Amusement ride for traveling down a water chute with reduced spl

Details Amusement ride for traveling down a water chute with reduced spl Amusement ride for traveling down a water chute with reduced spl

1995-06-27

1997-03-25

Le, Mark T.

Railways

Amusement

Chutes

104 72, 472117, 472129, A63G 2100

Patent

active

056134436

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an amusement vehicle, and in specific a ride amusement for traveling down a chute having a region containing water through which a ride vehicle travels.
In recent years, amusement apparatuses tend to be larger in scale and more diversified. Among them, the roller coaster has been a popular apparatus for many years, since its introduction.
Recent roller coasters are provided to travel on a track making looped or spiral turns, etc., to provide a thrilling attraction to the riders.
An attraction ride, similar to a roller coaster, is achieved with a water chute in which a boat slides down on a sharp slope to plunge into a pond.
In such a water chute, when the boat has reached the pond, a great amount of splashing occurs, resulting in water rushing onto the passengers' seats. Previous attempts to minimize the amount of water splashing onto the passengers have consisted of confining the descending height of the boat to under 10 meters, using a boat that is specially formed to repel the splashing water forward with respect to the direction of the boat, and adding PVC covers as shields against the direct splashing of water onto the passengers.
However, such attractions in which the descending height of the vehicle is reduced, provides a less thrilling attraction to the passengers. Furthermore, the use of transparent covers such as PVC covers for repelling splashes, while keeping the thrilling view visible to the passengers, nonetheless reduces the desirable amusement effect of the apparatus. Thus, the popularity of the water chute is declining.
The present invention has been made to solve this problem. The object of the present invention is to provide an amusement vehicle by specially shaping the bottom of a boat for preventing the direct splashing on passengers without impairing the attractiveness as an amusement apparatus.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To solve the above problem, the present invention provides an amusement vehicle caused to travel down on a gradient passage with a water channel, comprising an inwardly curved surface at the bottom and additional inwardly curved surfaces from the bottom upward to protrude outside in the width direction of the vehicular main body.
The vehicle can have wheels and the gradient passage can be provided, at its upper portions, with floating preventive means to prevent the floating of the vehicle while the vehicle is traveling down with its wheels in contact with the passage.
Furthermore, the vehicle can be provided, on its flanks, with guide grooves, and the gradient passage can be provided, at its upper portions, with splashing preventive means to be idly engaged with said guide grooves.
When the amusement vehicle travels down on the water channel, or when it plunges onto the water channel from the gradient passage, water passes from the bow or tip of the vehicular main body along the inwardly curved bottom toward the rear of the vehicular main body, to decrease the impact of water at the tip of the vehicular main body. Furthermore, even if water goes around the flanks of the vehicular main body, it is pushed away toward the outside laterally with respect to the direction of travel of the vehicular main body, to decrease the quantity of water sent forward, thus reducing the splashes.
The acceleration of the vehicle running down on the gradient passage and the water current on the water channel tend to cause the vehicle to be lifted, but this force is counteracted by the vehicle running with its wheels guided in contact with the floating preventive means, and thus the floating tendency can be prevented.
The water going around the flanks of the vehicular main body and pushed away toward the outside in the width direction of the vehicular main body can be prevented from splashing onto the passengers' seats from the flanks of the vehicular main body by the water splashing preventive means.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing the amusement vehicle of the present invention.
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REFERENCES:
patent: 754698 (1904-03-01), Reed
patent: 1463137 (1923-07-01), Makepeace
patent: 4392434 (1983-07-01), Durwald et al.
patent: 4516943 (1985-05-01), Spieldiener et al.

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