US1132214A - Tennis-racket. - Google Patents

Description

H. W. RIBS L, B. BROWN TENNIS BASKET.

APPLICATION FILED 0011?;

1,132,214, Patented 1.1411. 16.1915.

INVENTOFES I J 7 WITNESSES ATTORNEY UNITED STAEES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY W. RES, COLLINGS'WOOD, NEW JERS EY, AND LAIl'DY B. BROWN, OB

- EHILA DELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

TENNIS-BASKET.

a i To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, HARRY W. R'ms, acitiaen of the United States, and resident of Collingswood, county of Camden, and State of New Jersey, and Lanny B. Bnowri, a citizen of the United States, and resident of E'hiladelphia, county of Philadelphia, State f of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Tennis-Rackets, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to tennis rackets and more particularly to the manner of stringing the racket.

It as for an object to provide a tennis racket having a playing area of relatively high resilience which is so positioned and arranged. as to receive the greatest amount of use, and bounding said area by other areas of relatively less resilience.

it has'for a further object to provide a tennis racket wherein the frame is braced by reason of the arrangement of the strings to prevent its distortion in case one or more of the strings are broken; also to permit of repair. has also a further object, namely, to

, provide a tennis racket strung in such a .manner that better control of the ball is obtained.

Our invention comprehends features of construction which will be, better understood by reference to the drawings, in which:

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a tennis racket embodying our invention; Fig. 2 represents diagrammatically thearran'ge ment of the strings;-and Fig. 3 represents;

a section of a modified form of stringing,

- ,or heavier gut. It. will henoted, howeveg.

said section being taken at a point corre sponding to the line 33 of Fig. 1.

1 designates the annular frame of a tennis racket, which is suitably bored, shownat .2 for example, for the .purpose of forming transverse openings for looping the stringsthrough the frame in the proper manner to. form a playing area with the strings in the same plane. In the present instance we have formed a playing area of two grades of;

strings, 3 and 4., the former being of relatively fine gut while the latter is of coarser sh t-ate scan wiahta b lim d Specification of Letters latent. Application filed October 16, 1914. Serial no. ceases.

Patented Mar. 16, 1915.

particular gradq construction of string,

since obviously the strings 4 may be of the same grade or degree of fineness as the strings 3 but doubled as shown'at Fig. 3 so that each string as it crcisses the playing the area comprises. two strards. In usin term gut it'will be an erstobd we 0 so in the broad sense and do not wishto be limited necessarily to actual gut as the only material of which the strings may be made, as obviously any material may be employed which gives strength, resiliency and durability for the purpose intended, and are included under the term gut as em field of suitable dimensions and is prefer-' ably passed longitudinally and transversel of the frame as shown in Fig. 1, thong our invention is not limited to this particular manner of traversing the opening in the racket since the particular direction of the crossed strings relative to the frame 1 is immaterial so long as the proper playing area is provided. The result of thus stringing the racket with the string 3 is to form intersecting, longitudinal and transverse portions interwoven and forming an area 5 of great resilience and which area is preferably located where the field of play is th greatest. I

The strings 4 are utilized as a means for bracing the-racket frame for assisting in maintaining it at all times and under all .,COI1dli3l0Il'S 'aoeurate as to shape and also ex- --tend 1ng the playing area; and in attaining this end, we have passed one of th'e strings 4 longitudinally of ther'acket and at one side of the field of ,the string ,3, suitably looping the string 4 through the frame and then passing it at right angles to its former course and carrying it transversely of the frame, 'alsoto one side of'the playing field th 3', ike th str ng a asset.-

the playing area 5 of the racketis formed of resilient flexible gut comprising the crossed or interwoven portions of string 3 and is separate and distinct from the areas in Which the strings 4 form a part or whole. The ad-.

Vantage of this construction will be readily apparent in view of the fact that the greater portion of play takes place upon the area 5 formed by the string 3 of relatively fine gut and in case-the -string forming the said area 5 should break there is no objectionable loosening of the tension upon the racket frame, since the strings 4 hold the frame firmly in its normal shape. \Vhile the strings 4, therefore, primarily serve as a meansto prevent the frame from becoming distorted, especially during repairs to the strings 3, they also, by reason of being preferably heavier or thicker gut, serve to give an added control to the ball either in serving or in returning it. Such stringing as here described is particularly useful in giving a more pronounced cut to the ball.

In Fig. 3 we have illustrated a modification wherein the strings 4 may be of f ne gut and doubled in number by looping through the apertures in the frame so that double the number of strands cross the opening or face of the racket in the same areas 6 and 7, heretofore described, as occupied by the strings 4, said strands being preferably strung through apertures 2 in the frame in pairs. By employing more strands (closer together) in a given area, it is manifest that greater rigidity or less resiliency 1S imparted to such areas thanin the-area 5 and the broad results of our invention will be secured.

The area 5, bounded laterally on each side by the less resilient areas (iand 7 formed by the longitudinal strands 4 or their equivalent of less resiliency, fulfils the more important functions of our invention, and therefore we may omit the transverse stringing to give the less resilient areas if so desired.

In connection with the use of the strings 4 it will be understood that we do not wish to lie-limited to the number of these strings forming the several areas, as obviously this feature may be varied to suit conditions and still be within the scope of our invention.

It wil be apparent that a racket strung in aimllda so .with our invention may be repaired very easily and economically since' greater control of the ball when the racket is in play as before pointed out.

The playing area of relatively high resiliency and bounding areas of relatively lower resiliency may be produced by strings of various kinds, densities, tensions, sizes or cross sectional areas (single or plural strings) and we therefore do not restrict ourselves to strings of different cross sectional areas.

lVe do not limit ourselves to any number of string sections, but have shown three, by way of example, to provide a relatively few terminal ends; and while we have described our invention iii-its preferred form We do not confine ourselves to the minor details as these may be modified without departing from the spirit of the'invention.

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1s-:

1. In a tennis racket, the combination of.

an annular frame having its opening strung with crossing strings providing a central playing area formed of strings of high resiliency and the extension of said strings with strin s of lower resiliency bounding said central playing area, to form areas having less resiliency than the central area.

2. In a tennis racket, the combination of a suitable f 'ame, a net strung in said frame, the strings thereof 'aranged transversely and longitudinally to form mesh of substantially equal size and in whichtlie central area of the strung surface has greater resiliencythan the bounding area between it and the frame.

3. In a tennis racket, the combination of an annular frame having its opening strung with crossing'strings of substantially uniform mesh arrai'iged to form a central rectangular area 5 of high resiliency, having its sides bounded by four areas 7 of medium and lover resiliency, and four additional areas 6 of lowest resiliency connecting the areas 7 and also acting as a support to the central area of high resiliency, the construction providing means of graduating the strain of impact upon the strung areas and forming a natural central pocket when] strands of relatively coarser gut strung lat- In testimony of which invention, We hers erally and longitudinally of said frame a unto set our hands.

plurality of times and meshing with the HARRY W. EYES. finer gut strings around the central playing LANDY B. BEOWN. area to form an interwoven area of rela- "Witnesses:

tively lower resiliency bounding said @lny- Fnoimrzcn EEACOIQE

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