US3490170A - Sounding wetting doll - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 20, 1970 T. WOLF SOUNDING WETTING DOLL Filed Dec. 50, 1966 INVENTOR Tobi n Woif ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,490,170 SOUNDING WETTING DOLL Tobin Wolf, 447 Essex Ave., Bloomfield, NJ. 07003 Filed Dec. 30, 1966, Ser. No. 606,286 Int. Cl. A63h 5/00, 13/02 US. Cl. 46-117 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The prior art has shown many dolls which are capable of wetting a diaper upon feeding with a liquid. The prior art has also shown dolls which provide a crying sound under predetermined conditions. The prior art did not disclose a doll which was capable of providing a crying sound in response to the wetting of a diaper upon feeding of a liquid prior to the patent of Karton (3,190,038) wherein this concept was disclosed.

The prior art sound making and wetting dolls have shown certain limitations in that the sound produced thereby was not realistic and did not provide a natural baby crying sound. In addition, a baby would commence crying in substantially the time required for the water or liquid to travel from the mouth opening to the torso opening, this requiring a short time and also being unrealistic. Furthermore, the dolls of the prior art would operate only when both contacts were totally covered with the moist portion of the diaper. This caused problems in the event that the diaper, though moist, was not moistened in the region of the contacts, and therefore provided no crying sound. In addition, it is necessary that the diaper, even when moistened, be in intimate relation with the contact members on the torso in order to provide a closing of a switch. With the use of two point contacts on the torso there is a great possibility that the diaper, though moistened in the proper regions, will not make proper connection to the two contact points to enable satisfactory operation of the circuit. Finally, the prior art discloses no provision for preventing water or liquid from passing from the feed tube back to the mouth opening when the doll is turned upside down by the child.

The above problems of the prior art are overcome by the present invention wherein there is provided a doll constructed with a hollow head and a hollow body having a mouth opening in the head and an opening in the bottom portion of the torso with a feed tube and a reservoir extending therebetween. The feed tube extends internally from the dolls mouth to the internal reservoir located at a point near the bottom of the torso through which tube water or other liquid may be fed. The reservoir is provided with an outlet at its lower end, the outlet terminal being approximately in the center of an electrical transducing element which may be in the form of interleaved electrical contacts. The contacts are preferably at least partially surrounded by each other and separated by a non-hygroscopic insulating material and are preferably of large area compared with a point contact. Water or other liquid, bottle fed to the doll, will flow into the reservoir and drain through the reservoir outlet into an absorbent garment such as a diaper. Upon saturation of the absorbent garment, contact members which act as a switch will have current passing therethrough and an impedance change will take place in an electrical switching element to activate a motor of an internally housed crying mechanism. The mechanism is preferably of the bellows double-reed type, though it may obviously be either electro-mechanical or electronic in nature. The elec tronic circuit will respond in such fashion that the wetter the diaper or other absorbent pad and the better the contact made between the diaper and the contact elements, the faster will the motor of the crying mechanism operate and the closer will the doll come to the cry of a real bably. So long as the wet diaper or absorbent pad remains pressed against the sensor, the crying will continue, stopping only upon removal of the wet diaper. The reservoir of the present invention is designed so that the doll can be fed, for example, while lying on its back, thereby filling up the reservoir, yet not wetting the diaper. When the doll is then, for example, placed over the childs shoulder for burping, the water or liquid in the reservoir will then pass through the outlet tube to the diaper and actuate the circuit. In this manner there is a time delay which makes the actions of the doll more realistic and more akin to the normal habits of a baby. The present invention also includes a one-way valve in the feed tube which prevents the water or other liquid from passing from the reservoir back to the mouth opening in the event the child turns the doll upside down.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a doll which simulates some of the actions and mannerisms of a live baby.

It is another object of this invention to providea doll which will not start to cry until a predetermined time after the doll drinks from the bottle.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a sounding wetting doll which provides a realistic baby crying sound.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a sounding, wetting doll which does not allow water or fluid to flow backward along the feed tube in the event the doll is turned upside down.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a plurality of contact members wherein one of the cOn tact members at least partially encloses or surrounds the other and which is of sufiiciently large dimension to provide an area contact rather than a point contact.

A yet further object of this invention is to provide a doll of the above indicated character which is simple to construct, inexpensive to manufacture, and thoroughly efficient and practical in use.

The above objects and still further objects of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof which is provided by way of example and not by Way of limitation, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing which illustrates a preferred embodiment of the invention, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a cross section of a doll in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged view of the contact elements employed with the present invention; and

FIGURE 3 is an electric circuit diagram of the crying mechanism in accordance with the present invention.

Referring first to FIGURE 1, there is shown a .doll 1 having a head member 2 a torso member 3 connected thereto and a leg member 4. The head member includes a mouth opening 5 having a feed tube 6 connected thereto, the feed tube passing through an opening 7 in the connection member of the torso to the head and being connected to a reservoir 8. The feed tube includes a one-way valve 9 therein to prevent the movement of water from the reservoir 8 back to the mouth opening 5 in the event the doll is turned upside down. The connectio between the feed tube 6 and the reservoir 8 is a watertight connection 10 which may be a heat seal or other such known connection. The bottom portion of the torso member 3 includes an opening 11 Which is shown in the front region of the doll. It should be understood that this opening can be located elsewhere in the torso region, as deemed appropriate. The reservoir 8 includes an outlet tube 12 which is connected to the opening 11 so that water or other liquid can pass from the reservoir to the outlet opening 11. The outlet tube 12 is coupled to the reservoir 8 by a water-tight connection 14 similar to connection 10.

The opening 11 is surrounded by a set of contact elements indicated as transducer 13 which is better shown in FIGURE 2. In FIGURE 2 there is shown the outlet opening 11 and the transducer element 13 which includes a pair of contact elements 15 and 16. It will be noted that portions of the contact elements 15 and 16 are surrounded by each other in that they are interleaved or interdigitated, the contact elements being of large area compared with point contacts. The doll will operate properly in the event only partial contact is made thereto by the wet diaper (to be explained hereinbelow) or in the event the wet diaper is not in firm contact with all parts of the transducer element 13.

Referring again to FIGURE 1, the doll includes a diaper 17 which is shown to completely cover the transducer element 13 and the opening 11. The diaper 17 can be formed from any type of water absorbent or other liquid absorbent material that is not electrically conductive. The transducer element 13 is coupled by means of a pair of wires 18 to a sounding mechanism 19. This is shown more specifically and in greater detail in FIGURE 3 wherein there is shown the transducer element 13 having contact elements 15 and 16. The interconnecting wire 18 of FIGURE 1 from the transducer element 13 to the sounding mechanism 19 is shown in FIGURE 3 as leads 20 and 21.

The lead 20 is coupled to the collector 21 of a transistor 22 and the contact 16 is connected to the base 23 of this transistor. The base 23 is also coupled through a resistor 24 to the emitter 25 of the transistor 22. The emittercollector circuit of the transistor 22 is in parallel with a circuit comprising a switch 26 which can be positioned outside of the doll and can be turned to the on or o position manually. This switch 26 is in series with a battery 27, a DC permanent magnet motor 28 which drives a bellows 29, the bellows actuating a double reed 30 which provides a realistic crying sound. This sound producing mechanism can be, for example, a power source and a motor energized by the source with a crank driven by the motor and at least one bellows having a reed interposed between a fixed point on the toy and an eccentric pin on said crank so that the bellows is alternately stretched and compressed when the motor is operative. The reed is a double action reed. The second terminal of the motor 28 is connected back to the collector of the transistor 22. The transistor 22 acts as a current amplifier or a switch in the above described circuit and acts to provide drive current in response to the closing or bridging of the contacts 15 and 16 of the transducer 13.

The doll is operated by placing same on its back and then feeding water of liquid to the mouth opening by means of a bottle 31 and nipple 32 shown in FIGURE 1. As the doll drinks from the bottle, the liquid or water therefrom will pass through the feed-tube 6 and the valve 9 into the reservoir 8 and begin to fill up the reservoir to the dotted lines 33 therein which represents the top level to which the water can rise. No moisture will pass from the reservoir to the diaper 17 at this time period. When the doll is then placed in erect position, for example, by placing same over the shoulder for a burping operation, the water or liquid will pass from the reservoir to the diaper and bridge the contacts 15 and 16 of the transducer 13. The bridging of the contacts of the transducer '13 will enable the sound producing circuit of FIGURE 3 to operate (assuming that the switch 26 has been closed) and the doll will begin to cry. The frequency of crying will increase as the diaper becomes increasingly more moist, this being more realistic of normal human babies.

The (1011 can be fed in the upright position with the crying commencing upon lying the doll on its back, for example, by a design change in the reservoir. In this case, the reservoir would lie below the opening 11 so that water would collect therein during the upright position of the doll. Also, the tube 12 would be positioned on the side of the reservoir away from the outlet. Accordingly, when the doll is placed on its back, the water will pass from the reservoir through the tube 12 to the outlet 11. It is also apparent that the outlet 12 could be attached to an opening 11 which is positioned elsewhere at the lower portion of the torso.

It is also clear that the crying operation can be speeded up, if desired, by either placing an electrolyte into the water or liquid in the bottle 31 or by impregnating the diaper 17 with a conductive electrolyte of non-liquid nature to increase the conductivity through the diaper.

Though the invention has been described with respect to a specific preferred embodiment thereof, many variations and modifications thereof will immediately become apparent to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:

-1. A doll comprising a head and torso, a liquid reservoir in said torso, a conduit connecting the mouth with l the reservoir whereby feeding of liquid into the mouth will conduct the liquid into the reservoir when the doll is in a first position, an opening in the torso for discharging the liquid from the reservoir when the doll is shifted to a second position, and means, including a sensing means adjacent said opening, responsive to the discharge of said liquid and to a preselected time delay after the doll is shifted into the second position for producing an audible sound.

2. A doll as defined in claim 1 wherein the audible sound is a crying sound.

3. A doll as defined in claim 2 wherein said means comprises contact members positioned on opposite sides of said opening, and means responsive to the closing of the contacts by a film of liquid for energizing a crying mechanism.

4. A doll as defined in claim 3 wherein the crying mechanism comprises a bellows, a motor for expanding and contracting the bellows, a source of power for said motor and the means responsive to the closing of the contacts comprises a transistor in series with the motor and source of power.

5. A doll as defined in claim 1 further including means for increasing the frequency of the audible sound in accordance with the amount of discharged liquid.

6. A doll as defined in claim 5 wherein the means for increasing the frequency of the sound comprises pairs of interleaved contacts positioned on opposite sides of said opening and means responsive to the successive closing of the contacts by a film of water for energizing a sound generator.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,080,439 5/1937 Schaelfer 46141 2,127,538 8/1938 Seiger ZOO-61.05 2,166,481 7/1939 Baird 20061.05 2,907,139 10/1959 Rekettye 46l4l XR 2,934,856 5/1960 Cohn 4614-l XR 3,190,038 6/1965 Kardon 461l7 XR 3,274,729 9/1966 Refabert 46-232 ROBERT PESHOCK, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 46-141

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