Drive for a Crystal Ball for Moving a Figure Upwardly and Downwardly

The present invention relates to the drive for a crystalline or crystal ball which can move a figure inside the ball upwardly and downwardly.

In the prior art, Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,795, for example, there is disclosed a relative structure in which the dynamic features or phenomena of dolls constructed on the convex surface of planetary gears are performed by the rotation and the revolution of the planetary gears. On the structure and effectiveness of the aforementioned applicant, the dolls only present one dynamic feature, such design obviously not complying with a market requesting diversified motions.

In view of the need applicant described above, the inventor of this invention made a modification to the aforementioned structure. The variation of the dynamic features of a doll including revolution, rotation and moving upwardly and downwardly are driven by the rotation of the revolving disk and the planetary gears.

In a preferred embodiment the drive includes a planetary gear having an upright member with a bulgy bevelled surface which is used to drive a revolving disk. A mantle surrounding said upright members is mounted on the upper side of the revolving disk. The lower end of a longitudinal stick mounting a doll on the upper end is in contact with the bulgy bevel and is inserted into the mantle on the respective location to the rotatable circumference of the upright member on the planetary gear. The dynamic phenomena including revolution, rotation and moving upwardly and downwardly performed by the doll is driven by the rotation of the revolving disk and the planetary gears. The surface of the planetary gear which is used to drive the revolving disk is a bevel for forming a bulgy state, and a mantle surrounding said bulgy surface is on the upper side of the revolving disk. The end of the longitudinal stick with doll which is in contact with said bulgy bevel is inserted into the mantle on the respective location to the rotatable circumference of the convex surface on the planetary gear;

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the crystal ball;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the construction according to the invention;

FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of this invention;

FIG. 4 shows a top view of the location of the longitudinal stick relative to the convex plane of the planetary gears; and

FIG. 5 is a second embodiment of the longitudinal stick which includes a spring according to the present invention.

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals denote like elements throughout the several views and any applicable embodiments.

Shown in FIG. 1 is a crystalline or crystal ball according to the present invention, in which a glass cover 1 filled with liquid is mounted above a wood base 2, and the variation of dynamic phenomena of revolution, rotation, moving upwardly and downwardly of a doll 12 inside glass cover 1 are achieved by the apparatus described hereinafter. In order to achieve the aforementioned expected function, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, a rubber plug 4 having a recessed or concave center is engaged with a neck on the lower part of glass cover 1 so that the interior of glass cover 1 has a hermetic seal. An annular ring gear 51 is formed below the interior of a recessed or concave fixed base 5 that is mounted in the recessed center of rubber plug 4. A planetary gearing 8 is constructed with a central gear 81 and a plurality of planetary gears 82, and is located within the annular ring gear 51 of the fixed base so that planetary gears 82 are engaged with ring gear 51. Mounted on the upper surface of planetary gears 82 is a cylindrical upright member 83 which extends an appropriate height upwardly and which has an upper surface that is designed to be a bevel. Moreover, on the upper surface of said planetary gearing 8 includes a revolving disk 6, and the convex surface of the revolving disk with respect to said planetary gear 82 is installed with bores 63. Therefore, the revolving disk 6 is driven by the rotation and revolution of the planetary gears in accordance with the attachment between the bores and the convex surface as the central gear rotates. A mantle 7 is mounted on revolving disk 6 and forms a space A therebetween which contains the upright members 83 of said planetary gears. On the upper surface of said mantle 7 are three longitudinal bulgy cylinders 71 which is relative to the circumference area of upright members 83 on the planetary gears and provides for the longitudinal stick 13 of doll 12 to insert into, as illustrated in FIG. 4, so that the end of the longitudinal sticks 13 which penetrate the bulgy cylinders 71 can be in contact with the convex surface 83 of the planetary gear 82. The revolving disk is rotatable driven synchronously by the rotation and the revolution of the planetary gears, the longitudinal sliding or vertical reciprocal motion of the longitudinal stick 13 from the bottom to the top is driven by the bevelled surface of upright member 83 of the rotating planetary gear 82. The sliding from the top to the bottom of stick 13 on the bevelled surfaces is driven by the weight of doll 12 and longitudinal stick 13, so that the doll 12 will perform the variation of dynamic phenomena of revolution, moving upwardly and downwardly.

Because the sliding of doll 12 and longitudinal stick 13 from the top to the bottom is caused by their own weight, in order to prevent interference to the sliding between longitudinal stick and bulgy cylinder resulting from the influence of reduced precision during the manufacture of the related components making longitudinal stick 13 unable to slide downwardly by its own weight, a spring 15 is installed between the bottom surface of the bulgy cylinder and the bulgy edge of the longitudinal stick 13. This provides a downward elasticity of longitudinal stick as illustrated in FIG. 5 which makes the sliding of the longitudinal stick and the doll from the top to the bottom reliable.

In summary, the convex surface of the planetary gears according to the present invention is a bevel to form a bulgy state, and the end of the longitudinal stick with doll which is in contact with said bulgy bevel is inserted into the mantle on the respective location to the rotatable circumference of the convex surface on the planetary gear. The dynamic phenomena or features thus includes revolution, rotation and moving upwardly and downwardly performed by the doll when driven by the rotation of the revolving disk and the planetary gears.