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Publication numberUS5419728 A
Publication typeGrant
Application numberUS 08/223,918
Publication dateMay 30, 1995
Filing dateApr 6, 1994
Priority dateApr 6, 1994
Fee statusLapsed
Publication number08223918, 223918, US 5419728 A, US 5419728A, US-A-5419728, US5419728 A, US5419728A
InventorsJane E. Dallara
Original AssigneeDallara; Jane E.
Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
Device for forming spherical bubbles that cling together
US 5419728 A
A device that forms bubbles that cling together in a predetermined configuration in the substantial absence of a large flat interface between the bubbles. In a preferred embodiment, the device includes a handle secured to a primary ring, and a plurality of secondary rings are secured to the primary ring in a predetermined pattern. The secondary rings are radially spaced apart from the primary ring by about one-sixteenth of an inch and are held in that position by a holding member. A pair of laterally spaced apart triangular openings are formed in each holding member, and each opening has a length of about one-sixteenth of an inch.
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What is claimed is:
1. A device that forms substantially spherical bubbles that join and cling to one another comprising:
a primary ring member having a first diameter;
said primary ring member having an outer perimeter;
a pair of secondary ring members having a common second diameter;
each secondary ring member of said pair of secondary ring members having an outer perimeter spaced radially outwardly of said outer perimeter of said primary ring;
said first diameter being greater than said second diameter;
said secondary ring members being circumferentially spaced apart from one another about the outer perimeter of said primary ring member;
a pair of holder means for joining said primary and secondary ring members in said radially spaced relation to one another;
a pair of laterally spaced openings formed in each of said holder means to allow air to pass therethrough; and
a handle means secured to said primary ring member.
2. The device of claim 1, wherein said holder means holds said primary and secondary ring members about one-sixteenth of an inch in said radial direction apart from one another, and wherein each opening of said pair of laterally spaced openings is triangularly shaped.
3. The device of claim 2, wherein each of said triangularly shaped openings has a length of about one-sixteenth of an inch.
4. The device of claim 1, further comprising a flat storage means, for storing soapy water, fixedly secured to a radially outward side of said outer perimeters of said primary and secondary ring members at a preselected location thereon, said flat storage means being coplanar to said primary and secondary ring members.

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates, generally, to devices that make bubbles. More particularly, it relates to a device that forms spherical bubbles and positions them in a predetermined pattern.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The surface tension of water is increased by many differing agents; perhaps the least expensive and most widely available surface tension-increasing agent is found in household soap. It was discovered long ago that soapy water would form into a flat sheet if an open frame member were immersed into the water and removed therefrom; the surface tension holds the soapy water to the open frame and a flat sheet of soapy water fills the void surrounded by the frame. Causing air to impinge against the sheet of soapy water then causes the peripheral edge of the flat sheet to separate from the edges of the open frame and to reassemble into a perfect sphere.

Air is caused to impinge against the soapy water by holding the frame still and blowing against the film by human or mechanical means or by simply waving the open frame member through the air. The open frame member and its handle are often called a wand because of such latter use.

There have been numerous innovations in the field of bubble-making devices. A globular cluster of bubbles was formed by the soap bubble pipe invented by Mausolf in 1936 (U.S. Pat. No. 2,041,423 and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 98,687). This design causes three bubbles to merge with one another along large flat planes; thus, the bubbles are far from spherical because they have large flat areas where they interface with one another.

Tseng U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,926 shows a multi-bubble device where all of the bubbles form perfect spheres, but none of the bubbles touch another bubble.

Rasmussen U.S. Pat. No. Des. 263,062 shows a multi-bubble device where all of the bubbles form a perfect sphere, but the bubbles separate from one another as soon as they are formed.

Hagopian, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 139,940, shows a device that produces a single clover-shaped bubble.

Still further innovations of interest are disclosed in Joel, II U.S. Pat. No. 2, 527,935 (forms a bubble within a bubble), and Great Britain patent No. 1,329,796 (also forms a bubble within a bubble).

Although the art of bubble-forming is quite well-developed, it has not produced a wand capable of making plural bubbles, each of which forms a substantially perfect sphere, each of which remains attached to a contiguous bubble after formation, each of which substantially maintains its position relative to the other bubbles after all of the bubbles have been formed, and each of which adjoins its contiguous bubble with a flat interface area that is smaller in size than the flat interface areas heretofore known.


The present invention advances the art of bubble making by disclosing the world's first wand that produces multiple substantially spherical bubbles that cling to one another after formation in a predetermined pattern in the substantial absence of migration and in the substantial absence of large flat abutting surfaces.

The novel wand includes a conventional handle that is fixedly secured to a primary bubble-forming circular open frame member. In a first embodiment, a secondary bubble-forming circular open frame member is fixedly secured to the primary open frame member by a unique holder means that enables the formation of the final desired bubble structure. The two bubbles meet along a common tangent, i.e., there is a small flat interface surface therebetween so both bubbles remain substantially spherical.

In a second embodiment, two additional bubble-forming open frames are secured to the first, and the resulting bubble has a mouse-like appearance. A novel soapy water storage means may be provided in connection with each of the three embodiments.

The unique holder means for connecting contiguous open frame members to one another performs the function of holding the primary and secondary open frame members about one-sixteenth of an inch apart from each other. Moreover, a pair of triangular-shaped air openings are formed in each holder means. This spacing of the open frame members and the air openings ensures that the resulting bubbles will substantially maintain their respective positions once formed, and will not form large flat surfaces where they abut one another.

It should now be clear that the primary object of this invention is to provide a bubble-forming wand that produces multiple substantially spherical bubbles that maintain their respective positions relative to one another after formation and which abut one another along tangent lines and thus maintain their substantially spherical shapes.

Another object is to advance the art of bubble wands by providing a bubble wand having a storage means to which soapy water clings.

An additional object is to provide the world's first bubble wand capable of forming a mouse-like collection of substantially spherical bubbles.

These and other important objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent as this description proceeds.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts that will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.



FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a first illustrative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of a second illustrative embodiment thereof;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the bubbles produced by the wand of the second embodiment; and

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the bubbles depicted in FIG. 3.


Referring now to FIG. 1, it will there be seen that a first exemplary embodiment of the invention is denoted as a whole by the reference numeral 10. Handle 12 may be straight, bent, arcuate, curvilinear, or the like and may have a cross section of any predetermined geometrical configuration; it forms no part, per se, of the invention.

Primary ring 14 has a predetermined diameter greater than the predetermined diameter of secondary ring 16; said ratio is not critical to the invention, i.e., the primary and secondary rings may be of equal size and the secondary ring may be larger in diameter than the first.

A holder means joins the primary and secondary rings together in specific, spaced apart relation to one another. A pair of triangular-shaped openings 18 and 20 are formed in the holder means as shown; they allow air to pass therethrough and are believed to be responsible for the unique bubble structures made possible by this invention. Each opening is about one-sixteenth of an inch in length and about the same size at its widest part. Note that the respective openings exhibit bilateral symmetry with respect to one another, i.e., they are horizontally flipped with respect to one another.

The handle 12 and each ring 14 and 16 may be made of any suitable material such as wire or plastic, the latter being preferred. Where the parts are made of wire, they may be soldered together, and the openings 18, 20 are thus formed by three globular clusters 22, 24, and 26 of solder. Where the parts are made of plastic, openings 18, 20 are formed by three plastic formations, also represented by the reference numerals 22, 24, and 26. The three formations 22, 24, 26 and the openings 18 and 20 collectively form the holding means of this invention.

As mentioned above, the radial spacing between the primary and secondary ring is about one-sixteenth of an inch. This spaces the bubbles slightly apart from one another at the time of their formation. When the bubbles form, contiguous bubbles then approach one another and connect with one another along a tangent, i.e., in the absence of a large flat interface. If the radial spacing is substantially less than one-sixteenth of an inch, the bubbles separate from one another. If the radial spacing is substantially greater than one-sixteenth of an inch, the bubbles form unrecognizable clusters with large, flat interfaces.

The second embodiment of this invention is depicted in FIG. 2; it includes a second secondary ring 16. Reference numeral 28 denotes a globular cluster or flat plate of solder, plastic, or other tab-shaped suitable substrate upon the surface of which soapy water is collected in accordance with another important teaching of this invention. Tab 28 may have a round, flat, or other configuration, although a spherical configuration provides the greatest surface area upon which soapy water may collect. When the rings are immersed within a reservoir of soapy water (not shown), some of that soapy water will collect upon the surface of storage means 28; as the bubbles form, soapy water from said storage means flows into and joins the soapy water forming the bubble, thereby producing bubbles having a film thicker than would be produced in the absence of such storage means.

The bubbles produced by the second embodiment are depicted in FIGS. 3 and 4. Note the substantial absence of large, flat interfaces. Just as importantly, it should be appreciated that the bubbles generally remain in their depicted positions after formation, although sometimes the two "ears" tend to migrate toward one another.

In all embodiments, primary ring 14 is depicted as having a diameter greater than the secondary ring or rings, but a construction where all of the rings share a common diameter is within the scope of this invention, as is a construction where the rings have differing diameters and form shapes other than cartoon-like mice.


It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, and those made apparent from the foregoing description, are efficiently attained and since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matters contained in the foregoing construction or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.


Now that the invention has been described,

Patent Citations
Cited PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitle
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US2366103 *Jul 9, 1943Dec 26, 1944Hagopian Charles HBubble gun
US2527935 *May 14, 1946Oct 31, 1950Joel Lyons BBubble blowing device
US3144950 *Apr 9, 1962Aug 18, 1964Laurel Plastics IncCombination handle and trifoil wand device for blowing bubbles from a soap solution
US3736694 *Apr 27, 1972Jun 5, 1973Hot Items IncPressure-actuated bubble blowing toy
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US4180938 *Oct 17, 1977Jan 1, 1980Cuccio John DBubble blowing wand
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Non-Patent Citations
1"Sudman's Bubble-ology Guide," Tangent Toy Co., 1984.
2 *Sudman s Bubble ology Guide, Tangent Toy Co., 1984.
Referenced by
Citing PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitle
US7144291Sep 8, 2004Dec 5, 2006Arko Development LimitedBubble machine
US7172484 *Jan 18, 2005Feb 6, 2007Arko Development Ltd.Bubble machine
US7780497 *Jan 31, 2007Aug 24, 2010Arko Development Ltd.Bubble machine
US8496509 *Sep 24, 2010Jul 30, 2013What Kids Want, Inc.Voice activated bubble blower
US20110081820 *Sep 24, 2010Apr 7, 2011Faecher Bradley SVoice Activated Bubble Blower
DE19628881C1 *Jul 17, 1996Jan 29, 1998Lin Mon ShengBlasenerzeugungsspielzeug
U.S. Classification446/15
International ClassificationA63H33/28
Cooperative ClassificationA63H33/28
European ClassificationA63H33/28
Legal Events
Jul 17, 2007FPExpired due to failure to pay maintenance fee
Effective date: 20070530
May 30, 2007LAPSLapse for failure to pay maintenance fees
Dec 13, 2006REMIMaintenance fee reminder mailed
May 20, 2003SULPSurcharge for late payment
Year of fee payment: 7
May 20, 2003FPAYFee payment
Year of fee payment: 8
Jan 25, 1999SULPSurcharge for late payment
Jan 25, 1999FPAYFee payment
Year of fee payment: 4
Dec 22, 1998REMIMaintenance fee reminder mailed