Amusement devices – Roundabout – Having carrier rotating about vertical axis
Patent
1996-04-05
1997-10-14
Nguyen, Kien T.
Amusement devices
Roundabout
Having carrier rotating about vertical axis
472 3, 472107, A63G 108
Patent
active
056766017
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to carousel apparatus and in particular to such apparatus having a rotatable turntable and a plurality of seats carried by the turntable, for users of the apparatus.
There have been innumerable designs of carousel apparatus (referred to hereinafter as a carousel) intended to give users of the carousel an enjoyable ride, for example at a fun fair, play ground or an entertainment or theme park. A carousel may be made to give a more or less exciting ride dependent upon the ages of the intended riders, but particularly in the case of carousels intended for use by children, many carousels are unimaginative and do not give much excitement. For example, the turntable may carry rather crude representations of motor vehicles, aeroplanes and boats, which representations are provided with static seats (relative to the turntable) and which thus merely carry the children round and round, as the turntable rotates.
In DE-C-42,927, there is described a children's carousel having a dragon-like structure made up from a number of links pivoted end-to-end, with a seat bridging each pivotal connection of one link to the next. A crank arrangement is coupled to one pivotal connection, to cause relative pivoting movement between the links. Such an arrangement is complex and leads to compound movements which may be excessive for small children.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,961, there is described a traditional carousel having rising and falling horses on which children may ride, but which has a cam track disposed below the carousel platform, each horse being mounted on a post upstanding from a cam follower also arranged below the platform.
There are of course more sophisticated designs of carousel, intended to give very much more exciting rides, but these then are unsuitable for use by young children. It is therefore a principal aim of the present invention to provide a carousel which is suitable for use by young children but which is configured to give an interesting and perhaps exciting ride, whilst at the same time which is relatively simple and so inexpensive to construct and operate.
According to the present invention, there is provided carousel apparatus comprising a turntable rotatably mounted for rotation about a vertical axis, a plurality of pairs of arms disposed around and pivotally mounted on the turntable, each arm supporting a respective seat at or adjacent its end remote from its pivotal mounting to the turntable, power-turning means to effect rotation of the turntable, and drive means to effect pivoting movement of the arms and so raising and lowering of the seats, the pivoting movement of the arms of each pair being in antiphase whereby the two seats of each pair of arms are alternately raised and lowered during rotation of the turntable.
It will be appreciated that a child sitting on a seat of a carousel constructed and arranged in accordance with the present invention will be subjected both to vertical and centripetal accelerations during operation of the carousel and so will experience a much more exciting ride than is the case where the child is merely carried round in a static piece of equipment mounted on a turntable. On the other hand, the carousel is relatively simple and so may be constructed to give a high degree of safety to young children. Moreover, the carousel may be manufactured relatively simply and so cheaply, and also may be reliable in operation.
The two arms of each pair may together comprise a single elongate lever pivoted at its mid-point to the mounting on the turntable, the two seats being mounted one on each end of the lever, so as to define a see-saw. Alternatively, the two arms of a pair thereof could be separate but aligned and each pivoted to the turntable at one end and having a seat at the other end, the two pivotal mountings being adjacent one another. In either case, it is preferred for the pivotal axis for the two seats of each pair to extend substantially radially of the turntable.
The drive means for the seats may operate in a timed relationship to rotation of t
REFERENCES:
patent: 1553528 (1925-09-01), Hartonz
patent: 3078091 (1963-02-01), Burke
patent: 3191930 (1965-06-01), Cottrell
patent: 5395290 (1995-03-01), Knifpstra
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