OR IM- PROVED IMPLEMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR PLAYING GAMES OF SKILL AND CHANCE
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Taylor, of No. 7, Wellington Row, Bethnal
Green, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "New OR IM-
PROVED IMPLEMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR PLAYING GAMES OF SKILL AND
CHANCE."
Sealed the 23rd July 1867, and dated the 24th January 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Taylor at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th January 1867.
I, THOMAS TAYLOR, of No. 7, Wellington Row, Bethnal Green, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"NEW OR IMPROVED IMPLEMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR PLAYING GAMES OF SKILL AND
CHANCE," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in arranging any desired number of cups or rings
placed on edge round a central pillar, having an elastic cushion. Such cups
or rings are destined to retain balls or to allow them to pass through, and are
arranged so as to turn in sockets or on swivels fixed either to the ends of
arched or other shaped arms, which may be made of wire or other suitable
material, and supported by the central pillar, or the sockets or swivels may be
fixed to the table or other surface on which the game is played, or they may
all be connected together by a ring situated above them.
hemispherical, cylindrical, semicylindrical, or of any other
The cups may be
convenient shape,

page_text: and the arms may be so arranged on the central pillar that they can be readily
adjusted or changed, if necessary, to suit the players or the size and shape of
the table. When this apparatus is used upon an ordinary loo or dining table
I surround it with an external cushion formed of segmental pieces or of
segmental and straight pieces combined, according to the shape of the table;
this external cushion may be dispensed with, and a band formed of millboard
or other suitable material may be used to prevent the balls from rolling off the
table.
In another arrangement instead of connecting the cups to the central
cushion I attach them to the external cushion, in which case the central
cushion may sometimes be dispensed with; also in place of the central cushion
I sometimes employ a cone or frustrum of a cone, upon the surface of which
I arrange any desirable number of curved or straight radial paths, or a con-
tinuous spiral path, which lead or leads from the base up to a surface upon
which is a cup or cups, or a ring or rings, or holes for receiving the ball or
balls, or for allowing them, to pass through.
These arrangements may sometimes be used without the external cushion.
The said curved paths may be either open or in the form of tubes, in which
latter case they may be arranged in an upright position.
It will be evident that various, rules may be devised for the
games that cau
be played upon these apparatus, and that the balls may be struck either with
cues or hammers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Taylor in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd July 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
TAYLOR, of No. 7, Wellington Row, Bethnal Green, in. the County of Middle-
sex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One, thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and, successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Taylor, Her, special licence that I, the said Thomas Taylor, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said, Thomas
Taylor, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the

page_text: term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "NEW OR IMPROVED IMPLEMENTS
OR APPARATUS FOR PLAYING GAMES OF SKILL AND CHANCE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Taylor, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their lands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Taylor, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in arranging any desired number of cups or rings
placed on edge round a central pillar having an elastic cushion; such cups or
rings are destined to retain balls or to allow them to pass through, and are
arranged so as to turn in sockets or on swivels fixed either to the ends of
arch or other shaped arms, which may be made of wire or other suitable
material and supported by the central pillar, or the sockets or swivels
may be
fixed to the table or other surface on which the game is to be played, or they
may all be connected together by a ring situated above them. The cups may
be hemispherical, cylindrical, semi-cylindrical, or of any other convenient
shape, and the arms may be so arranged on the central pillar that they can
be readily adjusted or changed, if necessary, to suit the players or the size
and shape of the table. When this apparatus is used upon an ordinary loo
or dining table, I surround it with an external cushion formed of segmental
pieces, or of segmental and straight pieces combined according to the shape
of the table; this external cushion may be dispensed with and a band forme 1
of millboard or other suitable material may be used to prevent the balls from
rolling off the table.
In another arrangement instead of connecting the cups to the central
cushion I attach them to the external cushion, in which case the central
cushion may sometimes be dispensed with; also in. place of the central cushion
and cups I sometimes employ a cone or frustrum of a cone, upon the surface
of which I arrange any desirable number of curved or straight radial paths or
a continuous spiral path, which lead or leads from the base up to a surface
upon which is a cup or cups, or a ring or rings, or holes for receiving the bali

page_text: or balls, or for allowing them to pass through. These arrangements may
sometimes be used without the external cushion; the said curved paths may be
either open or in the form of tubes, in which latter case they may be arranged
in an upright position.
It will be evident that various rules may be devised for the games that can
be played upon these apparatus, and that the balls may be struck either with
cues or hammers.
Figure 1, on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, shows an elevation of
an apparatus constructed according to the first part of my Invention, together
with an ordinary table and an external cush in section. A is a weighted
central pillar of wood or other suitable material, round the base of which is
an elastic cushion or ring of vulcanized rubber; B, C, are arch-shaped arms
of metal rod or tube which are supported by the pillar at one end, whilst the
other ends fit into cylindrical stalks or sockets d, d, upon the cups D, which
pups are thus supported while they are free to revolve upon the table E; F is
the external cushion which may be held in its position round the edge of the
table by means of screws G clipping a foot plate g fixed upon the back of the
cush, or it may be fixed in any other way; I prefer this external cush to
consist of a number of separate straight pieces of equal length fitted together.
so as to form a cush of an octagonal or rectangular shape, so that when
taken to pieces it can be conveniently packed with the other part of the
apparatus.
Figure 2 shows how the cups may be supported by the external cush, and
Figure 3 shows the stalk of the cup supported by a recess in the table, in
which case the external cush and centre piece may be attached permanently
to the table if desired.
Figure 4 shows another way of arranging the cups round the central cush
or pillar; in this case the stalk of the cup may be fixed into the ring H, which
may be arranged to turn upon a pin I in the pillar A, or the cups and ring
may both be fixed.
Figure 5 shows another modification where the central pillar A is fastened
to the ground by means of pins J, J, and the cups D revolve in metal sockets
driven in flush with the surface.
Figure 6 shows an elevation, with the table and external cush in section, of
another apparatus which I propose to use as a centre piece in lieu of the
above-described arrangement. K is a conoidal surface of wood or other
suitable material, upon which are arranged any convenient number of curved
paths L (four are shown) leading up to a level or curved surface containing
one or more holes or cups M for retaining the balls. The balls in this case

page_text: are intended to be struck from off the table up the curved paths of the conoid,
and if they are not caught by the cups they will roll down one or other of the.
curved paths on to the table again ready for the next player; the conoid for
this purpose is preferred to be the shape as shown at Figure 7, with the
edges very acute so as to offer little or no obstruction to the ball when rolling
from the table on to the conoid. The paths for this purpose may, if desired,
be straight radial ones in lieu of curved, and they may be made of a band of
thin brass, or of leather, metal rod, tubing, or any other suitable material,
fixed to the surface of the conoid by means of pins of screws, and I usually,
make the height of the paths about half the diameter of the balls.
Figure 8 shows a plan with the curved paths thereon, and Figure 9 shows
a section, without the curved paths, of a conoid arranged, so that the balls.
do not roll off at the base, and which is intended to be used without the
centre or external cush. It is arranged for four players and the balls rest:
against the stops. N until they are struck by the cue or hammer to propel;
them up the path into the summit cup M or the side recesses O, O. This
conoid is made with a rim P as shown, which, with the sides of the material
forming the paths L, form four recesses p, p, p, p, in which counters may be,
placed during the game if desired. Each ball and path with the recesses
belonging thereto may be differently.coloured or numbered to increase the
interest of the game. The conoid may be made of wood, metal, earthenware,.
gutta-percha, papier maché, pasteboard, or any other suitable material
and may be arranged with one continuous spiral path leading up to numbers.
or colors along the saine, or to holes or recesses on the summit, or to both.
The conoid may have pivots fixed on the rim thereof which are supported
by and turn in an outer rim supported by the brackets upon a pillar stand,
so that the conoid can be reversed and formed into an ordinary table if
necessary.
A modification of this conoid is shown in plan at Figure 10, and in section
at Figure 11. In this arrangement the balls are propelled by means of a
cue, mallet, or spring, from the lower surface R up curved tubes S on to an
upper surface T containing different sized holes or recesses, some of which, t, t,
retain the balls, whilst others u, u, allow them to pass through and roll down
on to the lower surface again. Or the balls can, of course roll back again
down the tubes S. The lower surface has similar holes t, t, upon it, and
recesses U round the inside of the rim V numbered or coloured, according
to fancy, and into which the balls will roll. By rolling the ball briskly
round the inside of the upper rim W and allowing it to come to rest, either
the upper or lower surface, this game becomes entirely one of chance.
upon

page_text: Four tubes are shown in the Drawing which number I believe will be found
most convenient, but I do not confine myself to this number, either more
or less. For convenience of manufacturing the upper part of this apparatus
is made to screw into the lower part, as shown at X but they may be other-
wise fixed or it may be made in one piece.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein-before described, as the same may be
varied without departing from the nature of my Invention, but what I
claim is,
First, arranging either moveable or fixed cups, rings, or recesses round a
central pillar with a suitable elastic cushion formed upon the base thereof.
Second, arranging a circular, or polygonal cush, in combination with a
number of cups or rings, situated inside the cush and above the surface of
the table or ground and supported from the cush.
Third, combining the central pillar and cups or rings with a circular or
polygonal cush, the said cups or rings being supported either by the pillar,
by the cush, or by the surface of the table or ground.
Fourth, the use of a conoidal surface with curved or straight radial paths
or a continuous spiral path, leading up to cups, rings, recesses, colours or
numbers, whether used alone or in combination with an external cush.
Fifth, arranging one or more curved tubes in an upright radial position
the ends of each of which tubes communicate with an upper and lower
surface containing holes or recesses colored or numbered.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Taylor, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lor
One thousand, eight hundred and sixty-seven.