Illumination – With star or cross
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-17
2001-08-14
Thomas, Alexander S. (Department: 1772)
Illumination
With star or cross
C362S807000, C428S011000, C428S012000, C428S009000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273583
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to collapsible and erectable decorations, especially foldable and unfoldable stars.
REVIEW OF THE RELATED TECHNOLOGY
W. L. Bushnell, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,894,345, pictures a five-pointed decorative star made of intersecting and crossing “angle iron” beams each having an L-shaped cross section. Where the beams intersect a portion of one side of the “L” is cut away to allow the other beam to pass, but there is no fixing of one beam to another at the intermediate crossing points. The beams are fastened with fasteners only at their ends. The device cannot be folded for easy shipping and storage, but can only be disassembled.
In one embodiment the ends are fastened by inserting a tab or tongue
18
through a “keeper slot”
19
and bending the tab over; this prevents any rotation of the beams. In another embodiment a boss
26
is inserted through a keeper hole
27
“where it is then peened in place and held” (col. 2, line 55). It is therefore clear that this star is not foldable, i.e. is not a knock-down star, because the end fasteners are permanent and irrotational, and because the “angle iron” is too stiff to permit the beams to be bent away from one another.
U.S. patent 3,977,683 to Tomura discloses a toy or puzzle with numerous flexible strips (“links”) including end-fasteners by which the strips are joined into quadrilaterals and other figures. There are no means for fastening the strips at intermediate cross-over points. Tomura does not disclose any star shapes.
Claude, U.S. Pat. 3,184,366, shows a knock-down decorative five-pointed star in which each of the five straight arms making up the star is jointed in the middle. That is, there are a total of ten strips which in pairs make up the five straight arms of the star. Each of the two strips of each pair of strips is also joined to a strip of an adjoining straight arm (which also is made up of two strips). All the joints are pivotal, and when some of the fasteners are removed the star folds up accordion-style into a compact bundle as long as each of the strips.
The Claude star has the advantage of being short—half of the arm length—when collapsed. However, this advantage is gained at the cost of structural weakness and increased cost. Each arm is able to flex about the mid-point joint. Each of the triangular outer portions of the star includes a joint in one of its three arms, and can collapse. Because of this inherent lack of rigidity, the arms of the Claude star must be jointed at each one of the crossing points
16
. Claude uses the crossing point pivots
16
as part of the folding scheme, as shown in
FIGS. 6-9
; and the Claude device is unduly expensive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A decorative star according to the present invention is constructed with five or six strips, preferably flat and elongated and with rounded ends so as to generally resemble tongue depressors. Preferably all strips have the same dimensions. The strips include through holes by which they may be attached, with any sort of fastener or else by a snap-together fastening. The star collapses when certain fastenings are removed.
Preferably each strip has a hole near each end, preferably centered in the rounded region so that a smooth outline is formed when the strips are joined at their edges. By fastening these end holes various sorts of stars can be formed. The stars are stabilized by with additional fastenings, such as additional fasteners through intermediate holes or alignment structures built into the strips, spaced from the end holes by specific amounts.
Preferably, only enough intermediate holes are provided so that there is the minimum number needed to stabilize the star, by triangulation, so that it does not accidentally fold up when in its fixed and erected form. With the number of holes minimized, construction is faster and more simplified. To aid assembly the strips may be labeled.
For example, a five-pointed star made of strips with end holes 23.5 inches apart on centers will have intermediate holes spaced 9 inches from the end holes. (These dimensions of course may be scaled up or down with the ratio remaining substantially the same.) Two of the strips (each preferably labeled “#1” for assembly) will have one such hole each, while a third strip (preferably labeled “#2”) will have two intermediate holes, each 9 inches from the respective nearest end hole. Finally, two more strips (each preferably labeled “#3”) will have no intermediate holes.
The star is knock-down, and begins to collapse and fold when several intermediate fastenings have been removed. Not all of the fastenings need be removed to achieve an easily-transported compact assembly.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1433273 (1922-10-01), Graves
patent: 2853598 (1958-09-01), Balthauser
patent: 2894345 (1959-07-01), Bushnell
patent: 3184366 (1965-05-01), Claude
patent: 3374798 (1968-03-01), Samuelson
patent: 3546049 (1970-12-01), Kostich
patent: 3704367 (1972-11-01), Korb
patent: 3977683 (1976-08-01), Tomura
patent: 4816310 (1989-03-01), Truyens
patent: 5629057 (1997-05-01), Wang et al.
patent: 5845451 (1998-12-01), Tolentino
Browdy and Neimark
Thomas Alexander S.
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