US3517878A - Powered scorer for bowling - Google Patents

Description

June 30, 1970 H. A. M CLISTER POWERED SCORER FOR BOWLING Filed Aug. 23, 1968 ZSO/T T260 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 23| {L m3 '3 24' BOWLING scom: 22| 43' Q 29| 243 233 223' m SCORED igslo FIRST BA LL SCORE Q :5]

' INVENTOR. Harry A. McClis'rer gafiW ATTORNEY.

June 30, 1970 MccLlsTER 3,517,878

POWERED SCORER FOR BOWLING Filed Aug. 23, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet INVENTOR. Harry A. Mcclisrer ATTORNEY.

United States Patent US. Cl. 235-114 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Power means such as a wind up spring are employed to the unit dial of a McClister-type instant scoring device for bowling according to the rules of the American Bowling Congress. The individual playing the game can actuate any of a set of ten buttons, identified as 0 through 9, and thus initiate movement of a reciprocatable member, the extent of linear movement being controlled by the number selected. Upon reaching such selected distance, the reciprocatable member is automatically returned to its rest position and the key is returned to its rest position. The reciprocatable member may be driven from a rest position to the selected advance by the wind up spring and then gears are automatically reversed so that the spring drives the reciprocatable member back to its rest position, the selected advance being controlled by the selected button. The unit dial is advanced by such controlled linear movement of the reciprocatable member.

CROSS REFERENCE TO PARENT APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of copending Ser. No. 557,293, filed June 13, 1966, now US. Pat. 3,406,902, all the details of which are deemed here reiterated.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION The parent application discloses a bowling scorer which is used by an individual player. After rolling one or more balls, the bowler enters on his scorer the marginal increase in his score. After a pin knockdown of less than the player rotates a cylinder to select a number from 0 to 9, and then slidingly shifts a unit button to move a reciprocatable member which actuates a reciprocating rack which actuates the unit dial. If players are careful enough in rotating the dial to the correct number, instead of using the previously selected position of the cylinder, and if players are careful in shifting the unit button as far as permissable, such procedure is quite satisfactory. The excitement on the game of bowling is such that a mistake might be made. Incomplete shifting of the unit button to less than the distance permitted by the adjustment of the cylinder is among such possible errors.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, a scorer for use in some sport such as bowling, said scorer having a unit dial actuated by a reciprocating rack is modified to provide an improved reciprocatable member for actuating the reciprocating rack. The reciprocatable member of the present invention is linearly shifted from a rest position to the correct position by the combination of a power device and actuation of one of a set of ten push buttons. Automatic means provide for the return of the reciprocatable member to its rest position.

In certain embodiments of the invention, a wind up spn'ng provides the power necessary for advancing and retarding the reciprocatable member. A reversible gear 3,517,878 Patented June 30, 1970 shift permits the wind up spring to transmit its power to a screw to either advance the reciprocatable member from its rest position or to retard or return it to its rest position, with no opportunity for the wind up spring to race toward a run down condition during either of the reversals of direction of the screw. In certain embodiments of the invention, the keys actuate the gear shifting mechanism by a small arcuate movement alternately engaging forward and reverse gears into a driving gear.

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES FIG. 1 is a front view of one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partially broken-away perspective schematic view of the reciprocatable member control system of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line 33 of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on line 4--4 of FIG. 2. FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the gearshift portion of FIG. 2.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION The bowling scorer embodiment shown in the drawings comprises a case 200 generally like the case of the bowling scorer of the parent application. Moreover, most of the mechanism of the scorer corresponds to the parent application. The score is displayed by the numbers on the unit dial 221, tens dial 231, and hundreds dial 241. Each dial may be readjusted to zero at the beginning of a game by manual control of knobs 223, 233, and 243. The number of frames scored is displayed by the frame counter dial 291. The advancing and retarding of the brain or memory device also provides the instruction as to whether or not the first ball of a frame should be scored, as displayed at window 305. If the player makes a strike, he actuates the strike button 250, thus advancing the score by 10, 20, or 30 points, the value being controlled by the status of the memory device. Similarly, actuation of a spare button 260 when the player has a spare (knockdown of 10 pins by 2 balls in a frame) can advance the score by 10 or 20 depending upon the previous position of the brain. Actuation of a unit button advances the unit dial by either one or two times the selected number, depending upon the status of the memory device. The position of the brain is advanced or retarded in response to the succession of actuations of the unit, spare, and strike buttons. All such features are described in the parent application. This invention is concerned primarily with the utilization of a power system for aiding the operation of the unit button.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a handle 510 can be employed for temporarily storing potential mechanical energy in a wind up spring 509. After the handle 510 has been used to wind up spring 509, the spring can provide mechanical power during its unwinding. The spring 509 is strong enough to energize the unit during an entire game or several games. During any unwinding of spring 509, gear 511 (FIGS. 2 and 5) rotates, thus rotating screw 502 in a direction controlled by the position of a gear shifting mechanism hereinafter described.

The present application is concerned with power means for controlled shifting of a reciprocable member which actuates the unit dial 221 through rack and gear mechanisms. As explained in the parent application, unit dial 221 is advanced by the action of a rack upon a gear, the rack having a reciprocatable member which is shifted a controlled amount by the unit button.

A reciprocatable member 501 has internal threads engaged with the power actuated screw 502, which is a shaft journaled in journals at the two ends of the case 200. The reciprocatable member is aligned parallel to case 200 by a guide 531. A gear 506 rotates with the screw 502. A shiftable support 507 can pivot about the axis of the screw without regard to the rotation or nonrotation of the screw 502, the journal 508 (FIG. providing such pivoting action.

The gear 511 transmits the power from the wind up spring 509. A gear 512 on a retarding arm 513 of the shiftable support 507 transmits power from the gear 511 of the wind up spring at the front end of the case to the gear 506 for rotating the screw to shift the reciprocatable member 501 toward a rest position against the rear end of the case. Such rest position can be conveniently designated as toward a retarded position. A spring 514 urges the shiftable support 507 in the direction tending to maintain such engagement of the gear 512 with gear 511. When the reciprocatable member 501 is fully retarded, the system is at rest, and there is no unwinding of the spring, rotation of gear 511, or other movement until the advancing system is actuated.

An advancing arm 514' of the shiftable member 507 provides bearings for gears 515 and 516. The gear 515 is always engaged with screw gear 506, and gear 516 is always engaged with gear 515. When the gear 506 is driven in the retarding direction, the gear 506 drives gears 515 and 516 respectively, but such movement stops when the reciprocatable member comes to its rest position.

' When the shiftable support 507 is pivoted arcuately a small amount, the teeth of 'gear 512 begin disengaging from gear 511 or the wind up spring while the teeth of gear 516 are engaging with gear 511. Such reversal of the reciprocatable member from retarding direction to advancing direction normally occurs only after the reciprocatable member has been in the rest position during the period subsequent to the scoring of the previous frame. During the shiftover from retarding to advancing, the gear 511 is locked into a stationary situation in which the spring cannot race toward an unwound condition. As soon as the shiftable member 507 has been shifted to its advanced position, the gear 512 is completely disengaged from gear 511, and the 'gear 516 is completely engaged with gear 511. Such arcuate movement of the shiftable support 507 is yieldingly resisted by a spring 514. Suitable guides, not shown, can maintain the shiftable support at the predetermined axial position along the screw 502. A shift rod 519 is secured to the shiftable support 507 in such a manner that any significant movement of the shift rod away from the position'urged by spring 514 serves to arcuately move the shiftable member for engaging gear 516 into the power gear 511, thus disengaging retarding gear 512 from power gear 511, thereby reversing the direction or rotation of the screw 502, and thereby permitting the reciprocatable member 502 to start advancing from its rest position.

A series of buttons identified as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 control the actuation of the shift rod 519. Each button comprises pivoted arm 520 and extension arm 527 at right angles thereto, a complete button system being designated at 528. The arm 520* of each button is pivoted on a shaft 530 so that as extension arm 527 and button are depressed, the shift rod 519 is actuated, thus initiating the advancing movement of the reciprocatable member 501. As the button is depressed, a latch 521, best shown in FIG. 4, is actuated. When the arm 520 is depressed, it is yieldingly urged by a spring 522 into a locking position against stop 523 of a post 532. Thus depression of a button 600-609 temporarily latches advancing gear 516 into engagement for temporarily advancing the reciprocatable member 501. As the reciprocatable member 501 advances toward the wind up spring, it hits an unlatching portion of bar 520 of the unit button system 528, and thus disengages the latch 521. Thus the button is permitted to return to its normal position under the urging of spring 524. In returning to normal position, the button permits spring 514 to return the shift rod 519 to normal position, thus shifting gear 516 out of engagement and shifting gear 512 into engagement with power gear 511, thereby reversing the direction of rotation of screw 502 and thereby initiating the retarding direction of travel of the reciprocatable member to its rest position.

The use of a power system for actuating a reversible gear system so that an operator can depress one of an array of buttons and control the linear movement of a reciprocatable member, and through a rack, control the advancing of a dial on a scorer for a sporting event has applicability for games so exciting that the likelihood of error is significant. Most games can be scored simply enough that few players choose to utilize devices for keeping score. Bowling is the unique game in which a significant portion of the players are unable to function as scorekeepers, and it is for this reason that the invention has particular applicability to bowling scorers.

The invention claimed is: 1. In a scorer for a game in which a player actuates a plurality of buttons for increasing the score, and in which a unit button advances a unit dial by a controlled shifting of a reciprocatable member, the improvement which consists of:

a plurality of buttons, each button corresponding to a number;

latching means for each button, whereby depression of a button maintains it in a depressed condition until unlatching mechanism is actuated;

means actuated by the depression of a button for advancing the reciprocatable member, the extent of such advancing being controlled by the button selected;

unlatching means actuated by the reciprocatable member for returning the button to its rest position after the button-controlled extent of advancing of the reciprocatable member;

reversing means for initiating the retarding of the reciprocatable member upon the unlatching of the button, said retarding movement returning the reciprocatable member to its normal rest position; and power-actuated means energizing the movement of the reciprocatable member in at least one direction.

2. The scorer of claim 1 having a threaded shaft, the reciprocatable member engaged with the shaft for linear movement during rotation of the shaft, a wind up spring, and gear-reversing means intermediate the wind up spring and the threaded shaft.

3. The scorer of claim 2 in which the gear reversing means consists of a shiftable member having an advancing arm, and a retarding arm, gear means on each arm, said shiftable member being pivoted for arcuate movement about the axis of the shaft, yielding means urging the pivoted shiftable member in a direction engaging the gear means on one arm with a gear of the wind up spring, and a shift rod actuatable by a unit button to pivot the shiftable member for engagement of the gear References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1963 Voo 235--63 6/1968 Ruys 235-62 STEPHEN J. TOMSKY, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 235-

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