1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an amusement device in the nature of a balancing toy suitable for use by children aged about five and up.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Belt-balancing hooks as such are well known in the art of balancing toys, examples of such hooks appearing in references such as the Bacon, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 225,347 and the article in Deltagram, Volume 21, No. 6, November-December 1952, page 116.
In the balancing-toy art, it is known (for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 497,081) to provide a toy of jointed construction, so that its distribution of weight and its consequent position of equilibrium may be altered.
The principle of providing a balanced structure which is of surprising stability because the center of gravity of the supported structure lies below the point of support (fulcrum) is illustrated in many references, including not only the belt-balancing-hook references mentioned above, but also British Pat. No. 210,179 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,190,800; 2,281,656; 3,613,300; and 3,623,239.
The prior art of which I am aware either shows a fingertip as being an equivalent of a stick or rod (as in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 497,081 or British Pat. No. 210,179) or shows a stationary, vertically extending fulcrum (as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,190,800; 2,281,656; 2,724,210; 3,613,300; and 3,623,239). The prior art of which I am aware has not indicated the use of a hand-held stick or rod which has at the end distal from the hand a cavity or protuberance enabling it to be brought into sliding frictional contact with a second rod of stick having at its lower end a suitably co-operating configuration, so that there may be obtained both the effect of having the rods become approximately aligned (which enhances the apparent-gravity-defying effect) and the effect of making it possible to impart rotary motion to the supported rod and the members carried by it.
Moreover, the prior art of which I am aware does not indicate any structure which approaches the present invention in respect to providing both simplicity of structure and great variety of modes of operation and effect obtained. Either the structure is relatively complex and not relatively inexpensive to produce (as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,190,800; 2,281,656; 2,274,210; and 3,623,239) or the structure is relatively simpler, but at the same time, the relatively meager possibilities of the toy are a lot sooner exhausted (as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 497,081 and 3,613,300 and the above-mentioned British patent and belt-balancing-hook references).