GB458787A - Improvements in or relating to billiard tables - Google Patents

Abstract

458,787. Billiard tables. MOULE, H. A., 222, Jeffcock Road, Wolverhampton. June 27, 1935, No. 18389. [Class 132 (ii)] [See also Group XVIII] In a coin-freed billiard table game, pocketed balls are at first returned to the player by way of a series of traps leading to an open receptacle, the first ball pocketed passing through the first trap and closing it, the second ball passing over the first trap and through the second, and so on, until all the traps are closed, pocketed balls then passing over all the traps to be delivered to another receptacle from which they are recoverable only after insertion of a coin. Alternatively, only a ball or balls of a certain size (e.g. the larger cue ball employed in the game of pyramids) are at first returnable by way of the traps, the other balls (e.g. smaller object balls) being always non-returnable. The construction shown is of this form. Pocketed balls are led to spaced inclined rails 14 between which the smaller object balls drop to an incline 40 which conveys them to a coin-freed drawer 24. The larger cue ball, however, runs along the rails 14 to an incline 16 having a series of apertures 17 with hinged cover flaps 18 which are at first all in raised position. The first time the cue ball is pocketed, it passes through the first aperture 17, and is led by a lower shoot 20 and a curved guide 21 to an open receptacle 23 always accessible to the player. In passing through this aperture 17, the ball engages an abutment 19 on the flap 18 which is turned over to close the aperture, so that the next time the ball is pocketed, it passes through the second aperture for return to the open receptacle 23, and so on. When the cue ball has been pocketed as many times as there are apertures, the next time it is pocketed, it passes over all the now closed apertures, and falls to the coin-freed drawer 24. The flaps 18 are raised again for further play as the drawer 24 is opened to obtain the balls, by means of transverse pins 39 carried by a pair of slides 38 connected by a lever 36 with the drawer. The invention is applicable to the apparatus described in Specification 425,237.