Abstract:
A coaxial light emitter a fibre optic lighted artificial tree of the present invention serves as a trunk for the tree and includes two spaced apart light sources that individually provide light to fibre optic bundles for a portion of the tree so that the tree can be separated into parts for the purposes of packaging or storage.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates in general to lighted artificial trees and more specifically to artificial trees that are lighted by a fibre optic light source. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Lighted artificial trees such as Christmas trees have been known in the art for many years. With the advent of fibre optic bundles, artificial trees have been lighted in the past by use of a single bundle of optic fibres illuminated by a single lamp. Color provided to the optical fibres was changed by rotating a transparent color disk between the end of the optical fibre bundles and the lamp. 
     Due to the limited illuminating range of the single lamp the number of optical fibre bundles incorporated in such structure was restricted, thus limiting the size of the Christmas tree employing such construction. Additionally, there has been no satisfactory method of efficiently lighting all of the fibres of trees that can be divided in parts in order to reduce their package sizes. This is because light is inevitably lost at the junctions of each divided section and, therefore, cannot propagate efficiently from a light source at the bottom of the tree all the way to the treetop. Thus, overall brightness of the optical fibres was reduced significantly on the upper portions of the trees. 
     The present invention is designed to provide a fibre optic lighted artificial tree that can be divided into lower and upper sections and yet still have the ability of having all of the optical fibres of the tree fully illuminated when assembled. The improved lighting provided by the present invention is accomplished by the use of a separate light source for each portion of the tree, with each source employing only one lamp. Consequently, the present invention facilitates the manufacture of taller and fuller optical fibre lighted artificial Christmas trees, but does so in a manner so that the trees can be readily manufactured with a minimum of expense and the trees can be packaged in relatively small containers. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a coaxial light emitter that serves as the trunk for a fibre optic lighted artificial tree that is formed in two separable sections, each individually lighted by separate light sources to permit the tree to essentially be separated into two portions to reduce the size of the packaging in which they can be sold or stored. The light emitter serves as the main trunk portion for the tree and incorporates two separate fibre optic light sources so that the tree can easily and readily be divided into two portions to present a reduced size for packaging. 
     In a preferred embodiment the coaxial light emitter has a lower portion comprised of a tree stand with a fibre optic light source, a first tree stabilizing member and a first trunk section that is supported by the stabilizing member and acts to provide a support for tree branches and optical fibres that form the lower portion of the tree. The light emitter further includes an upper portion that is comprised of an individual light source that is separate and distinct from the light source of the stand, a second tree stabilizer member that is mounted on the top portion of the second light source for supporting a second trunk section that extends upwardly therefrom and serves as a support for securing branches and fibre optic strands to the upper portion of the tree and also serves as a support for the top of the tree. 
     Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide illumination of an artificial tree by fibre optic strands in such fashion that the tree is not significantly limited in size or fullness due to the limitation of the light provided to the fibre optic strands throughout the tree. Still further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having reference to the following specification and the drawings which are described below. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a reduced diagrammatic view of a decorative artificial tree incorporating a preferred embodiment of a coaxial light emitter of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a reduced perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the coaxial light emitter of the present invention shown in FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the preferred embodiment of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective of a stabilizing member that forms part of the embodiment of FIG. 1 shown together with part of a trunk section and three fibre optic bundles; 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective of an internal sleeve of the stabilizing member of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 6 is a perspective of the internal sleeve of FIG. 5 but with a cutaway portion to show inner surfaces; 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective of the body section of the stabilizing member of FIG. 4; and 
     FIG.  8 . is a top view of the stabilizing member of FIG. 4 with the internal sleeve of FIG. 5 inserted therein. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Turning now to the drawings and with reference first to FIG. 1, a preferred embodiment of a coaxial light emitter  10  of the present invention is shown in association with an artificial Christmas type tree  12 . The tree  12  is designed to provide an attractive alternative to the use of a natural Christmas tree as it can be assembled and lighted in simply a matter of minutes. 
     Referring now to both FIGS. 1 and 2, the principal components of the light emitter  10  include a stand assembly  14 , a first tree stabilizer member  16 , a first trunk section  18 , an intermediate light source assembly  20 , a second trunk stabilizing member  22 , a second trunk section  24  and a sleeve member  26  that is disposed on the upper end of the trunk section  24 . 
     The construction of the stand assembly  14  is old in the art of fibre optic Christmas trees and may be of a variety of structures so long as it is able to supply light to the ends of fibre optic bundles extending through the stabilizing member  16  preferably by means of a lamp and a rotating transparent colored disk disposed in-between the lamp and the fibre optic bundles. As indicated by FIG. 3, the stand assembly  14  includes a top central opening  32  for removably receiving a bottom end  34  of the first stabilizing member  16 . 
     As best shown by the perspective of FIG. 4, the first stabilizing member  16  has a main body portion  35  with an upper end  36  that is larger in diameter than that of the bottom end  34 . The body portion upper end  36  is sized to accept a removable internal sleeve  38  that functions as a means to receive the first trunk section  18 . The sleeve  38  preferably comprises bottom and top ends  40  and  42  respectively (see FIG.  5 ), a cylindrically shaped hub  44  with an inner surface  46 , an outer surface  48 . A plurality of wings  50  are circumferentially spaced apart along the outer surface  48  and run longitudinally thereof between said bottom and top ends  40 ,  42 . 
     As shown in FIG. 6, a lip  52  runs around the bottom end of the inner surface  46  to serve as a stop abutment for the bottom end of the trunk section  18 . In the preferred embodiment, the inner surface  46  of the sleeve  38  is provided with numerous spaced apart longitudinally aligned friction strips  54 . Each of the strips  54  are tapered in size from bottom to top to protrude outwardly more at the bottom than the top to increase the amount of friction they present to the trunk section  18  as it is inserted into the sleeve  38  to create a tight fit therebetween. 
     Referring now to FIG. 7, the upper end  36  of the main body portion  35  has an inner surface  56  with means  58  to receive each of the wings  50  for securing the internal sleeve  38  in position within the member  16 . When the sleeve  38  is assembled within the body portion upper end  36 , clearances  60  (as shown in FIGS. 4 and 8) are defined between the outer surface  48  of the hub  44  and the inner surface  56  of the body portion  35 . The internal sleeve  38  is stabilized by the association of the wings  50  and the means  58  located on the inner surface  56  of the body portion upper end  36 . 
     Referring to FIG. 7, preferably the means  58  to receive the wings  50  comprise channels  64  formed by closely spaced apart elongated ribs  66  into which the wings  50  slide. Each of the channels  64  is equipped with stop tab  68  at the lower edge of the channels  64  to prevent the sleeve  38  from falling out of the channels  64 . 
     In the preferred embodiment as best indicated in FIG. 4, the stabilizing member  16  provides stability for the trunk section  18  of the lower portion of the tree  12  which is illuminated by optical fibres  70 . First, the sleeve  38  is inserted into the body portion upper end  36  by sliding the wings  50  into the channels  64  until they reach the stop tabs  68 . The sleeve  38  is formed such that the inside lip  52  is near the stop tabs  68  at the lower end of the channels  64 . It is against this lip  52  that the bottom end of trunk section  18  will rest. 
     The optic fibres  70  each comprise distal ends  72  and proximal ends  74  (not shown) that extend downwardly to the bottom end of the member  16 . All proximal ends  74  of the fibres  70  are located in bundles near the light source in the stand assembly  14 . Each bundle of fibres  70  is then threaded through one of the clearances  60  created between the body portion inner surface  56  and the sleeve outer surface  48 . The stabilizing member  16  is then secured to the stand assembly  14  such that said optic fibre proximal ends  74  are near the lamp of the stand assembly  14 . 
     Next, the first trunk section  18  is inserted into the sleeve  38  where is it gripped tightly by the friction strips  54  until it reaches the inside lip  52  which functions as a stop abutment. Finally, above the sleeve  38 , the optical fibres  70  are associated with the trunk section  18  and are directed to the branches of the lower part of the tree  12 . 
     Preferably, the length of the trunk section  18  is sized so that it represents approximately half of the tree  12  and the optical fibres  70  associated with the trunk section  18  provide light for the lower branches of the tree  12 . The upper portion of the tree  12  is lighted by means of the intermediate light source  20 . 
     Referring again to FIGS. 2 and 3, the light source  20  has a rectangularly shaped housing  80  with a bottom mounting post  82  and an upper receptor port  84 . An adaptor  86  is located in the upper end of the trunk section  18  and is sized to snuggly receive the mounting post  82  of the light source  20  to removably secure the source  20  in position. The receptor port  84  is sized to receive the lower end of the second stabilizing member  22  that is similar in construction to the member  16 , but is slightly smaller in size than that of the member  16 . 
     The light source  20  includes a lamp assembly formed of a base  88  and a lamp  90  that are located in the housing  80  during operation of the source  20  to lie beneath a transparent color wheel  92 . The color wheel is mounted on an axle  94  that is driven by a motor  96  to vary the color of the light provided by the source  20 . The lamp  90  and the color wheel  92  are located beneath the receptor port  84  so that light from the lamp  90  is directed outward through the port  84 . The housing  80  includes a pivoting door assembly  98  on which the base  88  and the lamp  90  are mounted so that simply by opening the door assembly  98  the lamp  90  can be changed. 
     The stabilizing member  22  has a main body portion  110  and an internal sleeve  112  and clearances  114  for permitting optical fibres  116  (not shown) to extend between the sleeve  112  and the main body  110  just as provided by the first stabilizing member  16 . 
     The lower end of the trunk section  24  fits into the sleeve  112  and is secured in place in a removable fashion comparable to that of the trunk section  18 . An adapter  118  fits into the upper end of the trunk section  24  and is utilized for receiving the intermediated sleeve member  26  that forms the upper end of the light emitter  10 . The intermediated sleeve member  26  is designed to receive and hold the top of the tree  12 . 
     Through the use of the light source  20 , light is provided to the optical fibres  116  for lighting the top and upper half of the tree  12 . Thus, the tree  12  can be disassembled into separate portions in a relatively simple and efficient manner and yet the light provided to the upper and lower portions of the tree is provided directly from a light source adjacent to the optical fibres lighting each section. 
     Thus, the present invention has been described in an illustrative manner. It is to be understood that the terminology that has been used is intended to be in the nature of words of description rather than of limitation. Many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. Therefore, within the scope of the appended claims, the present invention may be practiced otherwise and as specifically described.