El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-04-19

amount Of wrapper must be judged al
most entirely by feeling. In the ma
chine. automatic hands UWirl the core
around, winding thread accurately IN
every direction. while at a certain point
the machine, which has been going at
q remarkab bic speed. stops The core
is now ready TO become ball in
Once the winding processes are COM
pleted. the remainder Of the operations
necessary to finish the ball are COM
parauvely simple and entail only par
UCular work The cover must now be
considered. Two halves are moulded
from Eutta-percha stock, carefully Sc
lecled- In one nalT the newly wound
core is placed. with the other half on
top, and the whole placed in a mould
a urifle smaller than the ball. Hydrau-
lie pressure is applied to the mould
and the whole subjected to heat at the
same time. so that the two halves be-
come thoroughly welded The mould,
incidentally, contains patterns OF the
''pimples' or indentatiOns so that in
the mould the balls are given these
features without extra effort
The finishing touch is painting,
which IS done by daubing some paint
on the palms OF the hands and rolling
the ball between the palms The ma
teriaI is of a harmless vegetable va
riety. After this, there are the usual
stamping operations.
There seems to be no end to the
makes Of golf balls, for while there
are thousands who viii use the kind of
ball which they first began to play.
there are thousands of others willing
to experiment with every new article
placed on the market The wearing
qualities of some balls are distinctly
better than others. while there are in
stances Of where a ball that will wear
well will not travel so far Some
viii show signs of wear and tear
quicker than others, and some are cas-
lily cut if a stroke happens to be
topped Thus the player has more or
less experimenting to DO before he can
get a ball to suit his requirements
The average golf ball costs % cents,
although there are thousands sold
regularly at 25 cents less, while others
go as high as a dollar.
Uses of Markings on Balls.
AprOpOs of the peculiar markings on
golf balls, it may be said that this
feature is not particularly to give a
distinctive appearance to any one
brand, but to grip the air" better in
the flight There are. Of course, dis
tinctlve markings easily recognize bic,
but the trademark Of the manufacturer
occupies a tiny space. There are sew
eral Interesting stories told in cOnnec-
ton with the cOrrugatiOns or pimples
on golf ball, and how they came to
be used.
One Of these yarns has it that a
Scotch professional was playing
against pair Of amateurs, all using
the Old-fashlOned gutta-percha ball
The amateurs were being badly beaten.
and IN the search for some excuse de-
clared that the professional must be
The professional in a good natured
way readily consented to play with old
balls The first one he used had been
discarded as useless. It looked as If
the former user had been in the habit
Of topping his shots considerably, for
the ball was grOOved in all directions.
To the amazement of the amateurs
the professionals drives seemed to be-
come extended rather than shortened.
while his iron shots went farther and
truer- In the end, the professional
won from the amateurs far more de-
cisively than when he had used the
new balls.
Being a man given to thinking things
out for himself, he began to seek a
reason for his performance. and came
TO the conclusion that the indentatiOns
had something to do with it. Accord
ingly, he set about to experiment, and
made a mould with cOrrugatiOns so
that the ball would grip the air" in
its flight and remain in flight longer
this permitting the effect of the pro
pelling force to last longer and gain
distance thereby.
Manufacturers employ a great vari-
ETY. Of machines TO test the flights OF
balls, and the result is carefully re-
corded for future reference. Record
is made Of the result of driving against
the wind. with the wind. and into and
against quartering winds. while the in
tuence Of slice and pull are also re-
corded, as well as topped shots.