Education and demonstration – Visual art or craft – artistic adornment – or color training... – Design formed of identical or complementary elements
Patent
1985-09-30
1988-01-05
Grieb, William H.
Education and demonstration
Visual art or craft, artistic adornment, or color training...
Design formed of identical or complementary elements
273157R, G09B 132
Patent
active
047173424
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a combination set of elements for setting surfaces with patterns and/or shapes of variable designs, particularly for applications as a toy or as a surface covering, in which each element comprises a square surface that can be grouped in types of different appearance, and the number of elements is substantially greater than that of the types.
There exist a large number of toys by which various surfaces can be formed. Of these toys the most popular ones are the so called "puzzle toys", in which the task lies in that a picture should be formed by elements having irregular forms which comprise small fragments of the picture.
The common properties of the puzzle toys lie in that there exists only one correct arrangement of the elements, furthermore the elements fill continuously the full picture area and neither the shape nor the pattern of the elements are identical.
A conventional way of forming surfaces illustrating a picture or a decorative pattern by means of elements is the use of mosaics. In the mosaic arts the respective coloured stones are broken in shapes corresponding to the form of a detail of the picutre to be set, and the colours are carefully selected. The elements cannot be therefore grouped according to their colours or shapes. There are several mosaic toys in conventional toy shops which consist of uni-coloured elements of predetermined uniform shapes having mostly the form of a rhomboid. These toys are capable of forming many decorative surfaces. Regarding the form of the patterns that can be formed by such toys, the shape of the elements has a limiting and decisive role. Due to the linear contour lines of the elements, such mosaic toys cannot be used for forming patterns with curved contours considered beautiful by the norms of human aesthetic sense.
There are other types of toys capable of forming surfaces which comprise elements of different forms, such as the various construction building sets made of wood which are suitable for forming a large number of spatial and planar patterns. These toys cannot always fill a whole surface area and the often large number of the types of elements with various sizes and forms makes their storage in a box difficult and causes problems during selection of the desired elements. The size of such elements is rather large, therefore they are rarely suitable for making figures with fine details.
There are other toys of the setting type which comprise elements that are arranged in a raster network on a boarding table and each element represents respective small areas /raster points/ of a picture, whereby a practically unlimited number of pictures can be set. Such toys are of the type in which the elements are formed by small coloured rectangles or discs /or rings/. By means of these toys aesthetically pleasing pictures can be set, however, the setting of pleasant pictures requires long playing times and the use of a large number of elements, which work often makes the children tired and does not offer them a feeling of success in a short time. In addition to these problems a further difficulty arises if the small elements should be stored in a box in a regular arrangement.
A general drawback of the non-puzzle-like setting toys lies in that the forms of the individual elements do not allow the setting of patterns with arced or curved contour lines. In the case where elements with linear contours are used, steps are formed when curved sections are to be set, which is aesthetically disturbing, while the disc-like elements cannot be used for forming patterns with linear contours.
In addition to the setting toys there are other kinds of toys which comprise flat quadratic prisms as elements and each element has a letter or number written on its upper face. The elements are arranged in sets which include several pieces of every letter or number, whereby words or short sentences can be set. Such toys are intended mainly for children ages 5 to 7. When words are formed by such elements the patterns on their faces /the letters/ impose distinct vis
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Grieb William H.
Meller Michael N.
Piky S. A.
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