US2501822A - Musical holder for removable articles - Google Patents

Description

March 28, 1950 B. H. KUYLER 2,501,822

MUSICAL HOLDER FOR REMOVABLE ARTICLES Filed 001;. 27 1945 INVENTOR. BENJAMIN H. Kunm ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MUSICAL HOLDER FOR REMOVABLE ARTICLES Benjamin H. Kuyler, Bronx, N. Y.

Application October 27, 1945, Serial No. 624,987 Claims. (Cl. 84-95) The present invention relates primarily to a child's toothbrush holder.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a toothbrush holder which is operable to emit a musical or other sound and which is therefore adapted tQ encourage or induce or remind a child to brush its teeth. Further, and in accordance with another object of the present invention, the toothbrush holder presents an appearance which is particularly pleasing to a child and which therefore, in this respect as well, offers a certain amount of encouragement and inducement to thechild to brush its teeth.

The invention, the above mentioned objects thereof, and other objects, ancillary thereto, will be fully understood from the following description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings which are to be considered as illustrative of the invention but not in limitation thereof.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side perspective view of a toothbrush holder embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional View On the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, on a larger scale, of part of the mechanism with which the toothbrush cooperates; 7

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of part of the mechanism within the holder.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, the toothbrush holder [0 is illustrated in Fig. 1 as presenting a fanciful representation of a baby elephant, but it will be understood that said holder may be in any one of a large number of suitable forms attractive to a child. Said holder comprises a hollow member l2 which may be mounted or otherwise suitably formed of any suitable material, for example, plaster-of-paris, a suitable plastic, wood, metal, etc. The outer surface of outer member l2 may be colored and also, if desired, may be provided with any suitable surface ornamentation. In the particular embodiment shown herein, the ears M of the figure are formed of fabric or other suitable sheet material adhesively or otherwise secured in position in any suitable way. The figure member I2 is provided with a base or bottom closure member I6.

The toothbrush is indicated at B and it will be noted that the figure member I2 is provided with an opening l8 to receive the handle H of the toothbrush. The figure I2 is provided in- 3| which is wound by a'key 32 throughgears teriorly thereof with a longitudinal guide 20 for directing the lower end of the handle to the proper position on a support 22 and in juxtaposition to the vane 24 of a musical device of any suitable music-box type. It will be noted that when the brush is mounted in the holder the lower end of the handle of the brush is in the path of rotation of the vane 24 and thereby prevents the operation of the musical device. On the other hand whenthe brush is removed from the'holder the vane 24 is free to rotate so that the musical device can operate or play. Accordingly', inducement and encouragement are offered to a'child to remove the toothbrush from the holder for brushing its teeth since the musical device cannot play'unless the toothbrush handle isv moved out of engagement with the rotary vane '24 of the musical device.

"The musical or other sound-emitting device may be of any suitable type and does not in itself form part of the present invention except in relation to the toothbrush holder. It may be noted, however, that the musical device comprise a rotary drum 26 provided with a plurality of radial prongs 28 which during the rotation of said drum engaged the ends of a set of musical vibratory members 30 which when vibrated produce'various musical tones. Sounds, other than musical sounds, attractive to a child may be emitted; Drum 26 isrotated by a spring motor 34 and 36. The vane 24 is fixed to a rotary shaft 38 which is journalled for rotation at its opposite ends in a bearing member 40, of a bracket 42, and in the base plate 44 of the musical device. The supporting member 22 for the lower end of the toothbrush handle is carried by said bracket 42. Shaft 38 is geared to and is driven by rotary drum 26. More specifically, as here shown, said shaft is provided with a worm gear 46 which meshes with a driving worm wheel 48. The shaft 50 on which worm wheel 48 is fixed is provided with a gear 52 which is geared to the gear 54 carried by drum 26 through the intermediate speed increasing gearing illustrated (Fig. 5). It will be noted that drum 26 is geared to spring motor 30 by gears 56 and 58.

Thus, it is seen that the toothbrush holder of the present invention is well adapted to accomplish the primary purposes and objects of the present invention. It will be understood, how ever, that the invention may be applied to a holder for a removable article other than a toothbrush and may be embodied otherwise than as here shown, and that in the illustrated ema bodiment certain changes in the details of construction and in the arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the underlying idea or principles of the invention within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A device of the character described comprising a holder, a musical device associated with said holder and having a member which controls the operation of said musical device, said holder having an opening for receiving the handie of a removable toothbrush, and means provided in said holder in association with said opening for guiding the handle to a predetermined position in relation to said member for interrupting the playing of said device, said control member being released when the toothbrush is removed from said position and engaged by said handle when the toothbrush is inserted in said holder.

2. A device of the character described comprising a holder for a removable article, a musical device positioned in said holder and having a rotary controlling member Which prevents the musical device from playing when said rotary member is prevented from rotating, means providing a support for the inner end of said removable article when the latter is mounted in said holder, said support being positioned so that when the removable article is supported thereby a part of said removable article Within the holder is in the path of said rotary controlling member and thereby constitutes a stop for said rotary member to prevent the playing of said musical device, said support having guide means therein for guiding a part of said article to its position in said path of said rotary controlling member.

3. A device of the character described comprising a holder in the form of a toy figure, a musical device associated with said holder and having a rotary controlling member which prevents the playing of said musical device unless said rotary member is free to rotate, said holder having means for supporting a removable article in a predetermined position therein to prevent rotation or said rotary member whereby to prevent the playing of the musical device unless said removable article is removed from said predetermined position.

4. A device of the character described comprising a container for a removable article, said container having an opening for the insertion and removal of said article and a musical device associated with said holder, said musical device having a movable member which controls the operation of said musical device, said controlling member being positioned to be releasably engaged by said removable article when th latter is mounted in a predetermined position in the container whereby to prevent the playing of said musical device unless said removable article is removed from said position and thus released from said controlling member, and means in said container for supporting said article in said position.

5. A device of the character described comprising a container for a removable article, said container having an opening for the insertion and removal of said article and a sound-emitting device associated With said holder, said soundemitting device having a movable member which controls the operation of said device, said controlling member positioned to be releasably engaged by said removable article when the latter is mounted in a predetermined position in the container whereby to prevent the operation of said sound-emitting device, unless said removable article is removed from said position and thus released from said controlling member, and means in said container for supporting said article in said position.

BENJAMIN H. KUYLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 257,112 Webber Apr. 25, 1882 342,986 Ward June 1, 1886 1,734,770 Kayan Nov. 5, 1929 2,252,289 Kind et al Aug. 12, 1941 2,321,865 Darche June 8, 1943 2,435,105 Solomon Jan. 27, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 128,424 Switzerland Dec. 1, 1928 218,661 Switzerland Apr. 1, 1942

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