Jack-o'-Lantern Light: a Dry Cell in a Tin Clip and a Hinged Bulb Holder Instead of a Candle (Root, 1953)

"I provide an operating means for the light bulb support 18 of such a nature that the child can turn the light on and off at will, yet if the entire toy is carried by the operating handle, no harm is done to the device."

Cut the tinplate strip from the notebook. Bend it into a U round the cell, his container 10: the bottom is the cross bar 10c, the sides are legs 10a and 10b. Curve the legs a little across their width so the cell cannot slide out sideways, and snip and press in a small tongue on each leg (his 15) to grip it. Snip two pointed fingers at the bottom (his 13).

Cut a tin plate a little longer than the cell is wide, his support 18. Punch a hole in the middle just big enough for the bulb's screw base to screw into (his threaded aperture 19; ours). Bend two small ears at the top of leg 10a (his 21) and roll the support's end round a wire pin (22) between them, so it hinges.

Wind a few turns of spring wire on the hinge pin, one end hooked over the top of leg 10a and the other over the support, so it presses the support down (his spring 25). Bend a wire handle (his 20) long enough to come out of the top opening; pivot its lower end in a turned-over tab on leg 10b (26) and bend a short arm (27) under the free end of the support, so raising the handle lifts the bulb.

Seat the cell with its centre terminal down on the cross bar, put a tin band (his 16) round the legs if they are loose, and screw the bulb into the support. Let the support down: the bulb's end terminal should touch the top of the cell and light, the current returning through the support, the hinge and the clip.

Carve the pumpkin's face and cut the top opening (ours; his toys are hollow figures). Push the clip's fingers through the bottom of the pumpkin, put a washer over them outside, and bend them over it (his washer 8), so the light stands in the middle. Pass the handle up through the top opening.

Lower the handle and the bulb lights; raise it and the light goes off. To change the cell, lift the support and take the cell out.

**Howard S. Root** of Spokane, Washington, US 2,631,224, dated 10 March 1953, filed 21 December 1948. He claimed "an illuminated figure toy comprising a hollow body having an opening in the top thereof", a conductive container for a dry cell, a hinged conductive bulb support, and spring means pressing the bulb's end terminal against the cell. He also shows other hinges, a magnet latch and a side handle (Figs. 6-13), not built here. He gives no sizes or materials: the tinplate, all sizes, the pumpkin and the cell and bulb are ours.