Patent GB-190419978-A (GB)
Title: A New Game.
Inventor: THUNDERBOLT EDWARD
Filed: 1904-09-16
Granted: 1905-06-08
Abstract: 19,978. Thunderbolt, E. Sept. 16. Games played with balls, projectors, model guns, spiral tracks, nets, and projectiles. - A game is played by shooting small balls or pellets from a toy rifle or catapult at celluloid balls which roll down a continuous track formed around a pyramidal or conical structure, Fig. 1, supported on legs b with adjusting-screws c. The structure is divided into four compartments by partitions f, fixed to an inner tube d and held at their upper ends by a cover g. The track for the ball to roll on is formed by securing rods k and wires l to strips h of metal secured to the partitions f. The strips h are suitably curved, and at the corners of the structure the rods k are curved, and the corners are provided with shields m. Each compartment of the structure is provided with a series of hinged nets n, jointed to rods r, which are normally placed so that the balls when struck from the track will be retained in the nets. The balls are delivered to the track from a guideway u, and the players shoot in turn at them, points being scored for knocking the balls into the nets n. Balls which are not hit into the nets n enter a shoot 24, from which they are raised singly by means of buckets s on a belt or chain e, which passes around drums v, y. The drum v is mounted on a shaft w operated by a crank handle, and the drum y, which is freely mounted on a shaft z, is driven by the descent of a weight 5, which unwinds a cord 7 attached to the tube d and coiled around a drum on the shaft z. This drum actuates the drum y by means of a pawl 2, which engages a ratchet 1 on the drum. This driving-mechanism is wound up by turning the shaft w, on which is a drum 12 to which is connected a cord coiled around a drum on the shaft z in such a direction that the shaft rotates so as to draw in the cord 7. During this winding, the pawl 2 slips over the teeth of the ratchet 1. In order to regulate the rate of descent of the weight 5, the rotation of the shaft z is regulated by gearing it with a crank shaft 19, Fig. 5, connected by a crank 18 and crosshead 16 to the piston-rod 15 of a dashpot 13 containing oil or glycerine and provided with a hole 22 in the piston and with a bye-pass. The descent of the weight 5 may otherwise be regulated by an air or liquid resistance flyer or other device. The players continue shooting until all the balls are in the nets n, from which they are freed by raising the rods r, when the balls descend to the shoot 24. The base a of the structure is provided with a receptacle 25 into which the projectiles fall. The apparatus may be caused to rotate on a vertical axis, and the track may be provided with depressions, zig-zags, &c. The elevator and apparatus may be driven by a spring, compressed-air, or electric motor, &c. put into action by hand or by coin-freed apparatus. In a modification, instead of a continuous spiral track, four zig-zag or other courses are used upon which travel balls of the same or different sizes. When tracks of different sizes are employed, the balls are delivered to the separate tracks by a sifting-device formed of bars, the outer pair of which retains the largest ball and delivers it by way of a shoot to its track. The next pair of bars retains the secondsized ball, which passes through the outer pair, and directs it to its track. The tracks are formed of L-shaped strips of metal, arranged with the vertices downwards.