The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-08-31
SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLE or cURV-
 ING A PITCHED BALL

ih l5 lpW % JCeiA ? 01liIS. LilC 5luCo1loA larose as to whether or not a baseball thrown from the hand could be made Ito deviate horizontally from a straight lline. Experiment proved that the lflight of ball could be made to curve
 Ito the right or. to the left by skillful
 pitching. This was accomplished by the
 simple expedient of placing plank up-. fright on the ground, and from point
 lat right angles to the middle of ope of
 its broad sides, twifling ! ball to a poirt lback of the center of the plank. Since lthen it is accepted as fact. by all base
 hall players, that the 1flight of a ball lean also, under fine handling, be made Ito incurve abnormally downward or up- IwaId with reference | , its landing. rlace,
 that is either in the direction of or con- ltrary to the attraction of gravitation.
 The period mentioned was in the i'm fancy of skilled baseball playing. Since Ithen generation of players of the Igame has grown up, and the constant Irepetition of the phenomenon mentioned
 has become so engrafted with common
 experience that few persons .conversant
 with the game ever think that it needs Iexplanation. The character of the lpitch, whatever it may be, seems just
 as natural to them as that of the slight Ivertical curve of the ball when com- pounded simply of the forces of it's aro- lection. To so feel about the abnormal
 curved courses of the ball is, however, lonly a. habit of mind, habitual experi- lenee of any kid of action mostly as- lsuming, without appreciating, the req Ison for things. The average baseball player accounts for the phenomenon by Isaying that it is caused by the pitchers Igiving the ball twist as it leaves his
 hand. But that statement does not ac-
 count for it's being thereby compelled to move in an eccentric orbit.
 If, in a calm, one lets fall a feather, lone sees that it deseends slowly and with deviation from the vertical. But, let him cause a feather to fall from the
 top of the inside of the exhaust glass receiver of a glass pump, and he will
 see that 1t falls plumb like shot. A
 body projected in space would proceed lforeyer at the same rate, and in a
 straight line were not space full of
 bodies that would attract it This is one
 of Sir Isaac Newtowns laws of motion.
 Resistance of some kind is, in a word, indispensable to making a moving body
 deviate from the particular speed and lcourse impressed upon by its original lprojectile force and by the attraction
 of gravitation.
 It is. therefore, the resistance Of the atmosphere, as well as the force of pro- Election and rotation of the baseball, (which makes the ball describe curve Ito the right, to the left, upward or
 downward. The right ht-handed pitcher lidelivers his "out-shoot'' with much
 greater effect of incurve at the plate
 than he can accomplish with his fin
 shoot" The ft-handed pitcher, in a
 reversed position, but corresponding
 ly delivers his '.out-shoot" more effect
 lively than his "in-shoot.n The reason
 lis that, although in each case, the speed
 of the ball for "out-shoot" and "in-
 shoot" is the same, the speed of its ro- tation is very different. The centrifu-
 gal rotary force impressed by the pitch-
 CT upon the ball, opposed by the friction
 of the atmosphere, packed by the balls Irapid duplex movement, being weaker
 in the "in-shoot" than in the "out- lshoot," permits of less curvature there lin the balls flight than is possible in Ithe "outshoot" In all cases, the ball makes its incurve at the plate whether Ihorizontically, from the right or left, l Tor vertically, from above or below, be- Icause friction of the atmosphere, com , pressed by the balls combined velocity ; and speed of rotation retards and finally lexhausts its movement of rotation at Ithe end of it's flight.
 l The two movements of the ball, and , Ithe resistance of the atmosphere, form. ) ling together three compound forces : Icompel the flight of the ball to assume ! lthe form of a curve. As the ball leaves : ltheS hand of the pitcher, it whirls on. , lward until, the quickness of it's rota. Ition being diminished by friction on t tsurface from the atmosphere, an6 : Ithereby weakened, it curves either up. l Iward, inward or from right to left witt l reference to the ''plate" of the basebal } field Anyone should be able to realize , 1.-the truth of this demonstration of the principle through which the course oi |, lballs can be curved, if one has ever re , Ialized the density of the atmosphere } land the fact that it Is g. compressible l Eelastic gas These properties of tht t latmosphere made of it under the cir lcumstances described, a continuou: : Ielastic cushion upon which the rotating . Iball impinges, and by the intervention t lof whose moderate resistance the cours : of the ball is modified in direction. Tn D leverage pressure of the atmosphere a l ithe level of the sea to the square incl 2 Iof the earth's surface is 14.7304 pounds : commonly called in round numbers, 1 . lpounds. The average barometrie neigh
 lis about 30 inches at the level of tn . lsea. but it is only 24.75 inches in neigh e lat Denver, Col, a difference cores e bonding to a difference in weight o I atmosphere over over two and a hal U bounds out of nearly 15, Yet it has beel Z lately stated that batting averages a
 lDenver are the same as those on tn I Eastern coast of the United States t However that may be, and it seems ut : terly irreconcilable with what has bee q shown here there must be, in so rar s ian atmosphere as that of Denver, com s Ipared with that of the Eastern coast Q