US3787054A

US3787054A - Hidden maze puzzle contained ball

Info

Publication number: US3787054A
Application number: US00216056A
Authority: US
Inventors: D Stafford
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-01-07
Filing date: 1972-01-07
Publication date: 1974-01-22
Anticipated expiration: 1991-01-22

Abstract

A puzzle having a maze through which a contained ball traverses. A cubicle main body is provided with nontransparent outer walls with a plurality of inner walls mounted therein defining a single noncontinuous tortuous passage having a start and finish without any dead end passages. A pair of transparent windows mounted to the outer walls of the main body are positioned at the start and finish of the passage. A ball is positioned within the main body and is movable from the start window through the passage to the finish window. The ball is unremovable from the main body. In one embodiment, the inner walls are nontransparent thereby preventing visual determination through the windows of the tortuous passage. In another embodiment, some of the inner walls are transparent allowing a person to visually determine through the windows a portion of the tortuous passage. In another embodiment, all of the inner walls are transparent.

Description

ilnitedstates Patent [19] Stafford HIDDEN MAZ E PUZZLE CONTAINED BALL [76] Inventor: David C. Stafford, 212 North E St.,

Marion, Ind. 46952 22 Filed: Jan. 7, 1972 21 App1.No.:216,056

[52] US. Cl. 273/109, 273/113 [51] Int. Cl. A63f 7/00 [58] Field of Search 273/1 R, 1 M, 1084117, 273/123 R, 153 R, 153 S; 46/1 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,261,804 11/1941 Hall 273/113 456,826 7/1891 Jenne..

458,297 8/1891 Blinn 1,294,013 2/1919 Wittrup 2,998,973 9/1961 Schaper 273/1 M FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,146,275 5/1957 France 273/153 R 752,110 7/1956 Great Britain 273/109 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Playthings magazine; August 1961; pg. 8

[ 1 Jan. 22, 1974 [57] ABSTRACT A puzzle having a maze through which a contained ball traverses. A cubicle main body is provided with nontransparent outer walls with a plurality of inner walls mounted therein defining a single noncontinuous tortuous passage having a start and finish without any dead end passages. A pair of transparent windows mounted to the outer walls of the main body are positioned at the start and finish of the passage. A ball is positioned within the main body and is movable from the start window through the passage to the finish window. The ball is unremovable from the main body. In one embodiment, the inner walls are nontransparent thereby preventing visual determination through the windows of the tortuous passage. In another embodiment, some of the inner walls are transparent allowing a person to visually determine through the windows a portion of the tortuous passage. In another embodiment, all of the inner walls are transparent.

2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention: This invention is in the field of puzzles.

2. Description of the Prior Art: Mazes are frequently constructed or printed so that the entire path can be traversed by the eye. That is, the movable member be it the advancing end of a pencil line or a ball, is always under observation by the person seeking to solve the maze. In contrast to the above described prior art mazes, the puzzle described herein is concerned with a hidden maze which offers a much greater challenge to the hopeful solver. In seeking the correct path through the maze, the person must use the auditory and kinesthetic senses to some degree and may benefit from the ability to visualize in three dimensions.

Another prior art puzzle which is rectangular with, a maze formed inside the main body of the puzzle has a transparent main body through which a ball travels a tortuous passage. The puzzle disclosed herein has a hidden and therefore a much more challenging pathway as compared with this prior art. In addition, the ball which travels through the puzzle disclosed herein is not removable from the main body of the puzzle as contrasted to the Milton-Bradley device wherein the ball is removable from the main puzzle body. In addition, the puzzle disclosed herein does not have false or dead end pathways as compared with the prior art devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention is a puzzle device comprising'a ball, a cubicle main body containing the ball being completely closed without exterior openings for the ball to escape, the main body having nontransparent outer walls and a plurality of inner walls, the inner walls being arranged to define a noncontinuous tortuous passage having a start and a finish, the ball being sized to pass freely through the passage from the start to the finish, the outer walls of the main body have at least two transparent windows mounted thereto with one of the windows being positioned at the start and the other of the windows being positioned at the finish of the passage.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved puzzle. I

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a puzzle having a hidden maze.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a hidden maze puzzle having an inescapable ball.

Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a maze puzzle wherein portions of the tortuous passage are visually determinable.

Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from thefollowing description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view ofa puzzle incorporating the present invention.

. FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and viewed in thedirection of the ar- FIG. 4 is the same view as FIG. 3, only with a partition 21 shown positioned within the main body of the puzzle.

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows. 7

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged view rotated clockwise being taken along the line 66 of FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contemplated aswould normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates. 1

Referring now more particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a puzzle device having a cubicle main body 10 with

side walls

40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45 integrally joined together. Walls 40 through 45 are nontransparcut and may be made from a material such as plastic. Integrally joined to walls 40 through 45 are a plurality of inner walls which are arranged to define a noncontinuous tortuous passage. A ball 46 is positioned within main body 10 which is completely closed without exterior openings thereby preventing the ball from escaping from the main body. At least 2 transparent windows 11 and 12 are mounted to body 10 with the start of the tortuous passage being located at window 12 whereas the finish of the tortuous passage is located at window 11.

The object of the puzzle is to rotate and move main body 10 in such a way that the ball traverses the tortuous passage from window 12 to window 11 and back.

For ease of manufacture, main body 10 may be produced by forming a bottom tray 10a, a middle tray 10b and a top tray 10c. The three trays are then secured together by conventional adhesives. FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of main body 10 illustrating bottom tray 10a. The

side walls

40, 41, 42 and 43 are integrally joined together and to the bottom wall 45. A partitioning wall 26 extends across the tray being integrally joined to

walls

41 and 43. A second partitioning wall 28 is perpendicularto wall 26 and is integrally joined to wall 42 and wall'26. Tray 10a is therefore partitioned into

compartments

13, 14 and 15. Wall 27 extends partially into compartment 13 being integrally joined and perpendicular to wall 43.

The intermediate tray 10b likewise has walls 40 through 43 integrally joined together with each wall having an equal length. A pair of parallel dividing

walls

29 and 30 are integrally joined to

side walls

40 and 42 with a horizontal wall 16 being integrally joined to the bottom edges of

walls

29 and 30 which do not extend into tray 10a. Likewise,

walls

29 and 30 do not extend into tray 100. A pair of parallel walls 31 and 32 are respectively joined to

walls

41 and 30 and

walls

29 and 43. Thus, it is possible to see

compartments

14 and 15 by looking down through

walls

30 and 41. Likewise,

compartments

13 and 15 are visible by looking down between

walls

29 and 43. Wall 26 from tray 10a is visi ble respectively between

walls

43 and 29 and

walls

30 and 41 being partially concealed by wall 16.

A horizontal wall 21 (FIG. 4) is positioned between trays 10c and 10b thereby concealing portions of compartments l3 and 14 as well as covering the middle section of wall 16.

Tray 10c has

walls

40, 41, 42 and 43 integrally joined together with wall 33 being parallel with

wall

41 and 43 and being integrally joined to

walls

40 and 42. A second wall 34, perpendicular to wall 33, is integrally joined thereto and to wall 43. A portion of compartment 14 is visible at the upper right hand corner of tray 100 between

walls

33 and 41. Likewise, a portion of compartment 13 is visible in the upper left hand corner between

walls

43 and 29. Wall 35 is integrally joined to wall 40 and extends inwardly to the position where wall 21 extends over wall 16.

Although a specific maze has been described and illustrated for the puzzle incorporating the present in vention, it should be understood that the maze may be varied greatly. Windows 11 and 12 are located at different corners of the cubicle main body with each window extending only around the same edge 47 of the main body. By looking through windows 11 and 12, a portion of the interior of the main body is visible. Wall 21 is the first wall which is visible when one looks downwardly through windows 11 and 12. In one embodiment of the present invention all of the inner walls including wall 21 are nontransparent therefore preventing visual determination of any portion of the tortuous passage by a person looking through the windows. In another embodiment, wall 21 is transparent with the remaining inner walls being nontransparent thereby allowing visual determination through the windows of a portion of the tortuous passage. And yet in another embodiment, all of the inner walls are transparent allowing visual determination of the complete tortuous passage by looking through windows 11 and 12.

To aid in the understanding of the puzzle, the tortuous path will now be described. Assuming ball 46 to be positioned atop wall 21 and adjacent to the start of the tortuous passage at window 12, the ball then is rolled from wall 25 of window 12 (FIG. around wall 35 thereby dropping from tray a to tray 10b and resting atop wall 16. The ball is then moved from wall 40 to wall 42 atop wall 16 (FIG. 3). The ball is then rolled up over wall 29 of tray 10b until the ball falls through passage (FIG. 3) to the position in compartment 13 illustrated in FIG. 2. The ball is then rolled around wall 27 (FIG. 2) and up

walls

43 and 26 into tray 1011 and moved into compartment 15 (FIG. 2) and then rolled down compartment 15 until the ball contacts wall 41. The ball is then rolled up over wall 26 into compartment 14 (FIG. 2) and up wall 42 through tray 10b to tray 100. The ball is then rolled along wall 33 (FIG. 5)

against the inner walls and outer walls as it traverses the length of the passage. It is anticipated that trays 10a, 10b and would be of different color. It is anticipated that additional windows could be positioned in the side walls of the main body at different locations along the path of the tortuous path. It is to be noted that no blind alleys or traps exist in the tortuous path and that the path is noncontinuous in that the path has two ends which are connected together only through the path. A

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood that only the preferred embodiments have been shown and described and that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the claims are also desired to be protected.

The invention claimed is:

1. A puzzle device comprising a ball, a cubicle main body containing said ball being completely closed without exterior openings for said ball to escape, said main body having outer walls and a plurality of inner walls, said inner walls being arranged to define a single noncontinuous tortuous passage having a start and finish, said outer walls of said main body being nontransparent with the exception that said outer walls having at least two transparent windows mounted thereto with one of said windows being positioned at said start and the other of said windows being positioned at said finish, said inner walls being arranged so said ball moves only through said single noncontinuous tortuous passage with said inner walls not forming any dead end passage other than said single noncontinuous tortuous passage, said tortuous passage having a generally squarish cross section from start to finish, said ball being sized to pass freely through said passage from said start to said finish, said main body including a top tray, a middle tray and a bottom tray secured together with said inner walls being positioned on each tray forming said single noncontinuous tortuous passage which extends between said top tray and said middle tray and back and forth between said middle tray and said bottom tray and said passage traversing directly back to said top tray from said bottom tray with both said start and said finish located on said top tray, said device further including a transparent plate extending between said top tray and said middle tray allowing visual observation through said windows and said plate into said middle tray to enable visual observation of multiple portions of said single noncontinuous tortuous passage beneath both windows, all of said inner walls except for said plate being nontransparent.

2. The puzzle device of claim 1 wherein said windows are located at different corners of said main body with each window extending only around the same edge of said main body, said inner walls are integrally connected to said outer walls and form said passage with said cross section which is generally squarish, said ball is round and is sized considerably smaller than said cross section so said ball will rattle against said inner walls as it traverses the length of said passage.