess is a simulated eye socket and the pivoted member is a simulated eyeball.

7. A toy capable of emitting a plurality of audible sounds, each sound corresponding to a different orientation of the toy, which comprises an enclosure, said enclosure being at least a portion of said toy, at least a portion of the interior of said enclosure being hollow, at least a portion of said enclosure adjacent the hollow interior portion being foraminous, means within the hollow interior portion of said enclosure to alternately emit at least two different audible sounds, and a pivoted weight and switch means within the hollow interior portion of said enclosure, said switch means being connected with said pivoted weight and with said means to alternately emit at least two different audible sounds, said pivoted weight moving to alternate positions when the orientation of the toy is changed so that a change in the relative position of said pivoted weight causes said switch means to controllably change the audible sound emitted by said means to alternately emit at least two different audible sounds, said pivoted weight being movable to a first position without hindrance when the toy is in a first orientation, and the motion of the pivoted weight to a second position when the toy is in a second orientation is hindered by time delay means, said time delay means permitting gradual displacement of the pivoted weight to the second position over a finite time interval and including a flexible resilient bellows mounted on a rigid mounting, and a bleed valve and a flap valve, said bleed and flap valves being mounted on said rigid mounting, said flap valve controlling the passage of air into said bellows so that air can rapidly pass into said bellows when said bellows expands, said flap valve being a one-way valve so that passage of air out of said bellows through said flap valve when said bellows contracts is precluded, said bleed valve controlling the passage of air out of said bellows so that air can only gradually pass out of said bellows when said bellows contracts.

8. The toy of claim 7 in which the bellows contracts due to pressure of said pivoted weight when the toy is in the second orientation and the bellows expands when the pressure of said pivoted weight is relieved when the toy is in the first orientation.

9. The toy of claim 7 in which the bleed valve is a substantially cylindrical pin having an annular longitudinal flat section, and said substantially cylindrical pin extends through a circular opening in the rigid mounting.

10. The toy of claim 9 in which the substantially cylindrical pin terminates with an enlargement within the enclosure formed by the bellows and the rigid mounting, said enlargement being juxtaposed with the rigid mounting.

11. The toy of claim 10 in which the enlargement is a disc-shaped cap coaxially aligned with the substantially cylindrical pin, the rigid mounting is circular, the bellows is generally cylindrical, and the rigid mounting and the bellows are coaxially aligned with the cap and pin.