GB2162077A - Bubble-blowing toy - Google Patents

Abstract

In a bubble blowing toy, air from pipe 2 entering chamber 8 rotates blade wheel 3 which in turn rotates a wheel assembly 13, 14, 15. The air flows out of chamber 8 via pipe 6. Wheel assembly 13, 14, 15 forms a film of liquid which is carried over the end of pipe 6, the air from pipe 6 blowing on the skin to form bubbles. An air vent 11 may be provided to prevent pressure build up in chamber 8. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Bubble-blowing toy The invention relates to a bubble-blowing toy, particularly one from which a series of small air bubbles can be blown with a slight blowing pressure and having a simple structure. The invention aims to provide a device with which a large quantity of bubbles can be produced for a small volume of blown air, without any worry about the possibility of sucking the bubble forming liquid into the user's mouth.

Since soap or air bubbles have a very beautiful sparkling, crystal and clear appearance together with a light quality and good buoyancy, being especially colourful when floating freely in the wind and underthe sun, they are considered to be children's most favourite toy: the air bubbleblowing gamecis widely welcomed by children as a whole. However, conventional bubble-blowing toys, often comprise a metal wire ring connected to the front of blow pipe and supporting bubble forming liquid. Since the blow pipe can easily absorb the bubble forming liquid, the sticky liquid may easily leak and drop to the ground or even stick to the user's hands, not only wasting the bubble forming liquid but also becoming harmful to a child's or user's health.In another kind of conventional bubble-blowing toy, a sticky liquid ring is connected to the cover of a bubble forming liquid container; during use, the user blows air through the centre of this ring to produce bubbles, but it is very inconvenient, because the user has to refill the air bubble forming liquid each time he has blown air and may absorb the bubble forming liquid into his mouth. Other defects are just the same as for the above-said first kind of toy.

The earl zest form of toy for continually blowing out air bubbles, the air being blown by the user, air is blown into bubble forming liquid container and thus forces the liquid into another passage to be blown into air bubbles. To achieve this, a rather strong air pressure should be used so it is very inconvenient for children with a small lung capacity and it has not been developed and produced for marketing. An air pressure type bubble gun in the hand grip of which an air bag is installed is also known.The required hand grip is rather big and cannot be easily grasped and held by infants with small hands; an extra pressure must be applied to overcome a compression spring in the air bag in order to force the air out to blow air bubbles; if the air bag is small enough to be easily grasped and held by an infants hand only one or two bubbles can be blown out with each compression, thus greatly reducing the infant's interest in playing with this toy; and it is quite troublesome that some adjustments to the inlet and outlet of the bubble forming liquid are required to allow a proper continuous supply.A recent bubble toy gun uses a rubber ball as its air bag which is installed in the hand grip of a toy gun, thus the air in the rubber ball is compressed by the user when pulling the trigger, the air is expelled into the muzzle of the gun via a pipeline; the air then blows the bubble forming liquid which drops down freely from a container on the upper end of the muzzle of the gun to form bubbles which float and fly out of the muzzle of the gun. This toy has similar defects to the air pressure type gun. In other words, if the hand grip is larger (due to the accommodation of the rubber ball), it cannot be grasped and held by infants with small hands, an infant cannot easily pull the trigger with its forefinger.In addition to the compression rubber ball in the rear end of the trigger, the front end of the trigger needs driving gears to drive a fly wheel, thus making the strike rod produce a noise (sound), but this also takes a much stronger force and an infant's forefinger cannot drive it. The air bubble forming liquid container is installed on the upper edge of the gun barrel, the bubble forming liquid freely flowing into the gun barrel via small holes without any switch or valve being provided; it is questionable whether the viscosity of the liquid allows it to flow down freely, even if the fluid can flow freely it will pollute the whole gun barrel when the toy is not being used.

The main aim of the present invention is to solve the defects found on the conventional bubble blowing toys to provide a bubble blowing toy in which the air blown into an air blow pipe can be repeatedly used firstly coming to a closed chamber to drive a blade of a rotary wheel which, in turn, rotates a stickly liquid wheel in a bubble forming liquid chamber, and then enters an air bubble forming pipe to blow out a series of air bubbles from the sticky liquid wheel.

Another aim of the invention is to adopt an indirect design for the air blow pipe to separate the air blow pipe and the air bubble forming pipe by a closed chamber, thus avoiding any absorption of the air bubble forming liquid by the user.

Another aim of invention to provide a toy whereby a small volume of air will produce many bubbles so that infants can use it and easily blow out bubbles.

Another aim of the invention is to provide a transparent device, so that during use, the user can completely and clearly see the condition of its inner parts and thus understand the principles of its actions; this could serve as a useful educational instrument for children.

The present invention provides a bubble blowing device comprising an air chamber and a bubble forming liquid containing chamber, air feed means for use in blowing air into said air chamber, drive means mounted in said air chamber and driven by air blown into the chamber, liquid film forming means mounted in the liquid containing chamber and driven by said drive means to form liquid films, conduit means for feeding air from said air chamber to blow a bubble from a said liquid film.

The invention will be further described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the embodiment of Fig. 1 partially cut away; and Fig. 3 is a longitudinal cross-section of the embodiment of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, a bubble blowing toy according to the invention is composed of shell body 1, an air blow pipe 2, a blade wheel 3, a sticky liquid wheel 4, a pivot axis 5, and a bubble forming pipe 6. The shell body 1 is cylindrical but may be any other shape and is preferably integrally formed plastics moulding. A separator 7 divides the body 6 into a closed chamber 8 and an air bubble forming liquid chamber 9, the closed chamber 8 has a cover plate 10 which may be glued in position. An air blow pipe 2 is provided on the bottom plate connecting to the chamber 8, and an air vent adjustment 11 is provided to adjust the air pressure in the closed chamber 8.The air blow pipe 2 is made of a bent hard plastic pipe, its forward end extends into the closed chamber 8 to a position close to the blade wheel 3 and is glued on the separator 7 and the bottom plate; its rear end is slightly bent to allow an easy approach at the user's mouth for blowing bubbles. The blade wheel 3 is round and installed in the closed chamber 8, a round hole 12 is provided between the arc-shaped blades to allow air into the air bubble forming pipe 6, an axle hole is provided in the center of the blade wheel to firmly accommodate the pivot axis 5 which is glued thereto. The air blown in via the air blow pipe 2 will rotate the sticky liquid wheel 4 which has the same axle 5 as the blade wheel. The sticky liquid wheel 4 is composed of sheet wheel or disc 13, a ring wheel 14 and sticky liquid rod or rods 15.The sheet wheel 13 is a round sheet having a central hole joined to the pivot axis 5 and the sticky liquid rod 15 are connected along the periphery of the sheet wheel.

The sticky liquid rod 15 is a short rod, its other end being connected to the ring wheel 14to absorb the bubble forming liquid for the bubble forming pipe 6 to blow out air bubbles. The bubble forming pipe 6 is a short bent pipe with one end connected to the hole in the separator 7 and the other end bent upward with an upward opening to allow blowing out of air bubbles when the or a sticky liquid rod 15 passes over the opening.

To use the device, firstly an amount of the bubble forming liquid 16 is placed in the bubble forming chamber 9; then, the user may start to use the device. As shown in Fig. 3, air comes in along the direction indicated by the arrow A and is blown out of the end of the blow pipe 2, driving the blade wheel 3 into rotation in the direction of arrow C which, in turn, rotates the sticky liquid wheel 4 in the direction C; the sticky liquid rod 15 also rotates accordingly, thus the sticky liquid continuously flows past the opening of the bubble forming pipe 6; at the same time, after driving the blade wheel 3, the airflowsthrough the round hole 12 between the blades, into the bubble forming pipe 6 and then out in the direction D to make the bubble forming liquid that passes over the sticky liquid rod 15 produce air bubbles.When this sequence is continuously repeated, air bubbles are produced continuously. To avoid the air pressure in the closed chamber becoming excessively high, air may be bled out from the air vent adjustment 11 in the direction F.

In summary, the invention is simple in structure and easy for children to use, and it can produce more air bubbles with a smailer amount of air blown in, without wasting the bubble forming liquid by leakage or drops, and without worries about a possibleabsorbtion of liquid by the user. It has extremely high practicability and novelty. Various modifications may be made within the scope of the accompanying claims.

It will be appreciated that forms of drive train, other than axle 5, may be used to connect the blade 3 and film forming means 13,14,15. Blades 3 are mounted on a back plate. The back plate may be arranged with a plurality of holes 12 which come into register with the pipe 6 as the back plate is rotated, so that air is fed intermittently from chamber 8. The apparatus may, of course, be arranged so that air is fed substantially continuously into pipe 6.

Claims (16)

1. A bubble blowing device comprising an air chamber 8 and a bubble forming liquid containing chamber 9, air feed means 2 for use in blowing air into said air chamber, drive means 3,5 mounted in siad air chamber 8 and driven by air blown into the chamber 8, liquid film forming means 13,14,15 mounted in the liquid containing chamber 9 and driven by said drive means 3,5 to form liquid films, conduit means 6,12 for feeding air from said air chamber 8 to blow a bubble from a said liquid film.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said air feed means comprises a pipe.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the pipe is mounted on a bottom wall of the air chamber.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the drive means comprises a blade or blade rotatably mounted in said airchamberto be rotatably driven by air blown into the chamber.

5. A device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the blade or blades are mounted fast on an axle rotatably mounted in the air chamber.

6. A device as claimed in claim 5, wherein said axle extends into said liquid forming chamber to drive said film forming means.

7. A device as claimed in claim 6, wherein said chambers have a common wall and said axle is journalled therein.

8. A device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein said film forming means comprises a pair of members rotatably mounted in said liquid chamber and joined by a rod or rods, said members projecting through said liquid surface and rotating in a plane transverse to the liquid surface so that a said rod passes through said liquid surface, a film being formed between said rod and said members as the rod is lifted out of the liquid.

9. A device as claimed in claim 8, wherein one of said members is a ring.

10. A device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said conduit means projects through the centre of the ring.

11. A device as claimed in claim 9 or 10, wherein the other of said members is discoid and is mounted on an axle, said rod or rods supporting the ring.

12. A device as claimed in claim 9 or 10, when dependent upon claim 6, wherein the other of said members is mounted on the axle for rotation therewith.

13.A device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein said conduit means passes air intermittently into said liquid chamber.

14. A device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein a vent is provided in the air chamber.

15. A device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the wall or walls of said chambers are at least partially transparent.

16. A bubble blowing toy, substantially as hereinbefore described.