US721196A - Appliance for picking up balls employed in table-tennis or other games. - Google Patents

Description

1 "No; 721,196. 1 111111111111 FEB. 24,1993.

1 1 V E. A. JEFFREYS.

APPLIANCE P011 110mm UP BALLS-EMPLOYED 111 TABLE TENNIS 011 OTHER GAMES.

APPLIOATIOH IILIID MAB. 11 1902.

I0 IODEL.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD AUGUSTUS JEFFREYS, OF MOSELEY, NEAR BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND.

APPLIANCE FOR PlCKING UP BALLS EMPLOYED IN TABLE-TENNIS OR OTHER GAMES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 721,196, dated February 24, 1903.

Application filed March 11,1902. Serial No. 97,774. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD AUGUSTUS J EF- FREYS, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and a resident of Thistlewood, Coppice road, Moseley, near Birmingham, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Appliances for Picking Up Balls Employed in Table-Tennis or other Games, (for which I have filed an application in Great Britain, No. 2,791, hearing date February 4, 1902,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object the construction in a simple andinexpensive manner of appliances for the ready and convenient picking up of the balls employed in tabletennis and other games.

My invention comprises the combination,

with a suitable stick or handle part, of a cagelike receptacle formed from a spiral spring with coils having intervening spaces of a width somewhat less than the diameter of the balls, but which extend at any part to admit a ball without releasing those that may be already within the spring. 7

Referring to the accompanying sheet of explanatory drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 an end elevation, of a ball picker-up constructedin accordance with my invention. Fig. 3 is an elevation representing a modified form of my picker-up.

The type of my ball picker-up, as shown at Figs. 1 and 2, has a cage or receptacle which is made from a single length of wire wound or coiled into the particular spiral form illustrated and with extensions to form the fork a for attachment in any convenient manner to the handle part b. The space or distance between the coils is somewhat less than the diameter of the balls, as c, to be picked up; but on pressing any part of the spring upon a ball the space between any two adjacent coils at their points of contact with the ball will widen or extend sufficiently to admit the ball to the interior ofthe spring; butno other portion of the space between the coils will widen sufficiently to permit of the escape of a ball already within the spring, and immediately a ball has been forced into the spring, as aforesaid, the coils will return to their normal position. The discharge or withdrawal of the balls can be effected by forcing apart the coils with the fingers, or I sometimes provide a discharge-aperture at one end of the spring. I

In the type as illustrated at Fig. 3 I combine the spring with a supporting-ring, as d, around which the spring is wound in the manner illustrated.

By forming the cage or receptacle from a wire spring in the manner described balls can be readily picked up from under furniture or when lying in corners, against a wall, or in any other awkward position, for as any part of the spring cage or receptacle will open when pressed upon or against a ball or balls the appliance will act equally well at whatever angle the operating stick or handle is placed with the floor-level.

For clearness of illustration all the balls in Fig. 3 and some of them in Figs. 1 and 2 are shown by dotted lines.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In appliances for picking up balls, the combination with an operating stick or handle of a coiled-spring cage having the coils arranged in planes parallel with the handle substantially as described. I

2. In appliances for picking up halls, the combination consisting of an operating stick or handle and a coiled-spring cage having extensions forming a fork for attachment to the said handle the said coils being arranged in planes parallel with the handle, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two witnesses.

Witnesses:

EDWARD MARKS, HERBERT BOWKETT.

EDWARD AUGUSTUS Jnrrrnrsf f-

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