Patent ID: 7418879

Claim:
A latching inertial reel comprising: a reel portion; a locking portion comprising; a locking mechanism for temporarily locking the reel portion, the locking mechanism moveable to a locked position in response to a horizontal acceleration of a first level while the horizontal acceleration of the first level remains present, the locking mechanism comprising: a horizontally residing annular seat with an upward sloping wall; a ball resting on the seat; and a locking lever having an engaging end and a pivot end opposite the engaging end and to the left of the ball, wherein the horizontal acceleration of the first level causes the ball to move upwards on the sloping wall and push upwards on the locking lever to pivot the locking lever about the pivot end causing the engaging end to engage the locking tooth mechanism attached to the reel portion to temporarily lock the reel; and a latching mechanism for resettably locking the reel portion in response to a vertical acceleration of a second level until the latching mechanism is reset, which second level is independent of the first level, the latching mechanism comprising: a calibration spring; a latching mass comprising the ball and seat of the locking sensor, the latching mass resting on the calibration spring; the locking lever attached to the latching mass and the latching mass and the locking lever sharing a common pivot positioned to the right of the latching mass and between the latching mass and the engaging end of the locking lever, wherein the vertical acceleration of the second level causes the latching mass to move downwards compressing the calibration spring, pivoting the locking lever counter clockwise about the common pivot, and moving the engaging end of the locking lever to engage the locking tooth mechanism attached to the reel portion to lock the reel; and a reset for resetting the latching mechanism.