US2882054A - Game device - Google Patents

Description

United States Patent GAME DEVICE Leonard 0. Hilder, Arlington, Va. Application April 4, 1956, Serial No. 576,514 1 Claim. (Cl. 273-97) The invention has relation to game devices of the type wherein an outwardly propelled ball is returned by an elastic cord, and it pro 'des means whereby a ball, so returned, may be caught in a flexible, dished receptacle, by suitable manipulation, and again thrown therefrom.

Applicant is aware that balls have been elastically attached to racquets having heads of tightly stretched woven strings; and that balls have been similarly attached to frames provided with deep pockets of flexible netted material. In use, however, neither of these devices are at all similar to that herein disclosed. The first is a striking implement, while the other requires no more skill in catching the ball than is required to bring the net into its path, and is not adapted to the throwing of the ball from the net, so that play cannot consist of a continuous series of throwing and catching motions.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of parts, as set forth in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the invention:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the device, and

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof.

In these drawings the numeral 1 designates an annular frame provided with a handle extension 2. These parts may be formed of plastic material or other suitable substance, such, for instance as wire.

A shallow, dished receptacle 3 of netted twine or other flexible material is fastened to the annular frame, for instance by marginal attachment to one of the plane faces thereof, which would permit the degree of dishing Patented Apr. 14, 1959 of the receptacle to be varied by passing the net through the annular frame, thus changing the degree of skill required in catching the ball in the net.

The ball 4 is preferably a light, hollow sphere of celluloid or rubber, and is attached to the frame 1 by an elastic rubber cord 5, which may be from eighteen inches to two feet in normal length. Preferably, the point of attachment is in the margin of the annular frame, adjacent to the handle extension, as it is found in practice that this arrangement gives a better return of the ball. The ball may be approximately a third the diameter of the orifice of the frame, and of a relative diameter permitting it to lie in the net with its center of gravity below the plane of the frame.

The net, in extended condition, should conform to the contour of a segment of a sphere of an extent, from margin to margin, of approximately one third the circumference of such sphere. This conformation of the net permits the ball to be thrown therefrom in a path at right angles to the frame without being trapped or deflected by contact therewith.

In use, the ball, resting in the net, is thrown therefrom with a rolling motion of the wrist, and the returning ball is caught by a reversed wrist motion, so that it will again lie in the net. When the ball is sharply thrown, considerable skill will be needed in recapturing it.

I claim:

A game device comprising an annular frame provided with a handle extension, a net of flexible material marginally secured to said frame to form a dished receptacle conforming, in extended condition, to the contour of a segment of a sphere of an extent, from margin to margin, of approximately one third the circumference of such sphere, a ball of a relative diameter permitting it to lie in the net with its center of gravity below the plane of the frame, and an elastic cord attached at its extremities to the ball and to the frame.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 957,266 Snow May l0, 1910 1,964,232 Tromblee June 26, 1934 2,471,511 Axelrod May 31, 1949

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