HOLLOW BUILDING BLOCK

PATENT SPECIFICATION⁽¹¹⁾ 1 388

(21) Application No. 37037/72 (22) Filed 8 Aug. 1972

(31) Convention Application No.

170238 (32) Filed 9 Aug. 1971 in

(33) United States of America (US)

(44) Complete Specification published 26 March 1975

(51) INT. CL.- G09B 17/00

(52) Index at acceptance

G5G 10Α 5Ρ

(54) HOLLOW EDUCATIONAL TOY BLOCK

(71) I, Reuben Benjamin Klamer, a citizen of the United States of America, of 245 South Barrington Avenue, Los Angeles, State of California 90049, United States of America, do hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: -

This invention relates to educational toy blocks and relates more particularly to a hollow educational toy block which can be opened and closed.

It has been speculated that toy blocks have been used by children since before recorded history. Egyptian children likely used small blocks of stone to build small structures in an attempt to imitate the adults who where using larger blocks to construct huge stone structures.

It is known that toy blocks were used during the Victorian Era for teaching religious history. The blocks were provided with portions of a picture which cooperated with other blocks having other portions of the picture so that the blocks could be assembled to display an entire religious scene.

In the 19th century, hollow toy blocks were used which had recesses or cavities covered with a transparent material such as glass and which contained ornaments, pictures, or other objects which could be seen through the glass. In more recent times, various hollow toy blocks have been developed primarily for amusement purposes.

According to the present invention there is provided a hollow educational toy block having at least one base and a plurality of connecting lateral side walls with at least one of said side walls being provided with a pictorial representation, said toy block being sectioned along a plane so as to [Price 33ρ]

divide it into two parts, said parts being hinged together so that the block may be opened by separating said parts by pivoting one of said parts about said hinge in relation to the other of said parts, said toy block being hollow whereby said block may be opened to provide access to the inner portion thereof and an object having a correlation to said pictorial representation being removably stored within said block.

The block of the present invention preferably opens along a plane between at least two opposing lateral edges or sidewalls to form at least two polyhedral, preferably prismic, sections.

By opening the block along a plane between at least two opposing lateral edges of a prism or edges of a polyhedron, the parting or opening lines are hidden by the edges where the plane intersects the edges of the prism or other polyhedron, thus the resulting openable block is more appealing to the eye.

When the block is a right regular prism, the block can be moulded from plastics materials by moulding the individual prismic sections connected by a hinge along one of the lateral edges. Moulding in this manner permits a finished block to be easily removed from the mould since there are no undercuts holding the block in the mould and release is further facilitated in that several of the side walls angle inwardly.

The surface of the block is provided with pictorial representation(s) and, optionally, a letter having a correlation with an item stored within the block. For ample, a dog figurine may be stored within the openable block and the surface of the block may contain a picture of a dog, word “dog” and the letter “D”. The child playing with the block will then learn the association between the dog figurine stored within the block and the pictorial representations on the surface of the block.

It is preferred that said block be cubic in shape.

It is also preferred that said parts are provided with means for releasable attachment to each other.

It is also preferred that at least one of said sidewalls has an alphabet letter thereon which correlates with said object.

The invention includes a set of toy blocks in accordance with the invention in which a different pictorial representation and object are provided for each block.

A preferred embodiment is a set of toy blocks of the type in accordance with the invention, wherein different pictorial representations and objects are provided for each of said blocks and each pictorial representation constitutes an illustration of the object in the block on which it appears and the descriptive name of each of said objects begins with the same alphabet letter as that appearing on the block in which the respective object is removably stored.

Two specific embodiments of the indention will now be 'described by way example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: -

Figure 1 is a top perspective view of an opened toy block,

Figure 2 is a top perspective view of the toy block shown in Figure 1 rotated 180° to the left, and

Figure 3 is a top perspective view showing an alternative embodiment of a toy block having the shape of a hexagonal prism.

Figures 1 and 2 show a polyhedral prismic block of the preferred embodiment which is a prismic hexahedral block 10 of cubic shape, (although the particular polyhedral prism could be of any other shape such as a right triangular prism or a right hexagonal prism 33 as shown in Figure 3).

The prismic block is defined by two major bases 21 and 22 connected by lateral walls 17, 18, 19, and 20. The intersections of the lateral walls define lateral edges 25, 26, 27, and 28. In the preferred embodiment, block 10 is sectioned along a plane between two opposing lateral edges to form prismic sections 11 and 12. Prismic section 11 is defined by secondary bases 13 and 14, lateral walls 17 and 18 and lateral area 24. Prismic section 12 is defined by secondary bases 15 and 16, lateral walls 19 and 20 and lateral area 29.

One of the lateral edges formed by the inter-section of area 24 with a sidewall is connected by hinge 23 to one of the lateral edges formed by the intersection of area 29 with a sidewall so that secondary' prismic sections 11 and 12 may be separated by pivoting one of the secondary sections about the hinge in relation to the other secondary prismic section. Of course, the lateral areas 24 and 29 in essence are representative of the sectioning plane spoken of. Each of the secondary prismic sections 70 may have any means for securing the secondary sections together along the sectioning plane when the sections are not separated.

Figures 1 and 2 show a block having 75 pictorial representations 30 and 32 upon the surface of the block which are to be associated with a figurine 31 which can be stored within the block.

The pictorial representation shown in 80 Figure 1 is the letter “D” which is to be associated with the dog figurine, and Figure 2 shows the same block from a different view showing a pictorial representation of a log which likewise will 85 be associated with the dog figurine: thus the block, the representations and the figurine become a teaching aid for children.

In its preferred embodiment the present invention comprises a set of blocks, one for 90 each letter of the alphabet, each of which has a pictorial illustration of an object, animal, or the like, the name of which begins with that letter in the alphabet which appears on the block. The hollow 95 construction of the blocks permits a figurine shaped in the form of the object, animal, or the like, which appears on the surface of the block to be stored inside the block. In this preferred embodiment, a 100 complete set of block will consist of twenty six blocks together with twenty six figurines capable of being stored within the blocks. The user of the blocks is able to realize a learning experience by, first, 105 selecting that figurine which matches the illustration on the block and, second, by learning to correlate the letter on the block with the descriptive name of the figurine.

While a set of blocks corresponding to 110 the alphabet constitutes the preferred embodiment of this invention, it is clear that the invention has application to other educational needs whereby the user may be taught to correlate any desired subject 115 matter by suitably placing illustrations, letters, numbers, etc., on the surface of the block and by forming figurines capable of being stored within the block which correlate with the subject matter on the sur- 120 face of the block.

The block may be manufactured of any suitable material and is preferably manufactured from a resilient, shape-retaining, plastics material. ~ 125 In the present invention, any polyhedral toy block which is defined by at least one base and a plurality of connecting sidewalls may be sectioned along a plane passing through at least two opposing sidewalls. 130