US956244A - Game apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

.H. W. WESTERBERG.

GAME APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED APR. 9. 1909.

956,244. Patented Apr. 26, 1910.,

W! TNESSES AHAM co. m'oro-umosvwums. WA$MINGTON. 0.1;

.NITED STATES ATENT QFFIQ GAME APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY W. WESTER- BERG, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Game Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain improvements in game apparatus such as are particularly designed and adapted for parlor or indoor use, and has for its object to pro vide an apparatus of this general character of a simple and comparatively inexpensive nature which shall present certain features of novelty and improvement, whereby greater skill is required on the part of the players, and greater entertainment is afforded in the use of the apparatus.

The invention consists in certain novel features of the construction, and combinations and arrangements of the several parts of the improved game apparatus, whereby certain important advantages are attained, and the apparatus is rendered simpler, less expensive, and otherwise better adapted and more convenient for use, all as will be hereinafter fully set forth.

The novel features of the invention will be carefully defined in the claims.

In order that my invention may be the better understood, I will now proceed to describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the improved game apparatus applied upon a table or the like, in position for use; Fig. 2 is a view showing the folding inclosure strip; Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing the lifter forming part of my improved apparatus, and Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken diametrically through the lifter and illustrating the operation thereof.

As shown in these views the improved game apparatus comprises an inclosing strip or member formed from elongated sections 1, 1 of flat material having hinged connections 2 at their ends so that they may be compactly folded when the apparatus is not required for use, and may be conveniently rested and supported upon a table or the like, so as to project above the same to form an inclosure within which the game may be played, as represented in Fig. 1. The opposite ends of the strip have apertures 3, 3 adapted to register with each other for the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 9, 1909.

Patented Apr. 26, 1910. Serial No. 488,940.

passage of a removable pin or fastening de vice 4, so that they may be secured together during use of the game and attached to permit the inclosing member to be folded when not required for use. -Within the inclosure or field formed upon the supporting surface by the sectional inclosing member, are arranged trays or receptacles 6, 6 which may be of any preferred formation, being herein shown as made circular in form and provided with raised edge walls so as to be adapted to retain within them the marbles or sphericalmembers 5, 5, with which the game is played, as will be hereinafter explained.

The apparatus also comprises a lifter which is indicated as a whole at 7 upon the drawings, and comprises an annular body portion 8 provided at one side with a handle 9 adapted to be grasped by the player and having a central opening 10 produced in its bottom. The annular'body portion 8 may be conveniently formed from metal and is provided upon its inner upper surface with an inclined annular track or channel 11, surrounding the opening 10 and sloping upwardly therefrom toward the perimeter of said body portion which is formed with a raised edge wall 12, as clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 4:.

In the use of the improved game appara tus one of the balls or members 5 is picked up by the player with the aid of the lifter which for this purpose is rested upon the supporting surface surrounding the ball or member 5, and given a gyratory movement such as will operate to cause said ball or member to rise upon and roll around the track or channel 11 so that the ball or member may be lifted from the table by the player, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. If the gyratory movement be too rapid the ball or member 5 will rise over the edge wall 12 of the lifter and drop to the table, and if such movement be too slow said member 5 will fall through the opening 10 at the bottom of the lifter. Said ball or member being thus supported within the lifter by the skill of the player in moving the latter, is positioned above one of the trays 6 and dropped therein by varying the movement of the lifter.

Any convenient rules may be adopted for the use of the apparatus and any number of players may participate. The play may be single against time or in partnership; single players obtaining the most balls or depositing the most balls in the adversarys trays, &c.

From the above description it will be seen that the improved game apparatus is of an extremely simple and comparatively inexpensive nature, and is particularly well adapted for use by reason of the skill required upon the aart of the players, and the entertainment a orded by it, and it will also be obvious from the above description that the apparatus is capable of some modification without material departure from the principles and spirit of the invention, and for this reason I do not desire to be understood as limiting myself to the precise construction and arrangement of the parts herein set forth. For example in some cases the inclosing member and the trays may be varied or even dispensed with altogether or replaced by equivalent parts of any pre ferred kind.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In game apparatus, a lifter having a body portion provided with an opening at its bottom and having a track extended around said opening and adapted to be traversed by a ball or the like.

2. In game apparatus, a lifter having a body portion provided with an opening at its bottom and having a track extended around said opening and adapted to be traversed by a ball or the like, the surface of said track being inclined toward the margin of said opening.

3. In game apparatus, a lifter having a body portion provided with a raised edge wall, and having a track produced at its lower part adapted to be traversed by a ball or the like, the lower portion of said lifter being provided with an opening extended through .it and adapted for the discharge of such ball upon a suitable field when the lifter is elevated above such field.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HARRY V. IVESTERBERG.

\Vitnesses J D. GAPLINGER, A. F. CoNNE'rT.

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