US2673743A - Safety device for skis - Google Patents

Description

March 30, 1954 s. GOULD SAFETY DEVICE FOR SKIS Filed Nov. 20. 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet l A T TORNE y,

March 30, 1954 Q s. GOULD SAFETY DEVICE FOR SKIS 2 sheets-sheet 2 Filed Nov. 20, 1950 IN V EN TOR. 60 UL 0 JITTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 30, 1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SAFETY DEVICE FOR SKIS Samuel Gould, Lennox, Calif.

Application November 20, 1950, Serial No. 196,674

3 Claims. (01. 280-1135) This is a sporting goods invention and relates especially to safety means for skis and the like and is related to applicants copending application Serial Number 154,991, filed April 10, 1950, now Fatent No. 2,618,487; issued November 18, 1952.

This invention employs means for automatically releasing a skiers shoe from the ski when a certain pressure is exerted forwardly by the shoe with respect to the ski so that when the ski is stopped by some hazard, or its speed suddenly arrested by digging into soft snow, the shoe is automatically released so as to avoid injuring or breaking the skiers leg. Skiers travel at high speeds and sometimes at the rate of fifty miles per hour. At high speeds, skiers are fearful of breaking their legs when their forward motion is abruptly arrested by their skis toeing into unexpected soft snow.

The principal objects of the invention is to provide safety means to automatically release the shoes of skiers from their respective skis and to employ devices that are simple, durable and compact in structure and that are inexpensive to make and manufacture.

Other objects, advantages and features of this invention will appear from a careful perusal of the accompanying drawings and other portions of this application.

Below, applicant describes one or more of the preferable forms of this invention in order to teach the art of making and using the same, but it is to be understood that the drawings and illustrations and descriptions per se are not to limit the invention in any sense whatsoever except as the same may be limited by the discovered prior art. Language employed herein is not to be construed as giving any unauthorized person or organization the right to make, use and/or sell the invention herein disclosed.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view showing the invention as applied to a ski and the skiers shoe thereon; parts being broken away and the dotted lines indicating another position of the skiers foot and shoe;

Figure 2 is a plan view of that shown in Fig ure 1;

Figure 3 is a horizontal plan view, parts in section, and enlarged, showing a safety release device;

Figure 4 is an enlarged elevational view of the release device;

Figure 5 is an elevational partial view of one side of the device shown in Figure 4 illustrating the device in release action;

Figure 6 is an elevational view of the opposite side of the device as shown in Figure 4;

Figure 7 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line of Figure 4;

Figure 8 is a bottom plan view of the release device;

Figure 9 is a sectional view, parts broken away, taken substantially along the line 9-9 of Figure 8;

Figure 10 is a partly sectional and partly elevational View showing the release device in working position;

Figure 11 is an elevational view of a modified form of the invention;

Figure 12 is a sectional view taken substantial- 1y along the line l2--l2 of Figure 11.

The preferred form of the invention shows a typical portion of a ski l which has a means for attaching a skiers shoe 2 thereto. An adjustable toe plate 3 is screwed or otherwise firmly fixed to the ski, this plate having the usual side clamps 5 and 4 integral therewith and which forms nothing new in the art. Forwardly of the toe plate there is an adjustable means for holding the forward ends of the side cables 6 and I, and this means comprises the fixed elongated plate 8 with various slots or catches to allow the cable coupling bracket 9 to be properly positioned and fixed with reference to the ski. This bracket has the pivot pin 10' and a cross headed pin In which is on the lever 8', the opposite ends of the pin having a firm connection to the ends of the strong springs II and I2. The cables 6 and l are secured to the other ends of these springs and the cables are kept in position along the sides of the ski by the fixed guides I3 and I4. All the foregoing parts are old in the art and no claim is made thereto except as in combination with the devices of this invention.

Cable grooves I5 and 16 are generally provided in regular skiing shoes for the obvious purpose of preventing slippage from position and loosening of the cable, and so far as known, but a single cable is now employed in the well known shoe anchoring devices, but in applicants invention, the single cable is converted into a pair of cables 6 and 1 and the rear ends thereof each provided with a hook as indicated at I! and I8 respectively. Adjustable terminal ends I9 and 20 are provided for the cables and hooks, as shown, and the hooks are connected to their respective release arms 44 and 45 of the device of this invention. Note that the upper ends of these arms are turned inwardly toward each other so that the hooks of the cables will not accidently be released. The arms 44 and 45 are parts of the unit 46 which will now be explained in detail.

The safety unit 46 has the main support cross bar 41 to which the arms are pivoted as by the pivot rivets 48 and 49 and each arm has its respective stop pin or 51 so that the arms in normal position will be positioned as shown in Figs. 4 and 6, but when the arms are released, these stop pins can passaround the very ends of the cross bar 47. The lower ends of the-release arms 44 and have the oifcenter pivot rivets 52 and 53 respectively which pivotally support the pair of tong-like links 54 and 55 which are pivoted together at their near ends by the pivot rivet 55. The hole for the rivet 56 is large so as to accommodate the spiral spring 5'! which acts as a bearing for the pivot rivet 56; the ends of the spring being anchored, as shown, so that the link members 54 and 55 will return to the position shown in Figs. 4 and 6 when not under tension. A yoke 58 has its legs pivoted to the pivot rivet 56, see Fig. 10, and it is coupled to one end of a chain 59 and the other end of this chain is held to the screw 60. This screw is fastened to the ski and the chain is of a predetermined length which limits the upward motion of the skiers boot without releasing the boot from the ski, but should the upward force of the boot be great enough to overcome the force of the spring 51 and the mechanical frictional lock means because of the position of the links 54 and 55, then the arms 44 and 45 will be released so as to free the cables 6 and i and thus free the boot from the ski and in this manner prevent injury to the leg of the skier.

The modified form of the invention as shown in Figs. 11 and 12, comprises the pair of release arms iii and G2 which have their top portions swaged to bring the hook portions into alinement since these arms are pivoted together, side by side, at the base thereof, as indicated at 53. The rivet pin 53 is elongated and extends through the slots 54 and 65 of the pair of spaced plates 66 and 51, respectively. The headed pivot pin 63 is designed to work within the slots 54 and 65, and the tension springs 68 and 69, as shown, are attached to the ends of the pivot pins and also to the ends of the lower cross pin 10 so as to constantly urge the pivot pin downwardly. The plates are held in proper spaced relationship by the rivet means I! and '12 with their roller spacers. The lower ends of the arms 6i and 62 have their outer corners cut away so as to fit somewhat snugly between the roller spacers and this means acts as a lock in that the upper portions of the arms cannot spread apart so as to release the cables 5 and 1 until the arms work upwardly and the pivot pin 63 rides upwardly in the slots 65 and 55; upon this event, the arms spread apart as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 11. The chain 5t that is fastened at one end thereof to the ski i, is coupled to the cross pin 10, as shown. I

It is, of course, understood that various changes and modifications may be made in the details of form, style, design, and construction of the whole or any part of the specifically described embodiment of this invention without departing from the spirit thereof in that such changes and modi- 4 fications are considered as being within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In a safety device for automatically releasing a skiers shoe from its ski upon a certain forward force; the device having a main support bar which is normally in a horizontal position and a pair of spaced apart upwardly extending arms having their central portions pivoted to the ends of the bar, the tops of the arms having toedin portions which are adapted to securely hold the ends of cables when the arms are unreleased, a pair of alined links at the bottom of the device having their near ends pivoted together and their outer ends pivoted to their respective arms near the bottom ends thereof, and a flexible cable having one end attached to the pivot point at the near ends of the arms and extending to a ski and attached thereto, a coiled spring, the pivot point consisting of a rivet with its heads spaced from the sides of the links, the rivet passing through an enlarged bore in the near ends of the link and also through the bore of the coiled spring which is within the enlarged bore, the ends of the spring being extended and attached at the said links so that when the links are forced out of alinement, the spring urges them back into alinement.

2. In a safety device for automatically releasing a skiers shoe from its ski; the device having a cross bar which is the main support and which is substantially horizontally arranged when in normal position, a pair of spaced apart upwardly directed arms having central portions which are pivoted at the ends of the cross bar, the arms having tops which are formed to receive opposed cable ends, a pair of alined links at the bottom of the device, said links having their near ends overlapping and joined together by a pivot pin and their far ends pivoted to lower portions of the said arms, and means connecting a chain to the pivot pin and the chains other end adapted to be fixed to a portion of a ski, a coiled spring, the near ends of the links having a common bore into which the pivot pin is accommodated, said bore being enlarged to accommodate the coiled spring around the pivot pin, the ends of the coiled spring being fixed to said links so that when the links are forced out 0f alinement, the spring urges them back into alinement.

3. The safety device recited in claim 2 wherein th pivot pin is provided with a sleeve type of spring wire having its ends fixed to the links so as to constantly urge the links into alinement, as aforesaid.

SAMUEL GOULD.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,024,222 Hinchman Dec. 17, 1935 2,368,671 Lombard Feb. 6, 1915 2,517,486 Hewitt Aug. 1, 1950 2,534,704 Frieder et a1. Dec. 19, 1950 r FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 45,008 Sweden Jan. 29, 1919 843,364 France Mar. 27, 1939

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