Abstract:
A merry-go-round having seats for both riders and children who want to propel the merry-go-round with a pair of crank mechanism that are offset to ensure that their is no &#34;dead spot&#34; to make start up of the merry-go-round difficult with the merry-go-round including a pair of pivoting handles for children to propel the merry-go-round with octagonal shaped circumferential seating and foot support areas to support the children&#39;s feet above the ground and a pair of safety hand rails for riding children to hold onto and to prevent the riding children from coming in contact with the pivoting handles.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates generally to merry-go-rounds and, more specifically to a merry-go-round propelled by the riders. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The concept of merry-go-rounds is old in the art and generally involves a pedestal base with a revolving seating area. The riders, who sit on the seating area, propel the merry-go-round by pumping back and forth on pedals or handles. The handles connect to a central post having a crank that permits the seating area to revolve around the central post. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     The 1933 Lahay U.S. Pat. No. 1,896,796 shows a merry-go-round where the riders operate levers that engage a cam to propel the merry-go-round. 
     The 1950 Great Britain patent No. 647,521 uses a ratchet and pawl mechanism to permit the riders to propel themselves. 
     The 1954 U.S. Pat. No. 2,689,125 uses a friction drive mechanism to permit the riders to propel themselves. 
     The 1956 Persons U.S. Pat. No. 2,739,811 shows a multiple person merry-go-round with a single crank connected to the center post to permit the riders to propel the merry-go-round. 
     The 1954 Taylor U.S. Pat. No. 2,680,616 shows a two person merry-go-round with pivoting handles connected to a single crank connected to the center post. 
     The 1958 Meyers U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,491 shows a two person merry-go-round with a single crank and a teeter totter action. 
     The 1965 Brookmane et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,210,075 shows a two person merry-go-round with a lever driven ratchet drive mechanism to propel the unit. 
     The 1967 Jones U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,919 shows a four seat merry-go-round with a single crank having a light fixture located on the crank. 
     The 1973 Tada U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,108, shows a two person rotating seesaw that the riders propel with a single crank. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of my merry-go-round; 
     FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of my merry-go-round taken along lines 2--2 of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of my double offset crank for propelling my merry-go-round; and 
     FIG. 4 shows a top view of double offset crank. 
    
    
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Briefly, the present invention comprises a multiple seat merry-go-round with safety hand rails for riders who do not propel the merry-go-round and pivoting drive handles each connected to a center post with an offset crank with the offset cranks angularly positioned at less than 180 degrees from each other to insure that there are no dead spots that would render the pivoting drive handles ineffective in starting rotation of the merry-go-round. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 reference numeral 10 identifies my merry-go-round comprising an octagon shaped circumferential seating area 11, an octagon shaped foot support 12 located inward of the seating area, a support base 13, a first semi-circular shaped safety hand rail 14, a second oppositely disposed semi-circular shaped safety hand rail 15, a first pivoting handle 16 and a second pivoting handle 17 that when pivoted back and forth permit the riders to propel themselves in a circular motion around base 13. 
     Circumferential seating area 11 comprises a first set of outside seat boards 30 and an inner set of seat boards 31 that are located in an octagonal shape to permit children to sit on any circumferntial position along the circumferntial seating area of my merry-go-round. An octagonal shaped frame 32 supports the children&#39;s circumferntial seating area 11 in a cantilevered relationship with radial spokes 33 extending inward to a housing 100 that freely rotates about a stationary center post 29 that is connected to cylindrical base 13. Cylindrical base 13 is located concentric with post 29 and spaced inward of the circumferential so that if a child should fall off the merry-go-round the child would fall on the ground and not on cylindrical base 13. 
     In order to prevent the feet of the children from getting caught on the ground as my merry-go-round spins I include a horizontal positioned octagon shaped foot support 12 that is spaced inward of octagon seating area 11. To prevent the children&#39;s feet from getting entangled with the stationary center post 29 I provide a coaxially located center foot support 21. Foot support 20 is held in a spaced position from seating area 11 through circumferential spaced vertical struts 22 that attach to spokes 33. Similarly the center foot support 21 connects directly to the radial spokes 33 to provide foot supports that are coaxial and integrally connected to the children&#39;s circumferential seating area 11. 
     As the children sit on circumferential seating area 11 the two children sitting radially outward of handle 16 and 17 can pump the handles 16 and 17 back and forth to propel the merry-go-round. The other children who are riding can grasp hand rail 14 or 15 to hold themselves on my merry-go-round. The use of hand rails permits riders who may not have sufficient strength to propel the merry-go-round to ride while other stronger children can pump the merry-go-round. 
     To illustrate the pumping action of the handles 16 and 17 the pivoting propelling handles 16 and 17 are shown in solid and phantom positions in FIG. 2. FIGS. 1 and 2 show pivoting handle 16 has a first laterally extending hand grip 41 and a second laterally extending handgrip 42 to permit a child to grasp and apply force to pivot handle 16 about a pivot point 28a formed by A shaped support 24 that extends upward from foot supports 20 and 21. A connecting rod 43 pivotally connects to handle 16 through a pivot pin 44 with the other end of connecting rod pivotally connected to a crank mechanism 70, which is located beneath cone shaped safety shroud 34, by a pivot pin 45. Similarly, pivoting handle 17 has a first laterally extending handgrip 51 and a second laterally extending handgrip 52 to permit a child to grasp and apply force to pivot handle 17 about a pivot point 60a formed by A shaped support 60 that extends upward from foot supports 20 and 21. A connecting rod 53 pivotally connects to handle 17 through a pivot pin 55 with the other end of connecting rod pivotally connected to crank mechanism 70, which is located beneath cone shaped safety shroud 34, by a pivot pin 54. 
     FIG. 2 illustrates how the handles 16 and 17 can be pivoted to rotationaly engage crank mechanism 70 that is connected to stationary center post 29. 
     FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show crank mechanism 70 in greater detail. Crank mechanism 70 comprises a pair of offset crank members that are attached to and spaced vertically above center post 29. Located on top of stationary center post 29 is a hub 72 that is connected to post 29 through a bolt 73. Coaxially attached to hub 73 is a first circular shaped plate 74 that has a single circumferential cylindrical spacing and connecting pin 91 welded to plate 74 and 78. Connecting pin 91 forms a crank pivot for connecting rod 53. Connecting pin 91 connects to and supports a second circular shaped plate 78 parallel to plate 74. Plate 78 is similarly located coaxially to center post 29. Center post 29, plate 74 and vertically extending pin 91 comprise the first crank that connects to pivot handle 17 through connecting link 53. Rotationally, connected to connecting pin 91 is a cylindrical housing 77 having a cylindrical wear bearing 76 located therein to form rotational engagement with connecting pin 91. A pair of parallel spaced members 82 and 83 connect to housing 77 to permit connecting rod 53 to pivot in a vertical plane about pivot pin 54 while housing 77 rotates about connecting pin 91 (FIG. 4). 
     Extending vertically upward from plate 78 is a similarly second circumferential located cylindrical pin 90 that is welded to plate 78. Pin 90 is located at the opposite side of center post 29 and parallel to pin 91. Pin 90 and plate 78 form a second crank that pivotally connects to connecting rod 43 of pivot handle 16 through a cylindrical housing 80. Cylindrical housing 80 forms rotational engagement with pin 90 through a cylindrical bearing 79. Connected to the outside of housing 80 are a pair of parallel spaced members 81 and 85. FIG. 4 shows pivot pin 45 extending through members 81, 85 and connecting rod 53 to permit connecting rod 43 to pivot in a vertical plane about pivot pin 45 as the children pull back and forth on handle 16 while bearing 79 permits rotational engagement of housing 79 with cylindrical pin 90. Thus each pivoting handle has a separate crank to propel the merry-go-round. 
     FIG. 4 shows my offset crank location provided by cylindrical pin 91 and cylindrical pin 90 which are not located on the major diameter 87 but are both positioned at an angle &#34;a&#34; from the major diameter 87. That is a line 88 through the center of pin 90 and the center of plate 78 forms an acute angle &#34;a&#34; of about 10 degrees with major diameter 87. Similarly, a line 89 extending through the center of pin 91 and the center of plate 78 also forms an acute angle &#34;a&#34; of about 10 degrees with major diameter 87. The use of two separate offset cranks with the pivot pins located at angle of less than 180 degrees from each other insures that at least one of the cranks will always be located so that the connecting rod, the center of the pivot pin and the center of the post will never be in alignment with one another. If the vertical plane through the connecting rod, the center of the pivot pin and the center of the post are in alignment with one another it produces a &#34;dead spot&#34; where inward or outwards force on the connecting rod does not provide any cranking action about center post 29. With the use of two offset cranks that are located at less than 180 degrees from one another it ensures that the two cranks are not on their respective dead spots at the same time. Consequently, the children can easily start my merry-go-round and do not have to push the merry-go-round to get it started.