US26128A - George d - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE D. SHARP, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

BILLIARD-TABLE CUSHION.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.'26,128, dated November 15 1859' Reissued AV ril s, 1873, No. 5,349.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE D. SHARP, of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Constructing Cushions for Billiard-Tables; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon, like references always denoting the same part in all the figures.

Figure 1, is a broken or sectional View of the cushion as I make it. Fig. 2, is a sectional view of cushions as most generally used.

The nature of my invention consists of forming the cushion-bed of some elastic material (preferring india rubber or gum elastic) substantially as shown in Fig. 1, thus presenting to the ball, a surface which is nearly square or perpendicular, instead of a different angle, while the peculiar form of the hollow corresponds, substantially, with the exterior form, so that while the material is even in thickness and allows a more delicate impress or impingement of the ball in playing, there is great economy in constructing the cushion; the thus constructed cushion has greater power as a spring than those in common use; thus the blow will be more effective when the ball strikes the cushion, especially in carroming, as it presents to the ball a superior shelving or vanishing point of surface.

To enable others skilled in the art, to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A A in Figs. 1 and 2 represent the tablebed; B the cushion rail; C the soft wood foundation, or lining of t-he cushion; D the india rubber cushion-bed; E in Fig. 1 constructed after my method is a cavity extending throughout the length of the cushion-bed; and F F in each ligure respectively, the facing formed of india rubber, of harder manufacture or greater density, the whole to be covered, as usual, with muslin and line woolen cloth.

By this combined construction will be secured greater elasticity to the cushion than has ever before been attained; for the reason that the elastic property of the india rubber cushion-bed throughout will all be brought to bear upon the spot where the ball strikes or impinges; whereas in the common or usual form, the upper edge of the cushion alone comes in contact with the ball and acts; the elastic property of all the rubber below the point G (Fig. 2) being entirely lost. The ball striking the upper part of the upper bevel, in Fig. 1, meets with a sufcient resistance to prevent it from jumping, but the lower part of the said bevel, not offering the same resistance, at the time the ball impinges, causes the spring produced by means of the cavity, to immediately act, and cause the ball to rebound with the full force of the elastic property contained in the cushion-bed, from the upper part thereof to its base. A less quantity of rubber will be used, and there will be a consequent saving in the expense of manufacture.

I do not claim as my invention the principle of making the cushion-bed hollow, or of making the face square or nearly so, and

shallow or small, severally; each separate principle having been heretofore adopted in the round or tubular cushions, and open cushions, respectively, but

That I do claim, as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The combination of the hollow cushion with a square or slightly beveled face, for the ball to iinpinge against, thus producing a spring of greater ductility than other billiard table cushions have.

Signed on the twenty-sixth July 1859.

GEORGE D. SHARP.

Witnesses:

O. P. JOHNSTON, JOHN HUNT.

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