US20040004097A1

US20040004097A1 - Ball carrying container and dispenser

Info

Publication number: US20040004097A1
Application number: US10/189,740
Authority: US
Inventors: Harold Seenauth
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-07-08
Filing date: 2002-07-08
Publication date: 2004-01-08

Abstract

The invention is directed to a ball container and dispensing unit which is constructed of a cylindrical unit. A multiple of balls stacked upon at each other are contained in the unit. The bottom of the unit is closed while the top has a flexible cap. in operation, a ball one at a time may be removed or extracted from under the flexible cap. A coil spring is disposed between the bottom of the container and a pusher below the stacked balls to apply a tension to the balls to be moved upwardly against the flexible cap until a ball is dispensed from there one ball at a time. The ball container, at an outer surface, has attached thereto a golf tee container having a a multiple of golf tees contained therein which can be extracted from there, one at a time.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

(none)

STATEMENT REGARDING FED SPONSORED R & D

(none)

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed toward a ball carrying container and dispenser. The ball carrier is particularly useful in carrying small balls such as golf balls or tennis balls. In both games of tennis and golf it is well known that quite a consumption of balls takes place because the balls are frequently in- and out-of play. Tennis players, for example carry the extra balls in their hands (two or three or more at any one time). Men also stuff their pants or shorts pockets with extra playing balls to keep them quickly available so that the play will keep on going. Women players appear not to have these pockets available, perhaps dictated by fashion.

It is also well known that ball boys and/or girls participate in the game of tennis by retrieving errant balls and always have balls available to resupply the players by feeding balls to them whenever desired or necessary. All of the above noted ball supplies or methods of retrieval are very cumbersome and do not always operate properly.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention tries to alleviate the above noted problems by having a container with balls inside readily available to the player at all times. The container is an elongated tube or cylindrical container that may have up to five balls stored inside. The container can be carried on the person of the player by using a belt around the waist of the player and the container is thereby kept on the back of the player or any other location. The container can be placed on the belt to assume different positions from the vertical to adjust to the player's preference. The container also has an arrangement by which balls may be fed or dispensed one ball at a time. The balls remain safely in the container in spite of the physical activity of the player.

In the game of golf, fewer balls are used because any one of the balls remains much longer in one play. However, on a shooting or a practice range many more balls are used at any one time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a cross section through the ball dispensing container; [0007]
FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of the ball dispensing container; [0008]
FIG. 3 illustrates the manner by which a ball is dispensed one at a time[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows the ball container and dispenser [0010] 1 in a cross sectional view. The ball container 1 and/or dispenser 1 is made of a cylindrical plastic material having a rigid bottom or closure. The balls 2 are stacked within the container 1 and are fed into the container from the top, one at a time, until filled. When being fed into the container 1, the first ball will make contact with the lower ball pusher 3 and all other balls will move the ball pusher downward until the container is filled. At the same time, the ball pusher 3, as it moves downward will compress a spring 4 downwardly until the container is filled. The spring 4 should be a loose helical spring that can easily be compressed but should be strong enough to lift all of the balls until the last one ball can be dispensed but not strong enough to push the balls out of their retention position at the top of the container 1. The balls or at least the top ball is retained within the cylindrical container by a cap 9 which will be further explained with reference to FIG. 2 below.
On the opposite side of the dispensing position of the [0011] container 1 there is provided a retainer clip 10 which can be attached to the belt of the player who plays either golf or tennis or the container 1 can be attached to the outside of the golf bag with easy access to or the delivery of the balls. The top ball in the retainer 1 is kept in place by an edge of the container and the cap 9 which has a forward edge 9 which juts forward over the center of the ball. When playing golf, it is desirable to have the golf tees T in a handy position or location. To this end, the side of the container that delivers the golf balls has a tee T retainer 5 attached thereto which may be integrally molded with the container 1 or may be separately molded and adhesively attached to the container 1 at a later time. The T retainer 5 may have an elongated slot 6 therein or individual bores 6 to receive the tees T. To avoid the tees T from falling out of the slot 6, a tee T retainer ledge 7 is provided which juts over the large head of the tee T. The ledge 7, made of a plastic material will yield enough to allow the tees T to be pushed into the retainer 5 or being pulled out of the same.
FIG. 2 is a perspective and broken away view of the ball container wherein like reference characters have been applied as were applied to the same elements in FIG. 1. The [0012] ball 2 can be seen in its top position or as the only ball left in the container. The lower ball pusher 3 can be seen in its top position having been pushed into this position by the coil spring 4. The top cap 9 has been divided into three tongues 9, 9 a, 9 b which makes the cap 9 rather flexible so that a ball at a time can be extracted from the container 1 one at a time by simply grasping a ball with a finger F and a Thumb TH as is shown in FIG. 3.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. A ball container and dispenser unit including a cylindrical tube having a top and a bottom which container is adapted to receive a multiple of balls therein, said bottom being closed and said top having a flexible ball dispensing structure, a ball pusher element is located below said balls and above said bottom, a spring located between said bottom and said ball pusher element for pushing said balls toward said top, wherein a ball may be extracted from said top flexible ball dispensing structure, one ball at a time.

2. The ball container and dispenser unit of claim 1, wherein said top flexible ball dispensing structure consists of a cap having a multiple of separate fingers therein.

3. The ball container and dispenser unit of claim 1, wherein said spring is a coil spring.

4. The ball container and dispenser unit of claim 1 including a clip on said container so that the unit can be worn on a person's belt or be attached to a golf bag.

5. The ball container and dispensing unit of claim 1 including a golf tee container attached to said container.

6. The ball container and dispenser unit of claim 5, wherein said golf tee container has a multiple of bores therein to receive a multiple of tees therein.

7. The ball container and dispenser unit of claim 5 including a welt on said container to restrain heads of said tees from dislodging from said tee container.