US675273A - Game. - Google Patents

Description

Ma 28 I90I. No. 675,273. ci w.- FULLER. Patented y l GAME.

(Application le'd Aug. 80, 1900.) (No Model.)

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CLARENCE w. FULLER, oE wALToN, NEW YORK.

GAME.

SPEGIFICATIONfo'rming part of Letters Patent No. 675,273, dated May 28, 1901.

Application filed August 30,1900. Serial N'o. 28.527. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern.:

Be it known that I, CLARENCE W. FULLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Walton, in the county of Delaware and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Games; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain improvements in games for amusement. It a'ords means for entertainment and recreative diversion or pastime for mindand body.

It consists, stated generally, of a suitablyimprovised surface, preferably a cloth-covered board with certain indicia thereon and having ball-receiving,receptacles or pockets at certain intervals and wickets,&o. arranged with relation to said pockets or receptacles, together with a playing or finger ball and numbered balls or spheres, all substantially as hereinafter more fully disclosed, and, pointed out by the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the preferred embodiment of my invention, Figure 1 is a plan view. Fig. 2 is a vertical section. Figs. 3, 4,'and 5 are detail views disclosing more particularly the construction of the pockets or receptacles which receive the numbered balls. Fig. 6 is a'sectional View showing amodi'fied form of securing the pocket material to the curved supportingplate thereof.

Latitude is allowed herein as to details, as they may be varied or changed at pleasure without ldeparting from the spirit lof my invention andthe same yet rem ain intact and be protected.

In carrying out my invention I improvise a suitable surface, which may be a circular (preferably cloth-covered) board l, with a surrounding rim or flange 2 standing a suitable distance thereabove and having secured to its inner surface a cushion 3, preferably of felt and triangular in cross-section, to receive the impact of and impart to the balls the required rebound to preventtheir deflection from the board in playingl the game.

At certain intervals and radii from the center o f the board are disposed ball-receiving receptacles or pockets 4, of suitable material,

as network or cloth, depending preferably through openings in the board at the rim or ange thereof. These pockets or receptacles are each preferably secured in place by suitably infolding the upper edge of the pocket material over the upturned and infolded lower or inner edge of a preferably semicircular or curved sheet-metal plate 4.a, with its bottom or lower edge resting upon the surface of the board and its ends conformed as at 4h and secured to the inner surface of the rim or ange 2. This arrangement, it will be seen, provides for the effective securing of the pocket material in place without the aid of other fastenings, and yet said material is not exposed to the sharp edge of the plate, as it otherwise would be. Also these pockets or receptacles have entrances or wickets 4, the framing or wires forming which are preferably passed at their adjoining vertical portions through rubber balls or cushions 4, uniting the same and relieving concussion and liability of impairing either the balls or wickets in event of contact therewith as said balls are shot through said wickets or solidly striking said wickets in failing of passage therethrough.

At l certain points on the surface of the board, preferably as shown, is an outer arrangement of suitably-designated points, as 6, which may be colored or painted spots thereon, and within or interiorly of said arrangement of points or Lspots is a similar arrangement of points or spots 7, preferably four, forming the angles of a quadrangle.

YAlternating these wickets are what I please to call wickets 8, and centrally of this latter arrangement of points or spots and wickets is what may be termed, in the absence of a more appropriate name, a cage 9,-arranged, preferably, at the very center of the board.

For convenience and facility in playing the game the board l may be rotatably mounted upon a suitable pedestal or stand 10 in any well-known Way, preferably as shown, a stud or pivot l0a being fixed to anddepending from the board at its center and let into a socket l()b of said stand.

It will be noted that the arrangement of two of the wickets 8 with relation to the cage 9 is such that they are in alinement with opposite arms of said cage and that the two other wickets S are in alinement with the two other arms of said cage, also that the groupspots 7 are arranged, together with the cage 'and wickets, in a general oblique position upon the board, and that the arrangement of the cue or finger ball spots 6 is such that two of them are in the same oblique line with two of said wickets and that the other two of said finger-ball spots are in the same diagonal line with the other two of said wickets.

In Fig. G is shown a modification of the fastening for the inner edge of the pocket material, or that edge presented toward the board is tucked up between the upward infolded portion of the semicircular securingplate with a tack or brad driven through the double thickness or walls of said plate thus formed and the interposed pocket material.

In playing the gaine a number of persons may singly, or several evenly on each side, engage. Thirteen balls are preferably employed, twelve bearing numbers and arranged in groups of three at each point or spot 7, while the remaining or finger ball is placed at any one of the points or spots 6 the initial player may elect to play from, it being struck by the finger or mallet or cue in the hand of the player. The ultimate aim is of course to deliver the numbered balls into the pockets 4;. To effect this, the playeror players firing or striking the finger-ball from the selected spot or point G aims first to propel his ball against the farthest group of balls at 7, the propelling anyone of which into a pocket counting whatever it is numbered. In event of failure to hit any one of said group of balls, but effecting the passage of the numbered ball through a wicket S, the count is doubled, or through the cage 9 it is triplicated. If the ball is propelled through either a wicket or cage and into a pocket, the score is triplicated or quadruplicated, respectively, as the case may be. In event or whenever the finger-ball goes into a pocket a discount of five for each such occurrence stands against the player, who also forfeits his shot, though all the points made by the player at the time count. Vlienever the finger-ball drops or goes into al pocket, it is returned to an outside spot G, as at the start, and may be shot from there in any direction. The game may be played until seventy-five counts are made, the one making that number being the winner, or thirty counts may be the aggregate number to be played, and the exact ultimate score may be made. In effecting a greater score than the ultimate count to be made the player is required to play the game over. Any playercan continue to playas long as he makes a score. Thus it is apparent the game is highly amusing and recreative as well as instructive and entertaining.

I-Iaving thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a game of the character described, a board having a series of pockets, each pocket having a series of wickets provided with a series of rubber balls or cushions, said wickets arranged in a line around the edge of the pockets, substantially as set forth.

2. In a game of the character described, a board having a cage, a series of wickets arranged in an oblique position upon said board, as shown, two of said wickets arranged in alinement with two of the arms of said cage and the remaining wickets arranged similarly to the other arms of said cage, substantially as set forth.

3. In a game of the character described, a board having a cage, a series of wickets arranged in an oblique position upon said board, as shown, at its center, and a series of cue or finger ball spots arranged thereon in such position that two of them are in the same oblique line with two of said wickets and the remaining two occupy a like position o1` i'elationto the remaining wickets, substantially as set forth.

et. In a game of the character described, the board having a series of pockets, each comprising a curved metal plate upturned from its lower edge and overlapped upon the infolded pocketmaterial, said plate conformed at its ends and fastened to the inner surface of the rim of said board, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CLARENCE XV. FULLER. iVitnesses:

WESLEY ELLIS, EDWIN L. GUILD.

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