Diving Toy

Abstract

A diving toy having no moving parts but having a special bulkhead configuration receiving air from a pump, whereby the toy will tilt downwardly and sink under influence of loss of said air and when on the bottom will rise from the bottom to the top, the motion being continuous as long as the air is pumped to the interior of the diving toy.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There have been many diving toys all of which depend upon moving parts of one kind or another, or on water soluble pellets and the like, but this invention provides a diving toy of the class described which has no moving parts of any kind and does not depend on pellets but only upon a constant supply of air so that it continuously rises to the surface and sinks to the bottom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The diving toy of the present invention may have any reasonable configuration as for instance it may be in the form of a submarine, frogman, underwater sled, etc. In any case it comprises a housing having exterior vanes and an open bottom area which receives the distal end of the hose from the pump usually found in the home equarium, to discharge air into the interior of the toy. It also has an exit for the air at its top surface and inbetween the distal end of the discharge end of the hose and the exit for the air there is a special bulkhead arrangement especially provided to enable the toy to operate as described. Also in some cases certain weights and/or floats are utilized in order to enhance the action.

The bulkhead arrangement is such that assuming that the toy is resting horizontally near the surface, the air enters the bulkhead and is partially lost from the bulkhead through the air exit. The toy is thereby tilted and tends to move downwardly until it rests on the bottom in a horizontal position. Thereupon the air collects in the bulkhead, causing the toy to tilt somewhat upwardly thus accumulating more air in the bulkhead and causing the toy to rise to the surface. The toy is horizontal both near the surface and at the bottom for a brief interval of time but the action of the air on the bulkhead causes the action recited herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation partly in section illustrating the diving toy at the bottom of the tank;

FIG. 2 illustrates the start of the ascent thereof;

FIG. 3 illustrates the toy near the top;

FIG. 4 illustrates the toy resting at the surface;

FIG. 5 illustrates the initial dive from the surface; and

FIG. 6 illustrates the toy just about to rest on the bottom preparatory to its complete rest as in FIG. 1; and

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate multi-compartment modifications.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Although the toy of the present invention may assume any guise or shape, it is herein illustrated as in the form of a diving submarine. Referring to FIG. 1 the toy is shown at the bottom of the tank. The toy comprises a housing generally indicated by the reference numeral 10. This housing is hollow and it has an open bottom area at 12 and an exit opening at the top thereof as at 14. It is also preferably provided with diving vanes one at each side thereof 16 and such other representations of the submarine, frogmen, sea sled, or the like that may be desired to be applied thereto.

In some cases it has been found that a balancing action is enhanced by means of floats and there may be one at the forward end of the housing 10, as at 18, and if needed another one at 20 toward the rear. Furthermore in some cases weights as at 22, 22 may be provided but it is emphasized that these floats and weights are not always necessary and as a matter of fact may be built into the housing 10. The housing may also be made to have just enough bouyancy to remain at whatever level it is placed, when inoperative.

There is a cross bulkhead at 24 which seals off the forward portion of the housing from a compartment forming an air chamber which is generally indicated at 26. This air chamber is provided by the bulkhead 24 and a shorter cross bulkhead 28 which is located between the air exit opening 14 and the forward bulkhead 24.

The distal end 30 of an air hose is inserted through the opening 12 to a position in register with the chamber 26 between bulkheads 24 and 28. This hose of course has the usual pump provided to aerate the water in an aquarium or from any other source of supply.

With the diving toy in the position shown in FIG. 1, it is resting on the bottom of the tank or any other vessel, this being well recognized as a point in the cycle of operation of the diving toy. The air flow is continuous. As shown, the air accumulates in the air space compartment, chamber 26, to a certain extent which causes, see FIG. 2, the entire device to tilt upwardly at the forward end portion thereof which is herein indicated as at 32 the diving vane being at the opposite end thereof as shown.

This of course causes increasing amounts of air to be trapped in the air chamber 26 as illustrated in FIG. 2 and therefore the diving toy continues to rise due to the buoyancy thereof under the influence of the continuous charge of air.

Turning now to FIG. 3 it will be seen that this state of affairs continues until such time as the volume of air in the air chamber 26 becomes too great to continue to be trapped therein because of the short extent of the rear bulkhead 28; and continuing now to FIG. 4 the toy levels off adjacent the surface of the water or other liquid in the tank on an even keel with the air chamber 26 full in this condition. Any excess air derived from the continuous application of air from the hose continues to escape through the air exit 14. However this condition only lasts for a moment, and as shown in FIG. 5, the current of air imparts a slight forward motion to the toy so that the vanes 16 then come into play and cause the toy to tilt downwardly at the forward end portion thereof as at 32 in effect dumping most of the air from the air chamber 26 as is clearly shown in FIG. 5. This condition continues until the toy comes to rest on the bottom of the tank as in FIG. 6 gradually settling down back to the FIG. 1 position whereupon the entire course of events repeats itself.

This condition continues indefinitely as long as the air supply continues. The forward motion of the toy as shown in FIG. 5 is normally restrained by the tube 30 so that although the slight forward motion causing the dive as shown in FIG. 5 occurs nevertheless the toy is held back to the FIG. 6 position due to the restraint thereon caused by the hose which can be lightly secured to the edge of the tank.

As shown in FIG. 7 the device may be modified to utilize a plurality of air chambers rather than only one. In this case the distal end of the hose 30' is provided with a cross tube 34 leading to air chambers 36 and 38 as well as the central air chamber 40 which is equivalent to that at 26. Although FIG. 7 shows three air chambers of course it is possible to have only two, or four or more, depending upon the speed of action and size of the toy designed.

In FIG. 8 there are shown two air chambers 42 and 44 each with its own supply line 46 and 48. Each supply line can be operated separately for a variety of effects.

Claims

I claim:

1. A bladderless aquatic diving toy comprising a relatively elongated housing including a top and longitudinal sides, an inlet in the housing for the reception of a gas, a source of gas under pressure, means to direct the gas to the inlet, an opening adjacent the top of the housing for the exit of gas, and a gas chamber located in the housing between the gas exit and the gas inlet, said chamber comprising a pair of spaced generally transverse wall members in the housing, one of the walls being longer than the other in a direction transverse to the elongated axis of the device, the gas inlet being positioned to direct the gas to the gas chamber.

2. The diving toy of claim 1 wherein said longer wall extends from top to bottom of said housing and the shorter wall extends only part way thereof, the gas collecting in the area between the walls and depending upon the inclination of the housing, releasing more or less gas past the shorter wall to the exit.

3. The diving toy of claim 1 including a plurality of gas chambers and means leading gas to each of said gas chambers.

4. The diving toy of claim 3 including a single source of gas for both chambers.

5. The diving toy of claim 3 including an individual source of gas for each chamber.

6. The diving toy of claim 1 including a float adjacent one end of said housing.

7. The diving toy of claim 1 including a weight adjacent one end of the housing.

8. The diving toy of claim 1 including a float adjacent each end of the housing.