US958342A - Game apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

W. AI WHITE.

GAME APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED Mu 22, 190s.

Patented May 17, 191.0.

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W. A. WHITE.

GAME APPARATUS.

APPLIGATION FILED MAY 22. 190B.

` Patented May 17, 1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WLLAM A. WHITE, or SEATTLE, WASHINGTN.

GAME APPARATUS.

ASpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 17, 1910.

Application filed May 22, 1908. 'serial No. 434,389.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVLLIAM; A. 'WHrrE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle, county of King, and State of Vashington, have .invented certain new and use'- ful Improvements in Game Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to game apparatus.

The present game apparatus is adapted for use in playing a game, which I designate Spotf7 It has for its object the provision of a game apparatus by which a game may be played by opposing sides on a large field, either indoors or out of doors, in which balls will be massed on the respective fields of the players and other balls used to make the shots, mallets being used to drive the shot balls and to deflect them from their courses by the opponents, and to associate therewith a novel arrangement of pockets to catch balls which may be driven from their set posit-ions and to indicate the scores made, as well as to provide tallies, a novel arrangement of fields and a home base and pocket to contain the shot balls as originally placed, all combining to provide an extremely interesting game, demanding alertness and skill and necessitating healthful exercise on the part of the players.

The invention is carried out as set forth fully hereinafter and the novel features are recited in the appended claims, while the rules for playing the game are briefly outlined.

In the accompanying drawings *Figure 1 is a plan View of the field, showing the respective balls massed and indicating how the shot balls are projected toward the massed balls, as also the positions of the players, etc.; Fig. 2, a detail view showing one of the indicating devices for the pocket-s; Fig. 3, a cross-section of one of the cushions; Fig. 4, a detail view of one ofthe indicating devices for the tally boxes; Fig. 5, a detail view of one of the mallets; Fig. 6, a detail of one of the clippers; and Fig. 7, a diagram of the electrical connections.

The game may be played on an area of any desired size, no limit being set. for out of doors work, but if played either indoors or out of doors, the elds should be atleast fifty feet wide by seventy-five or one hundred feet long.

Different colors than those indicated may be used in playing the game, but I have arbitrarily designated the two sides or teams which play the game as vthe Yellows v and the Blues and the respective positions of the players andcolors of the balls are correspondingly indicated. j

If the game is played indoors, strips of rubber matting of aboutl the thickness of a Brussels carpet are used to designate the differentelds in order to give a perfectly level surface, but if played out of doors, the field lines may be laid out on the ground. Y

The ends of the main field are provided with rubber cushions 1 which are of the cross-section shown in Fig. 3, which provides a sharp edge to propel the balls driven thereagainst, the inner ends of the sides of the cushions being rounded off at 2. The side lines 'of the first and second fields 3 and 4 are laid off in white or dark paint, as shown at 5 and so are the end lines 6 of the center elds 7, but the side lines 8 of the center fields are colored differently from the other lines in front of the seats 9 which lie beyond the outer fields 10. The first and second centers 11 are laid off by suitable red lines and the diamond 13 is outlined by a suitable red line. The foul lines of the respective centers 11 are yellow at 15 and blue at 1G. In the center of the diamond 13 is a pocket or hole 17, which is surrounded by a light red or brown circle 18. This pocketis large enough to hold one ball which is called the pig ball which may be of a different color from the other balls.

The blue balls to the number of twentyone are massed as shown at 19 at the end of the field 3, and the yellow balls are massed as shown at 2O at the end of the field 4. The respective fields 3 and 4 have five pockets 22 arranged at intervals along the ends thereof. Pins 23, Fig. 2, project up into the pockets 22 and restupon hinged targets 24 so that when a ball falls in a pocket and strikes the pin 23, the target is elevated and shows itself to indicate the score that is made. The central target bears the words spot 5 the adjacent target bearsthe numerals 18-9J and the outer targets bear the numerals 18-3. Tally boxes for the respective fields are shown at 25 and 26, each having blue and yellow tar-'gets 27 and 28.

Referring to Fig. 7, the 4electrical circuits whereby the scores and tallies are made, will be thoroughly understood. Beneath the pockets 22 is a transverse metal strip 70 with which the metal part of the targets 24 is adapted to cont-act when the pms 23 are pressed downwardly by a ball entering a pocket. The pockets having the targets 18-2 are not intended to control any electrical circuit, but all the other targets do so. All of the targets 24 at one end of the device are connected to the branch 71 of an electrical circuit and all of the targets 2st at the other end of the game device are connected to a branch 71a of an electrical circuit. The branch 71 is also connected by a branch circuit 71b to one of the metal strips and the branch 71a is in circuit with the other strip 70. In the circuit 71C, which is bridged on the branches 71 and 71a, is an electric bell 72, a controlling switch 7 3, and a battery 74. The arrangement is such that when any of the targets 24: which are in the electrical circuits aforesaid are operated by the reception of a. ball in one of the pockets 22, the circuit is closed and the bell 72 rings, indicating that a score has been made. The bell 72, switch 73, and battery 74 may be located at any convenient point.

Located at any convenient point is an electric bell 80, which is in a circuit 80A, in one of whose branches is a battery 81 and a controlling switch 82. In circuit with the branch 8O;L are thc circuits 80b and 80, which lead to the respective tally boxes 25 and 26 so that the bell 80 will be rung from any tally which may be operated. The tallies comprising the blue and yellow targets 27 and 28 are of the construction shown in Fig. 11, embodying a push pin 27a coperating with the target itself (27 or 28), the latter being of metal and adapted to contact with a metal lug 282L when the target has been operated to display it. Some of the targets 27 and 28 are in one side of the circuit (8Ob or 80C) and the other targets 27 and 28 are in the other side of those circuits. Consequently, on account of the circuit 8O'r1 being a part of' the circuits 801 and 80C, whenever any tally is operated, the bell 80 will ring.

In playing the game, two dippers 29 of the construction shown in Fig. 6 will be used to remove the pig ball out of its hole 17, and a suitable number of mallets 30, as shown in Fig. 5 are used by the other players.

The teams Yellows and Blues are each composed of five persons, two of each team being for the center field and two of each team for the first center, the remaining man of each team being called a pig man. In addition to the players, there is an umpire. The two pig men are each furnished with one of the dippers (Fig. 6) and stand in the diamo-nd 18 as indicated at 40 and 50 with their dippers on the edge ofthe pig hole 17 ready to start at the umpires command, these pig men striving to get the pig ball out of its pocket, the one getting it out first scoring a point, but the pig ball must be thrown outside of the diamond center 18 and on his side of the divisional line 60 of the diamond. Having done this, he has the right to throw a straight through the center field 7 and if he gets the ball past the center field men, he has made three additional points, his own players endeavoring with their mallets to drive the ball into their own field 3 or L1. If a man on the opposite team can knock the pig ball back inside of the diamond on his side thereof, he wins two points for his team. )Vith various other rules, the main ones of which are mentioned subsequently, the game is continued, enabling the respective sides to score according to what they accomplish, the object being for the respective men to strike the pig balls with their mallets to hit the massed balls 19 or 20 to score for their respective sides, but if any man should knock the pig ball into the outer fields or on the outside of any outer lines of the first or second fields or the center field, that man is out and will have to take his seat until a new ending is called, and ifthe pig ball has been knocked from one center across the diamond into the other center without being stopped by the pig man, then the man who so knocks the pig ball 7 has made a foul. After the pig ball has been knocked into the first or second field, the man so knocking it will take the first shot at the massed spot balls 19 or 20 and see how many scores he can make in the pockets 22 and any player will be entitled to all he can make in the 18-2 pockets, but if he should knock a ball into the spot 5 pocket or into the 18-3 pockets, in order to win all of his points thus made, one of the players on his side must make a run to his tally box (25 or 26) and if the man who has been previously chosen for the runner on his side, reaches his tally box before the player on the other team reaches his tally box and punches up his tally on the targets 27 or 28, then that side has won whatever was scored by the player, but if the runner on the opposite side should reach his tally box first and punch up his score, he wins one point for his own team and the other player loses one point.

It is the duty of the umpire to cry out the scores which are made.

General rules.

One is a point only, be it lost or won.

Twenty-five points may also be played as a short game.

Four endings may be played, if desired.

If the pig ball, when thrown out of the pig hole into the diamond, fails to roll inside of the three-foot mark 18, the opposite pig man has a right to cross over the line 60 and remove the pig ball if he can do so.

Then a straight has been aimed for by one of the pig men in trying to throw a pig ball across the center field, if one of the center field men knocks it back into the diamond and over into the diamond center, he has won three points.

lVhenever a center field man in thus trying to knock the ball, knocks it across any of the foul lines, he has made a foul, or if the pig ball is knocked across any of the foul lines in any manner, it is counted as a foul.

A foul means a loss of one point.

If any center field man should knock the pig ball through the diamond and diamond center and across the center field into either the first or second field, he has won five points and he then has the right to make the first shot in that field at the twenty-one massed balls (19 or 20). In knocking the pig ball into first or second field, if it should deflect against the massed balls (19 or 20) in that field and disturb them without putting one into any of the pockets, a man from the opposite side then has the right to take the next shot.

No man has a right to run for a tally boX if the ball should only fall into one of the 1S-2 pockets.

lVhen a ball is knocked into the spot 5 pocket, the man so knockino` the ball loses one point if his runner shout-iid fail to reach the tally box and operate the tally before the man from the opposite side does so, and the same rule applies to the 18-3 pockets.

On knocking the pig ball into any pocket, the opposite side will take it out of the pocket and spot it on the spot line in front of the massed balls in that field and take the neXt shot.

Cushion plays can be made.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

l. An indicating apparatus for games employing movable projectiles, consisting of pockets adapted to receive the projectiles, mechanically operated visual indicators having means engaged and operated by the projectiles when in the pockets, and an electrically operated indicator having circuit connections to and contacts for the respective pockets which is operated by the projectile at the same time that it mechanically operates the visual indicator.

2. An indicating apparatus for games employing rolling projectiles consisting of bottomed concavities or pockets into which the projectiles can be rolled, push pins projecting into the pockets and adopted to be operated by the contact of the projectile therewith when received in the pocket, independent Visual indicators mechanically operated and maintained in displayed position by the push pins when the projectile is received in the pocket, and an electrically operated indicator' adapted for operation on the engagement of any push pin by a projectile.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

VILLIAM A. WHITE.

Vitnesses:

I-I. J. HUGHES, CHAs. BEALEY.

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