Abstract:
An amusement dispenser has a transparent storage housing, a transparent dispensing housing and a transparent discharge housing. A chamber in a reciprocated plunger receives articles from the storage housing, measures the number of articles to be dispensed and transports them from an inlet opening to an outlet opening where they fall into the discharge housing. The dispensing housing contains a return spring around a twist rod, used to reciprocate and rotate an inanimate object, and two opaque sleeves telescope to obscure the spring and twist rod from view. The articles free-fall through the discharge housing where they strike deflectors to cause random motions and make various noises.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    An amusement dispenser visually dispenses confections in a fi-ee-fall random manner as they collide or are interrupted by deflectors as a character translates and rotates.  
           [0003]    2. Description of Related Art  
           [0004]    The dispensing of confections by having the confections travel behind a transparent outer housing both upward, U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,086, issued 24 Dec. 1985 to I. Stol, and downward by gravity, U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,822 issued, 26 Sep. 1995 to D. Haymond and U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,344 issued, 22 May 2001 to T. Coleman et al, is old. R. Mann, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,022, issued 27 Apr. 1999, teaches a transparent hopper with confections dispensed down a track or a pendular staircase or a bucket dump or parallel rods for different kinetic displays seen through a transparent panel during dispensing. D. Hart et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,378, issued 21 Jul. 1998, teach an article dispenser having a transparent article storage area, a release mechanism and a transparent discharge housing wherein the articles fall by gravity and alternately contact and travel over angled plates having lower openings for the articles to pass through to a dispensing aperture.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    An amusement dispenser discharges articles such as confections from a transparent storage housing to a transparent discharge housing where the confections take a visible erratic free-fall path before exiting. An intermediate transparent dispensing housing contains an opaque measuring and dispensing mechanism that is manually controlled. A plunger is reciprocated between an inlet opening from the storage housing and an outlet opening to the discharge housing to dispense a measured amount of confection. A twist rod attached to the plunger translates and rotates a character as the confections are discharged. An opaque plunger sleeve is attached to or integral with the plunger and telescopes over a return spring, the twist rod and a stationary retainer sleeve that conceals the workings within the intermediate transparent dispenser housing. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]    [0006]FIG. 1 is a side view of the dispenser in its at rest position.  
         [0007]    [0007]FIG. 2 is a side view of the dispenser in its dispensing position.  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 3 is a partial side view of a modification of the dispenser shown in FIG. 2.  
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0009]    An amusement dispenser  1  displays and dispenses articles, such as candy or gum  12 . The dispensing is preferably of more than one article that take an irregular free-fall drop path  31  due to deflectors  33  within a transparent vertical discharge housing  30 . During article dispensing an inanimate object, such as a real or imaginary character  28 , translates  16  and rotates  46  as the articles are dispensed. The dispenser  1  consists of a transparent housing in three unitary or united sections, a storage housing  10 , a dispensing housing  20 , and a discharge housing  30 .  
         [0010]    The storage housing is provided with an upper inlet opening having a lid  11  and a lower discharge opening  49 . The articles  12  to be dispensed are placed within the transparent article storage housing  10  upper end by removing the input lid  11 . A blocking guide  13  is provided at the base or lower end of the storage housing to guide the articles toward the discharge opening  49 , that also serves as the dispensing chamber inlet.  
         [0011]    Beneath the storage housing  10 , the transparent dispensing housing  20  is placed to receive articles from the storage housing  10 . A plunger  22  in the dispenser housing is used to measure and transfer the articles to the discharge housing  30 . The dispensing housing  20  has an elongated hollow interior with a primary end cap  24  on a first end and a secondary end cap  29  on a second end. The opaque dispensing plunger  22  is reciprocal within the dispensing housing. The dispensing plunger can take any convenient shape with a cylindrical shape used for FIG. 1. The dispensing plunger is provided with a vertical chamber  23 . The size and shape of the vertical chamber determine the number of given size articles that can be placed within the chamber. The plunger is reciprocated to and fro from an inlet opening  49  to a discharge opening  32  by pressing inwardly on a plunger handle  21 , attached to a first end of the plunger, against spring  41  pressure applied to a second end of the plunger. The primary end cap is provided with a slot  48  through which a plunger rod  44  and plunger guide  45  pass. The rod has an irregular shape or the guide  45  thereon to prevent rotation of the rod and plunger and to maintain alinement of the vertical chamber  23  with the chamber inlet  49  and chamber outlet  32 . With the spring pressing the plunger to the right, as seen in FIG. 1, toward the primary end cap  24 , the vertical chamber is alined with the storage discharge opening and the dispensing chamber inlet  49 . The lower right dispenser housing blocks the lower end of the vertical chamber so that the vertical chamber alone is filled with articles while at its right end extreme. When the plunger, and its vertical chamber, is pressed to the left end extreme against spring pressure, the vertical chamber becomes alined with the dispensing chamber outlet and upper discharge housing inlet  32 . This alinement results in the articles being passed by gravity into the discharge housing  30 . The left second end of the plunger  22 , facing the secondary end cap  29 , is integral with or attached to an opaque, hollow cylinder plunger sleeve  43  and is also attached to a traverse rod  27  first end that extends through the secondary end cap  29 . The traverse rod is secured to the plunger by a pin holder  25 . A rotary pin  26 , secured to the pin holder, permits the traverse rod, in the shape of a twist rod, to rotate  46  as the twist rod is reciprocated  16  by the reciprocal movement of the plunger. The irregular shape of the twist rod, preferably a rectangular cross-section, allows it to pass through a like shape twist rod slot  47  in the secondary end cap. Due to the twist of the twist rod, reciprocal movement of the twist rod rotates the rod and an inanimate object on the twist rod second end, such as a character  28 , to reciprocate and rotate it as the pin  26  rotates within the pin holder  25 . The spring  41  is secured within the dispense housing  20  between the secondary end cap inner surface  42  and the pin holder  25 . An opaque hollow cylindrical retainer sleeve  54  is integral with or attached to the inside surface  42  of the secondary end cap  29  and extends inwardly over the spring and twist rod to retain the position of the spring and to conceal the rod and spring from view within the transparent dispenser housing  20 . The opaque plunger sleeve  43  is concentric with and preferably larger than the retainer sleeve  54  so that the plunger sleeve telescopes over the stationary retainer sleeve as the plunger  22  is reciprocated. The plunger sleeve and retainer sleeve combine to conceal the internal components within the left side of the dispensing housing from view throughout the dispensing process.  
         [0012]    The articles  12  fall through the dispensing chamber outlet and discharge housing inlet  32  into the transparent discharge housing  30 . In the discharge housing the articles  12  free fall through a vertical drop path  31  in full view of an observer. During the free fall, the articles collide with deflectors  33  that protrude into the discharge housing interior. The deflectors interrupt the downward movement of the articles and give the articles a random irregular movement as they fall through the discharge housing. The deflectors can have different lengths  58  and angles  57  to vary the downward path of each article and give different articles different deflections or drop paths. The materials and thicknesses the deflectors are made of can be varied to yield different sounds using materials such as those found in music boxes and chimes. The deflectors can be transparent or less visible due to the relative light and/or color difference with the transparency of the discharge housing so that the observer cannot see why there is a direction change of the article. At the lower end or bottom of the discharge housing a discharge guide  35  directs the article to a discharge opening  36 .  
         [0013]    A second embodiment is shown in FIG. 3. This embodiment modifies the first embodiment by replacing the plunger handle  21  with a discharge trigger  51 . The parts are all the same except for the plunger operating mechanism. This embodiment allows the Amusement Dispenser to be operated with the discharge housing  30  used like a pistol grip for pulling on the trigger  51 . The trigger is secured to the discharge housing by a trigger pivot  52 . The upper end of the trigger is secured to the left end, secondary end cap  29  end, of a connecting rod  56  by a rod pivot  53 . The right end, primary end cap  24  end, of the connecting rod is secured to the dispensing plunger  22  by a dispensing plunger pivot  55 . Pulling the lower end of the trigger toward the discharge housing pivots the upper end of the trigger away from the discharge housing about the trigger pivot  52  and the discharge plunger  22  to the left toward the secondary end cap  29 . This movement shifts the vertical chamber  23  over from being under the inlet opening  49  to being over the outlet opening  32  and at the same time rotates  46  the inanimate object  28  and reciprocates  16  it. On release of the trigger, the spring  41  returns the plunger to the right primary end cap end  24  of the dispenser housing with the plunger pivot  55  and connecting rod  56  and trigger  51  keeping the vertical chamber in alinement with the dispensing chamber inlet  49  for again filling the vertical-chamber with articles.  
         [0014]    It is believed that the construction, operation and advantages of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is illustrative only and that changes, variations, substitutions, modifications and equivalents will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art and that such may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.