Abstract:
A children&#39;s play ride includes an elongated rigid vertical pole having an exterior surface and an elongated tubular housing with an inner surface snugly encircling the pole, the housing being moveable along the pole between an upper position and a lower position. The housing includes a support for a child and co-acting parts on the pole and the housing cause the housing to rotate about the pole only when the housing is moved from the upper position toward the lower position.

Description:
This invention relates to a children&#39;s play ride. It relates especially to a ride which is adapted to be associated with a children&#39;s swing set, play gym or the like. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A typical children&#39;s swing set or gym set usually includes a variety of different play rides such as swings, slides, rings, glide-rides, see-saws and the like which involve up and down and back and forth movements of the children using the various rides. To our knowledge, the swing and gym sets on the market today do not include any rides which produce a helical spinning motion. It would be desirable, therefore, to be able to offer a swing set with a ride which will accommodate at least one child standing up and automatically helically spin that child about a vertical axis. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly it is in object to the present invention to provide a children&#39;s play ride which can automatically rotate at least one child about a substantially vertical spin axis. 
     Another object of the invention is to provide a spinner ride of this type which is gravity operated. 
     Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a spinner ride which is especially adapted to be connected to a more or less conventional children&#39;s swing or gym set. 
     Another object of the invention is to provide a children&#39;s spinner ride which is relatively easy to manufacture and to assemble. 
     Other objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter. 
     The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which will. be exemplified in the following detailed description, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims. 
     Briefly, our spinner ride comprises a rigid elongated pole whose upper end is adapted to be connected to the cross bar of a children&#39;s gym set and whose lower end is arranged to contact the ground so that the pole stands erect. The pole is formed with at least one, and preferably a plurality, of depressions or pockets at an elevated location on the pole, the plurality of depressions being distributed around the pole and being offset along the pole. Slideably engaged on the pole is a spinner comprising an elongated tubular housing having handles at the upper end of the housing and a footrest at the lower end thereof. A lengthwise segment of the housing is formed with an internal spiral groove and a relatively large ball bearing is positioned in each pocket of the pole. The bearings, pockets and grooves are specially dimensioned and shaped so that when the housing is lifted up on the pole, the ball bearings are situated entirely within their pockets so that there is clearance between the ball bearings and the inner wall of the housing allowing the housing to be raised up on the pole until the lower end of the grooved segment of the housing is opposite the ball bearings. 
     On the other hand, when there is no upward force exerted on the housing, the ball bearings under gravity tend to repose at the bottoms of their pockets so that when a downward force is applied to the housing, portions of the ball bearings project into the housing groove whereby the housing is caused to rotate about the pole as the housing moves downward on the pole. 
     Thus, after a child lifts the spinner on the pole as described above, he/she may step on the footrest while holding onto the handles. The weight of the child combined with the engagement of the ball bearings in the housing groove will cause the spinner and the child to rotate about the pole until spinner reaches the bottom of its downward excursion on the pole. 
     Our spinner ride is capable of accommodating one or two children. While it is described herein as being associated with a children&#39;s swing set, it could just as well be supported vertically by another type of support structure. 
     Also as will become apparent hereinafter, the spinner ride is a relatively simple structure which can be made and assembled quite easily. Therefore, it should prove to be a very marketable item of play equipment. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a isometric view of a children&#39;s swing set including a children&#39;s stand up spinner ride incorporating this invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view on a much larger scale showing the spinner ride in greater detail; 
     FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view on a still larger scale illustrating a portion of the spinner ride during its spinning movement; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the spinner ride in its raised reset condition; 
     FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing the components of the spinner ride in the FIG. 4 reset condition, and 
     FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view further illustrating the operation of the spinner ride. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Refer now to FIG. 1 of the drawings which shows a conventional children&#39;s swing set S having a crossbar C. Extending from the right-hand end of swing set S is a children&#39;s stand up spinner ride shown generally at  10 . 
     The spinner ride  10  includes a vertical, rigid, elongated pole  12  whose upper end is connected by an elbow  13  to an end of crossbar C so that pole  12  is oriented vertically. 
     Slideably and rotatably engaged on pole  12  is an elongated spinner shown generally at  14 . The spinner is formed with a pair of handles or grips  16  at its upper end and a discoid footrest  18  at its lower end. When the spinner is raised up on pole  12  and subjected to a downward force, e.g. gravity, the spinner will rotate as it moves downward relative to the pole. Thus, when the spinner  14  is in its raised position and a child stands on footrest  18  while holding handles  16 , the weight of the child will cause spinner  14  to rotate about the pole as the spinner moves downward on the pole. Resultantly, the rider is spun around the pole as long as the downward motion of the spinner persists. 
     Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 4, the elbow  13  has a lower end  13   a  which is plugged into the upper end of pole  12  and retained there by a fastener  17 . In like manner, the lower end of pole  12  is plugged into the upper end of a tubular extension  20  and retained there by fasteners  22 . Extension  20  is adapted to be inserted into the ground G as shown in FIG. 2, the insertion limit being determined by a plate  24  secured to extension  20 . For reasons that will become apparent, pole  12  is formed with a pair of specially shaped pockets or depressions  26   a  and  26   b  adjacent to the upper end of the pole. These pockets are disposed on opposite sides of pole  12  and are offset axially along the pole as shown in FIG. 2 so that an imaginary line between them defines an angle of about 45° relative to the horizontal. Also, for reasons that will become apparent, a large washer  28  is secured to pole  12  adjacent to the lower end thereof. 
     Still referring to FIGS. 2 and 4, spinner  14  comprises an elongated tubular housing  32  which encircles pole  12 . The opposite ends of handles  16  are secured to housing  12  and a relatively long segment  32   a  of housing  12  that extends between the upper and lower ends of handles  16  is formed so as to define an internal spiral groove or race  34 . As best seen in FIG. 2, the upper end of housing  32  is crimped around a sleeve  36  which is slideably engaged on pole  12 . On the other hand, the lower end of the housing is formed around a bushing  38  to which the footrest  18  is attached. The sleeve  36  and bushing  38  allow smooth rotary and vertical motion of spinner  14  relative to pole  12 . 
     Spinner  14  is moveable up and down on pole  12  between an elevated position shown in FIG. 4 wherein the lower end of housing segment  32   a  is located opposite pockets  26   a ,  26   b  in pole  12  and a lower position illustrated in FIG. 2 wherein the upper end of segment  32   a  is positioned opposite those pockets. The engagement of bushing  38  against the washer  28  positively establishes that lower position. 
     In accordance with the invention, the pockets  26   a ,  26   b  contain a pair of loose ball bearings  40   a  and  40   b . The pockets, bearings and housing groove  34  are dimensioned and shaped to disengage the ball bearings  40   a ,  40   b  from groove  34  when housing  32  is moved upward on pole  12  and to engage those bearings in groove  34  when the housing is moved downward relative to pole  12 . 
     More particularly and referring especially to FIG. 6, each pocket  26   a ,  26   b  has an upper portion  42   a  which is relatively deep, with the depth being comparable to the diameter of the ball bearings  40   a ,  40   b . Each pocket also has a lower inclined portion  42   b  which extends from portion  42   a  downward on pole  12  to the outer surface of the pole. 
     While the spiral groove  34  in the housing segment  32   a  may have a semispherical cross-section, the illustrated groove has a generally trapezoidal cross-section. In other words, groove  34  has a side wall  34   a  which extends generally parallel to pole  12  and indined upper and lower walls  34   b  and  34   c , respectively, which extend away from one another making angle of about 45° relative to wall  34   a . The pockets  26   a ,  26   b  are offset axially on pole  12  by substantially the same amount as the convolutions of groove  34 , i.e. the offset substantially equals the groove pitch. Resultantly, when housing  32  is urged downward relative to pole  12  in a direction shown by the arrow D in FIG. 3, the ball bearings  36   a ,  36   b  fall under gravity to the lower or shallow portion  42   b  of their respective pockets  26   a ,  26   b  with the result that the ball bearings project out from pole  12  into groove  34  and are in position to be engaged by the upper wall  34   b  of groove  34 . With the bearings so positioned, when spinner  14  is urged downward on pole  12 , the groove wall  34   b  will rotate past the stationary ball bearings causing a rotation of the housing  32  relative to the pole  12 . It should be understood that the bearings  40   a ,  40   b  are quite large, e.g. at least 0.75 inch in diameter so as to distribute forces over relatively large areas thereby enabling the housing to spin readily about pole  12  even if a relatively heavy child is standing on footrest  18 . 
     On the other hand, when the housing  32  is moved upward relative to pole  12  as indicated by the arrow U in FIG. 5, the ball bearings  40   a ,  40   b  are engaged by the lower wall  34   c  of groove  34  which lifts them up to the deep portion  42   a  of pockets  26   a ,  26   b  thereby allowing the housing segment  32   a  to slide past the ball bearings without any rotation of the housing. Thus, the spinner  14  can be raised from its lower position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 to its elevated position illustrated in FIG. 4 without causing any rotation of the spinner about pole  12 . On the other hand when spinner  14  is moved downward on pole  12 , the engagement of the ball bearings  26   a ,  26   b  in groove  24  constrains the spinner  14  and its rider to rotate about pole  12 . 
     In order to use ride  10 , a child should raise spinner  14  to its upper position shown FIG.  4  and then step on the footrest  18  while holding onto a handle  16 . The upper position of the spinner may be limited by a stop screw (not shown) threaded into pole  12 . The weight of the child will automatically engage the ball bearings  40 ,  40   b  in the housing groove  24  so that the downward force on spinner  14  will cause the spinner and its occupant to rotate about pole  12  as the spinner moves toward the lower end of pole  12 . When the spinner bottoms against washer  28 , it may continue to rotate a few turns due to inertia At that point, the child will have to step off footrest  18  and reset the spinner to its upper position in order to initiate another spin ride. 
     As seen from the foregoing, the major components of the ride  10  are relatively simple parts which may be stamped metal parts or molded plastic parts that are inexpensive to make in quantity and are easy to assemble. Therefore, including the ride  10  with a standard children&#39;s swing set does not add appreciably to the overall cost of that set. 
     It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above among those made apparent from the preceding description are efficiently attained. Also, certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the number and size of the pole and race-engaging ball bearings may vary depending upon the weight of the riders. Therefore, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.