AN IMPROVEMENT IN BILLIARD TABLES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Reap at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th February 1883.
JOHN REAP of N° 147 Chadwick Road Grove Park in the County of Surrey
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN BILLIARD TABLES"
It is often desirable to have ready means of raising and lowering a billiard table,
so that it can be covered by boards and used as an ordinary or dining table when
it is lowered, or can be uncovered and used as a billiard table when it is raised to
such height as is desired.
My invention relates to a method and apparatus for so raising and lowering a
table. For this purpose, I provide in the legs hydraulic cylinders and plungers,
and from these cylinders I make communications by pipes to forcing pumps
situated in a convenient position under the table, so that by forcing liquid such as
oil into the hydraulic cylinders, the table is raised, and by allowing discharge from
the cylinders, the table is lowered. In order to ensure equal ascent at all the legs
of the table, I employ a separate pump for each hydraulic cylinder, all the pumps
being of equal capacity and all worked simultaneously by one handle. For
lowering the table, I turn a cock or move a slide which uncovers passages in the
communicating pipes, allowing the liquid to flow back to the cistern from which
the pumps draw their supply.
20 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Reap in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th August
1883.
25
JOHN REAP of N° 147 Chadwick Road Grove Park in the County of Surrey
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN BILLIARD TABLES"
It is often desirable to have ready means of raising and lowering a billiard table,
Bo that it can be covered by boards and used as an ordinary or dining table when

page_text: it is lowered, or can be uncovered and used as a billiard table when it is raised to
such height as desired.
My invention relates to a method and apparatus for so raising and lowering a
table. For this purpose, I provide in the legs hydraulic cylinders and plungers,
and from these cylinders I make communications by pipes to forcing pumps situated
in a convenient position under the table, so that by forcing liquid such as oil into
the hydraulic cylinders, the table is raised, and by allowing discharge from the
cylinders, the table is lowered. In order to ensure equal ascent at all the legs of
the table, I employ a separate pump for each hydraulic cylinder, all the pumps
being of equal capacity and all worked simultaneously by one handle. For
Towering the table, I turn a cock or move a slide which uncovers passages in the
communicating pipes, allowing the liquid to flow, back to the cistern from which
the pumps draw their supply.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is partly an end elevation of a billiard
table according to my invention, partly a section through one of the legs; and
partly a section through the pumps, of which Fig. 2 is a transverse section. Fig. 3
is a plan under the slab of the table. A are the four equal pumps worked by arms
From a rocking shaft B which extends to the side of the table and is moved by a
lever handle C. The pumps are fixed within a cistern D situated in a convenient
position under the slab. From the discharge valve-box-of-each-pump, a pipe E
Jeads to a hydraulic cylinder F which is fitted to work on a packed plunger G
fixed one in each leg of the table. From each of the pump discharge boxes there
is an aperture into the bore of a cock H which can be turned by a rod and
handle K so as to bring apertures in the hollow plug of H into coincidence with
the apertures from the four valve boxes. The cock H being turned so as to close
the apertures, the pumps are worked by the handle C so as to force an equal
quantity of liquid into each of the cylinders F, thus causing the table to rise
uniformly. When it is desired to lower the table, the cook His turned so that the
liquid finds its way through the apertures of the cock to its hollow interior which
opens to the cistern D
Instead of using pumps worked with reciprocating action, four equal plungers
attached to a crosshead may be forced simultaneously by means of a screw
worked by hand into corresponding cylinders, each of which communicates by its
pipe E with the cylinder F at the table leg. Thus, by turning the screw in one
direction, the table can be raised, and by turning it in the other direction the table
can be lowered.
Having thus described the nature of my invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I claim :
For the purpose of raising and lowering the slab of a billiard table, the use of
hydraulic cylinders and plungers in the legs of the table communicating with force
pumps or their equivalents, substantially as herein described.
In Witness whereof I the said John Reap have hereunto set my hand and
seal this 9th day of August in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and eighty three.