An Automaton Flying Toy Bird.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Jan., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Sept., 1896-Accepted, 7th Nov., 1896
TWO VIDIONAL MOTIVATION.
An Automaton Flying Toy Bird.
I, ARTHUR KELLER, of Durango, Colorado, United States of America, Mining
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to an automaton flying toy bird in which the motion of
the wings is produced by means of an axis within the body of the bird, which is
rotated by any convenient power.
In such toy birds the expansion and contraction of the wings is effected by means
of an articulated parallelogram connected to a rod which has its one end connected
to a crank on the said axis. According to my present improvements I construct
such parallelogram and rod as follows.
The end of the rod is loosely jointed at its inner end to the crank plate, on the
axis and it is pivotted at a point near such end to a spindle that can turn to and
fro in its bearings on the body of the bird, so that as the crank plate rotates with
its axis, the inner end of the rod is made to describe a conical path, the apex of
the cone being the pivot on the spindle, which at the same time is made to turn
to and fro. The longer outer part of the rod beyond such pivot consequently moves
through an opposite conical path.
To this outer part are pivotted firstly, a limb of the parallelogram frame, the two
ends of which are fixed to the half of the wing next the body, and secondly, at
the outer end of the rod is pivotted the one end of a second limb of the parallelogram,
parallel to the first, the other end being pivotted to a third limb of the parallelogram
which is parallel to the rod which constitutes the fourth limb. The third limb is
fixed to the outer half of the bird's wing and has its inner end pivotted to the one
end of the first limb, thus completing the articulation of the parallelogram.
Lastly, the first limb is also connected to the reciprocating spindle by a short
link connected by a pivot-joint to each of the said parts, the joint of this link to
the spindle being a greater distance from the point at which the rod is pivotted
thereto than the distance between the points of junction of the link and rod to the
first limb of the parallelogram, thus forming an unequal sided quadrangle.
The result of these peculiar connections will be that on the rotation of the axis
and its crank plates, the rods in moving through the before described opposite conical
paths will, on the one band, cause the parallelogram frames to be alternately opened
out and folded together, thereby causing the two halves of the wings to which they
are attached to be alternately opened out wide and folded together; secondly the
wings will be made to flap up and down, turning on the reciprocating spindle as on a
hinge-joint, and thirdly, the wings will also have a compound forward and backward,
and outward and inward motion, thereby considerably increasing the spread of the
outer halves of the wings when extended.
The motion is according to one arrangement imparted to the crank plate axis by
means of two cords coiled upon two drums of different diameters fixed to the said
axis, the two cords passing away in opposite directions from the bird, so that on
pulling at the cord coild on the larger drum, and which extends from the tail of
the bird, this said drum will be rotated so as to rotate the axis and actuate the
wings and at the same time the other cord will be coiled upon the smaller drum,
and consequently the bird will thereby receive an advancing motion. The said

page_text: forced to flap in the manner peculiar to certain birds when flying. The pivot points
of the wings are those of the bars P and Q. The said wings S S' may be made
of sheet-metal, leather, cardboard or other suitable material.
It will be easily understood that as the toy-bird moves forward, as described, the
wings will flap more or less violently, according to the rate of speed along the
cord H, or the speed of rotation of shaft E, and cranks K. By releasing the pulling
draught on cord H, the bird will descend by its own weight, the cord H¹, being
unrolled and the cord H, rolled on its respective drum. During said return motion,
the pawl g slides freely over the teeth of the ratchet wheel G, and accordingly the
shaft E is not coupled to the drums F F, and the wings do not flap. The return
motion, however, may also be obtained by a spring T," lodged within the drum F,
as shown in Figure 4, one end of said spring being secured to the shaft E, the other
end to the side of the drum.
In the modification illustrated by Figures 5, 6 and 7, the construction is essentially
the same as before described, but the two universal joints M and N of the former
construction are replaced by a rod or shaft U, journalled in bearings of the frame and
capable of turning in the same. To this rod U the rod L projecting from the crank K
is pivoted, while another bar or link O' pivoted at one end to the said rod U, and at
the other end to the bar P, acts in the manner described with reference to bar O
in the other construction. The wings will equally perform a flapping upward and
downward motion, while, at the same time, the two portions S S' of the wings hinged
to the parallelogram, contract or expand. Figure 6 is an underneath view of a folded
wing, in which position the bars P and Q take a position parallel to the central line of
the bird's body. In this construction, guide-pulleys V V₁ are arranged for the two
cords H H', said pulleys being suitably carried by pins or rods v, placed between the
ends of frame, B. Figures 1 and 2 explain how the said cords pass around the said
pulleys V Vi
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. An automaton flying toy bird having in its body mechanism to rotate an axis,
means to create thereby a forward motion, and means to impart motion, fron the
said axis to the wings, thus imitating a flying motion of the bird, substantially as
and for the purpose set forth.
2. An automaton flying toy bird, having in its body mechanism to create a
forward motion, an axis rotating by means of said mechanism, cranks carried by
said axis, and a system of bars jointed in parallelogram, connected to the bird's
wings and worked by the said rotary axis and cranks, substantially as and for the
purpose described.
3. An automaton flying toy bird, having in its body mechanism to create a forward
motion, a rotary axis worked by said mechanism, a crank carried at either side by
said axis, a rod or bar actuated by said crank and forming one side of a jointed
parallelogram of bars connected to the wings, substantially as and for the purpose
described.
4. An automaton flying toy bird, having in its body mechanism to create a forward
motion, a rotary axis worked by said mechanism, wings consisting each of two jointed
parts, a parallelogram of jointed bars connected to said wings, one side of said
parallelogram being actuated by a crank of the said rotary axis, and another side of
the said parallelogram being connected to a short bar jointed to a rocking rod,
substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
5. An automaton flying toy-bird, having in its body two drums of different diameter
loosely mounted on a common shaft and with a cord or cords wound on them, wings
consisting each of two jointed parts, a parallelogram of bars jointed to said wings, one
side of the jointed parallelogram being guided in a universal joint and actuated by a
crank of the drum-shaft, and another side of the said parallelogram being actuated by