US3613294A

US3613294A - Hat toy

Info

Publication number: US3613294A
Application number: US19304A
Authority: US
Inventors: David E Graham
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1970-03-13
Filing date: 1970-03-13
Publication date: 1971-10-19
Anticipated expiration: 1988-10-19

Abstract

A HAT TOY WORN ON THE HEAD OF A PERSON AND OPERATED BY SWINGING THE HEAD TO MAKE FIGURES WITH A WEIGHT AND STREAMER OF THE TOY. THE HAT PORTION INCLUDES A CIRCULAR ELASTIC HEADBAND WHICH FITS TIGHTLY ON THE HEAD OF A PERSON, AND CROSSBANDS EXTENDING ACROSS THE HEADBAND IN AN ARC AND HAVING A CENTRAL ANCHORING PORTION TO WHICH A FREE SWINGING FLEXIBLE LINE IS ATTACHED. A WEIGHT IS AFFIXED TO THE END OF THE LINE AND CARRIES A STREAMER WHICH TRACES THE PATH OF THE WEIGHT AS THE WEIGHT LOOPS ABOUT WHEN THE HEAD IS SWUNG. IN A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT, THE HEADBAND IS SPLIT AND HAS OVERLAPPING ENDS RESPECTIVELY CARRYING HOOKING MATERIAL AND PILE MATERIAL PROVIDING AN OVERLAP FABRIC FASTENER TO ADJUST THE SIZE OF THE HEADBAND TO FIT THE HEAD OF THE PERSON FIRMLY.

Description

Oct. 19, 1971 GRAHAM 3,613,294

HAT TOY Filed March 13, 1970 INVIL'N'I )R.

DAVID E. GRAHAM.

SETTLE 8 OLTMAN.

United States Patent Office 3,613,294 Patented Oct. 19, 1971 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE 10 A hat toy worn on the head of a person and operated by swinging the head to make figures with a weight and streamer of the toy. The hat portion includes a circular elastic headband which fits tightly on the head of a person, and crossbands extending across the headband in an arc and having a central anchoring portion to which a free swinging flexible line is attached. A weight is affixed to the end of the line and carries a streamer which traces the path of the weight as the weight loops about when the head is swung. In a preferred embodiment, the headband is split and has overlapping ends respectively carrying hooking material and pile material providing an overlap fabric fastener to adjust the size of the headband to fit the head of the person firmly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Hat devices provided with a swinging weight are known, for example, for exercising and play purposes. It has been proposed to provide a headgear of relatively heavy construction with fastening means for securing the headgear to the head. Such a heavy duty headgear increases the cost of the device and makes it more difficult to fabricate, all of which limits the markets for such devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a hat toy in which the hat portion is constructed of elastic bands including a circular headband and arcuate crossbands which conform to and hug tightly the head of the wearer so that the weight of the device can be swung on the end of a line by swinging the head without pulling the hat off from the wearers head. In a preferred embodiment, the headband is made of elastic material, and has overlapping end portions which carry fabric fastening material. That is, hooking material on one end portion adheres to pile material on the other end portion when pressed together. By means of this overlap fastening, the headband may be adjusted to a size such that it may be stretched to fit on the head and will tightly hug the head of the wearer so as to be anchored firmly in place. In this embodiment the flexible line preferably projects from a rigid post affixed to an anchoring portion located where the crossbands cross each other to encourage free swinging of the line and weight.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved hat toy having a swinging weight and streamer and having a simplified and yet reliable hat portion.

Another object of the invention is to enable adjustment of the size of the hat portion by means of an overlap fastening of the headband of the hat portion.

Another object of the invention is to make the hat 5 portion entirely of elastic bands including a headband and crossbands which firmly hug the head of a wearer so as to positively retain the hat on the head of the wearer.

Among the other objects of the invention are to provide a hat toy which is relatively easy to fabricate, which stays on the head of the wearer during operation, which folds to facilitate packaging, which is adjustable in size, and which is relatively inexpensive.

Other objects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.

ON THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a hat toy in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the hat toy with the flexible line and the weight and streamer omitted.

AS SHOWN ON THE DRAWINGS The hat toy shown in the drawings includes a hat 10, a flexible line 12- affixed to the crown of the hat, a weight 14 afiixed to the end of the flexible line remote from the hat, and a long streamer 16 aflixed to the weight 14. The hat 10 is worn on the head of a person such as a child for play or exercise purposes. The child operates the toy by merely swinging his head around in a looping fashion so as to make the weight 14 describe arcs, circles, loops, or any continuous path dictated by the swinging movement of the childs head. The streamer 16 traces the movement of the weight 14 and provides a visual pattern of the path of movement resulting in a visual attraction for the toy.

The hat 10 is preferably constructed entirely from elastic bands including a circular elastic headband 18 and two

elastic crossbands

20 and 22. The headband 18 is arranged to be circular or cylindrical in configuration, and the headband is split or non-continuous such that it has two overlapping ends 2 4 and 26. Affixed to the inside surface of the end 24 is hooking material 28 for a fabric fastener of the overlap type, and afiixed to the outside face of the end 26 is pile material 30 for a fabric fastener. The

materials

28 and 30 may be stitched or otherwise adhered to the

ends

24 and 26, and, of course, their positions could be reversed. When the hooking material 28 is pressed onto the pile material 30, many tiny hooks grab or adhere to the pile material 30 to securely fasten the two materials together. However, the hooking material 28 can be relatively easily peeled off of the pile material 30 to

unfasten ends

24 and 26 when desired. The advantage of using an overlap fastener of this type is that it allows for continuous variation of the size of the headband 18-that is, the circumference thereof without resorting to spaced localized fasteners such as snaps or the like.

The

ends

24 and 26 are overlapped sufficiently to adjust the headband to a size substantially smaller than the head of the person who will wear the hat so that the headband 18 must be stretched substantially in order to fit on the head of the wearer. Thus, when in place, the headband firmly hugs the head of the wearer to retain it in place.

The

crossbands

20 and 22 are identical, and they are preferably bands of elastic material which extend from side to side of the headband 18 diametrically across the same in quadrantal relation relative to each other. The ends of the crossbands 2-2 and 24 as at 32 by way of example are stitched to the headband 18. The crossbands are stitched to each other to provide an anchoring portion 34 at the crown of the hat 10, and of course it may be seen that the

crossbands

20 and 22 are arcuate in form so as to hug the head of the person when the hat is worn.

A post '36, which may be a hollow tube, is affixed to the anchoring portion 34, and this may be accomplished by providing an opening in the upper crossband 20 at the anchoring portion '34 and inserting the post 36 through this opening before the

bands

20 and 22 are stitched together at the anchoring portion 34. The post 36 has a head which is not visible, but which is larger than the opening in band 20 at anchoring portion 34 and which lies between band 20 and band 22 to anchor the post 36 in place. The post 36 may be a hollow tube, and the flexible line 12 projects from the post 36 as shown.

The line 12 may extend through the post 36 to a free end which is knotted between

crossbands

20 and 22 to firmly retain the line in place, but the portion of the line outside the post 36 is free swinging. The post 36 tends to keep the swinging portion of the line away from the hat 10 to help keep the line from fouling on the hat. The line should be sufficiently long to hang down below the shoulders of the wearer when in a stationary position, but not so long as to extend to the floor or ground on which the person is standing.

A weight 14, which may be a ring, is afiixed as by tieing to the end of the flexible line 12. The weight 14 need not be particularly heavyonly sufficiently heavy to give the line momentum as it is swung about by the person swinging his head.

The streamer 16 is atfixed at one end to the weight 14 as by turning the streamer through the ring 14 and adhering it to itself, or by tieing the streamer to the ring 14 if desired. As previously mentioned, the streamer 16 traces the path of the weight 14 and provides a pattern showing the path which the weight is following. Thus, the child or other person wearing hat toy can loop the weight 14 in many different patterns, and the streamer will trace those patterns providing a sort of visual display of the patterns.

Since the hat 10 is made entirely of flexible elastic bands, it can be folded easily, and of course the line and streamer can also be easily folded so that the entire hat toy can be placed in a package of relatively small size for marketing purposes. Due to the elasticity of the bands of the hat and the overlap fastening of the head band, it is possible to assure that the hat will always tightly fit on the head of the wearer so that the centrifugal force exerted by the weight when it is swinging will not pull the hat off the head of the wearer. The hat toy is relatively easy to fabricate as has been described, and of course variations in the specific fabrication techniques mentioned herein are possible.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A hat toy worn on the head of a person and operated by swinging the head to make figures with a looping weight and streamer of the toy, said hat toy comprising a hat having a cylindrical elastic headband split on one side thereof and having overlapping first and second ends at the split, said first end having pile material atfixed on a side thereof facing said second end, and said second end having hooking material adhering to said pile material when pressed thereon and adjustably positioned to adjust the size of said headband to fit horizontally on the forehead of the person firmly, with the elasticity of said headband further enabling a tight fit to retain said headband in place, crossbands afiixed at ends thereof to said headband and each extending from side to side of said headband diametrically across the top of same in an arc to conform to the persons skull, said cross bands being spaced angularly from each other but crossing each other and secured together at an anchoring portion located centrally of said headband and spaced above the same, a free swinging flexible line attached to said anchoring portion sufficiently long to extend past the shoulders of the person without reaching the floor or ground when the hat is worn, a weight aflixed to the end of said line remote from said anchoring portion, and a long streamer aflixed to said weight, whereby the person may swing his head to loop said weight and trace figures with said streamer without the weight pulling the headband from the head of the person.

2. The hat toy as claimed in claim 1 in which each of said crossbands consists of elastic material.

3. The hat toy as claimed in claim 2 in which only two crossbands are stitched at ends thereof to said headband in quadrantal relation with said crossbands crossing each other centrally of and above said headband, said anchoring portion being located where said crossbands cross.

4 The hat toy as claimed in claim 3 in which a rigid post projects up from said anchoring portion and said line extends from said post.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS ROBERT PESHOCK, Primary Examiner