Amusement devices: toys – Construction toy – Including permanent magnet or suction cup to secure elements
Patent
1989-08-01
1991-04-23
Yu, Mickey
Amusement devices: toys
Construction toy
Including permanent magnet or suction cup to secure elements
446 85, 434211, A63H 3304
Patent
active
050096257
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a set of building blocks and, in accordance with the invention, the blocks of such a set are constructed so as to be capable of being held together face to face magnetically.
With this arrangement, when blocks are juxtaposed, face on face, three dimensional figures may be produced, the blocks holding onto one another without dependence on gravity.
The blocks are most simply moulded from plastics material, either solid or hollow.
The magnetic attraction may be provided by magnets, such as bar magnets or transversely polarized magnetic strips, let into the faces of the blocks, or moulded or otherwise provided within the blocks, e.g. fitted to inner surfaces of a multipart moulding before assembly, at positions at which they will provide a sufficient and appropriate magnetic field at the faces of the block.
The positions and/or number of magnetic poles provided for each adjacent face of juxtaposed blocks may be such as to cause particular angular alignment of the faces about an axis perpendicular to the faces. Furthermore, if at least one of those faces has rotational symmetry about an axis perpendicular to the face, the magnetic forces may be such that the blocks will tend to rotate to one or other of a plurality of stable positions corresponding to the symmetry of the face. This may be achieved by providing the rotationally symmetrical face with a pair of opposite magnetic poles on each side of each plane containing the axis of symmetry and one of a number of points of symmetry at the edge of the face, whereby when two of the rotationally symmetrical faces of different blocks are juxtaposed face to face the blocks will tend to rotate relatively to one another to one or other of a plurality of stable positions corresponding in number to the symmetry of the faces. There will thus be provided a ring of alternate magnetic poles around the axis of symmetry arranged symmetrically in pairs. Each pair of poles may be provided by the opposite edges of a transversely polarized magnetic strip which will thus extend on or just below the surface in the radial direction outwardly from the axis of symmetry. By way of example, in the case of a face having the shape of a rhombus, each adjacent pair of quadrants, formed by dividing the rhombus by its diagonals, would contain one a north pole and the other a south pole, for example by two strips of transversely polarized magnetic strip extending end to end, but of opposite hand, down the longer diagonal of the face. It will then be appreciated that if two similar faces are brought together, irrespective of whether or not one face is rotated through 180.degree. relatively to the other, the faces will always be attracted to a stable position in which one rhombic face overlies and is in angular alignment with the other.
The or each rotationally symmetrical face may be provided with a complementary spigot and shallow recess symmetrically one on each side of each plane containing the axis of symmetry and one of a number of points of symmetry at the edge of the face, whereby, in each of the stable positions, opposed spigots and recesses mate with one another. Although the spigots and recesses can be a loose fit, so that they do not hold the faces together, they are useful in inhibiting sliding of the faces over one another under gravity.
The set of blocks may consist of or include two subset each of blocks of the same shape but different from those of the other subset, the blocks of a first one of the subsets having faces with a shape and size which are the same as, or an integral multiple of, those of the faces of the blocks of the second subset, whereby a face of one block, or of each of a number of blocks, of the second subset may be juxtaposed with and attracted to one face of a block of the first subset.
The set of blocks provide particular interest if solid three dimensional bodies can be built by close fitting multiple blocks. Cubic and rectangular parallelopiped blocks are trivial examples and greater interest is prov
REFERENCES:
patent: 2206149 (1940-07-01), Balinkin
patent: 3184882 (1965-05-01), Vega
patent: 3611620 (1971-10-01), Perry
patent: 3654375 (1972-04-01), Geiger
patent: 4238905 (1980-12-01), MacGraw, II
Physical Review B, Condensed Matter, vol. 34, No. 2, 3rd Series, Jul. 15, 1986, American Physical Society, "Quasicrystals, I. Definition and Structure", pp. 596-616, D. Levine et al.
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