CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MARKING BOARDS USED IN CONNECTION WITH BILLIARD AND BAGATELLE TABLES, FOR REGISTERING AND INDICATING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Towers, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MARKING
BOARDS USED IN CONNECTION WITH BILLIARD AND BAGATELLE TABLES, FOR
REGISTERING AND INDICATING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED."
Sealed the 17th August 1854, and dated the 20th February 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Towers at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
February 1854.
I, THOMAS TOWERS, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN MARKING BOARDS USED IN CONNECTION WITH BILLIARD AND BAGATELLE TABLES,
FOR REGISTERING AND INDICATING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED," to be as
follows:-
My improvements consist in the novel application of a suitable arrange-
ment of counting apparatus or mechanism, for the purpose of registering and
indicating, by self-acting means, the number of games played upon the above-
named tables. The apparatus is as follows, or may be slightly varied leaving
my Invention substantially the same: Two discs or dials of any suitable
material are placed close to one another, so that when the figures or numbers
marked upon them come opposite to an opening or aperture in the face of the
apparatus they can be read. One of the discs or dials is moved by means of
a small ratchet or toothed wheel, which is keyed on to the shaft of the finger or
index and gearing with the wheel, consisting of 100 teeth (such being the
number constituting the game), which is fixed on to the back of the dial, in

page_text: order to give it 100 consecutive movements in accordance with the numbers,
as the game proceeds; there is also another wheel gearing in this small
ratchet wheel, consisting of 40 teeth, the dial of which ranges from 100 to
1,000, also marking the,, and of the hundreds: There is also another
ratchet wheel placed between the two first-named discs, and which is worked
by a projection upon the other wheel, which wheel, having made one revolution,
the other moves to the next number, and thereby shewing the number of
hundreds or complete games played. The apertures shewing the figures are
so enclosed that the proprietor of the table alone can have access to them, and
prevent the registering of the games being tampered or interfered with by the
attendant marker or others.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Towers in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th
August 1854:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
TOWERS, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of February, in the year of our Lord-
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Towers, Her especial license that I, the said Thomas Towers,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Towers, 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
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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MARKING BOARDS' USED IN CONNECTION WITH BILLIARD AND BAGATELLE TABLES,.
FOR REGISTERING AND INDICATING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PIAYED," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Towers, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Towers, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
and accompanying Drawing, that is to say:―
My improvements consist in the novel application of a suitable arrangement
of counting appartaus or mechanism for the purpose of registering the
"score" or number attained, and indicating by self-acting means the number
of games played upon billiard and bagatelle tables. The apparatus is as
follows, or may be slightly varied, leaving my Invention substantially the same.
But in order that it may be perfectly understood and explained in detail I
have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawing about half the real size. The
Figure represented is a front elevation of my Invention, the working gear
shown in dotted lines. The games played requiring two or more persons to
play them, it is necessary to have two discs or faces to illustrate the progress
of the game on each side. The machine or apparatus is capable of represent-
ing three distinct duties or registrations; first, the representation separately
of numbers up to one hundred; secondly, collectively of twenty-fives or
quarters of a hundred up to one thousand; and thirdly, indicating the number
of quarters of hundreds that have been played, up to ten thousand, that is in
gross number, two hundred and fifty thousand; and this portion of the appa-
ratus possessing this peculiarity, that the registered numbers seen in the
Drawing at a, are entirely shut out from public view, and only unlocked or
opened by the proprietor of the key, thereby rendering the registering of the
games being tampered or interfered with by the attendant marker or others
impossible. With regard to the first operation, that of registering the separate
numbers, b, b, are the two discs previously spoken of, fixed in any suitable
framing. Those represented are formed of glass colored opaquely at the
back, with the exception of twenty-five small spaces round or near the edge.
Through these small spaces, of whatever form fancy may design, the first or
commencing figures are visible. In front of the disc or dial plate is an index
hand c.
We will now suppose the game of five hundred being played and
having commenced; behind the disc and fixed on the same shaft as the index
hand is a ratchet wheel d, having on its periphery twenty-five teeth; it will
now be evident that as the hand is moved round by the attendant cr marker,
this ratchet wheel necessarily follows; and when the game is played to 26 the
ratchet wheel d has brought into play a projecting point e, secured on its edge
at the twenty-fifth tooth, which has taken up a tooth from a second ratchet
wheel f; this wheel now commences to register its quarters of hundreds by
presenting at the orifice g its first twenty-five; but before minutely describing
this wheel, it is necessary to mention that on each of the ratchet wheels,
except the wheel m, circles of figures of peculiar arrangement are placed for

page_text: the
the registering of the separate figures up. to 100. At the back of the discs are
placed shifting circles of figures, not running in regular progression, but thus,
1, 26, 51, 76; 2, 27, 52, 77, &c.. This will be understood when the use of the
small pin and slot with four holes at the lower corner of each disc is
explained. The game having advanced to 26, it would be impossible to read
game further were not the numbers or the back of the discs, shifted. The
marker now releases the pin h (attached to the rim of numbers registering to
100), and removes it to the next of. the small four holes, the effect of which is
the removal of the numbers up to 25 and the replacement of them by others
running continuously to 50. The pin h being capable of four movements, it
will now be understood the reason of placing the' numbers in the progression
before spoken of, and placing four sets of numbers between each transparent
space. On the "spotted" index disc the numbers are shown as for com-
mencing a game on the "plain." The pin h has been removed, and the second
series of numbers are presented; this is continued until the game has reached
100, when the pin h. is placed as originally, and the dial indicates from 1 to
25. The ratchet wheelf has forty teeth, and is secured to a ring having
upon it a series of numbers ranging from 25 to 1000 in quarters of hundreds,
and each in its turn presenting itself at the orifice g. I have described the
revolution of wheel d that has caused the introduction on the face of the
disc of the first quarter of a hundred; a similar revolution will necessarily
cause the presentation of the second or 50, and so on to 500, the game,
or 1000, the maximum of the wheel. In this instance the "marker" now
reverses the wheels, and the game may be recommenced. I will now describe
the mode of indicating the number of games, or more properly the gross or
total number, or "score," of all games played up to 250,000. On the spindle
of the ratchet wheel d and beneath the projecting point e is a second projecting
piece j; this piece at every revolution of the wheel d takes up one tooth of the
wheel k, on the periphery of which there is one hundred teeth, and attached to
it a double ring of figures ranging from 01 to 99 inclusivé, 00 representing
100, and completing such number of divisions. Now it will be evident that
as each full revolution of the wheel d' advances but one tooth of the wheel k,
and consequently but one division of the double ring of numbers can be pre-
sented at the small orifice a; so that at every complete revolution of the
wheel d, the wheel k registers a progressive number, increasing one every time
up to one hundred; further than the one hundred the capabilities of this
wheel k does not extend, but it can repeat or recommence them. It is now
necessary to speak of the other similar wheel k, with the same number of
teeth, which is used to continue or to take up the numbers from the wheel'k;

page_text: and carry them on to 9999, each separate number representing so many
twenty-fives; this operation is performed by a small double ratchet or click
wheel m (or other equivalent motion), having the two sets of click teeth on its
periphery reversed one to the other. On the wheel k, under the hundredth tooth
is a small projecting pin n, which, arriving at the termination of its revolution,
takes one tooth of the upper clicks or teeth of the double click wheel m. This
is transferred by the lower click to the wheel k*, and one tooth of the wheel k
is advanced or raised; this wheel working in a contrary direction to the
wheel k. Supposing the wheel k to have advanced to 99, the wheel k* would
present at the same orifice a 00, but at the next advance of the wheel k, the
projecting pin n is brought into action, presses on the wheel m, and by its aid
takes up one tooth of the wheel k*, alters the number at the orifice a, and
instead of 00 presents 1. The wheel k likewise having advanced one tooth
stands at 00, so that the wheels together represent 100 instead of 99; this is
continued up to 9999, which represents 9999 x 25, or by but one advance
125,000. This portion of the apparatus, or the orifice a, is only opened at the
option of the owner, allowing at the same time free access to the other parts of
the apparatus. The greater parts of the wheels are composed of wood, to give
lightness to the apparatus, and all the wheels have appropriate click pieces
where necessary. An arm p extends from one index hand wheel to the other,
for the purpose of locking the hands when the instrument is not in use.
Having thus particularly described my Invention, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that I claim,-
First, the peculiar arrangement of the machinery or apparatus as herein
particularly described and set forth, and fully illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing; and,
Secondly, the registering or indicating within the same framework the
gradual advance of the games aforesaid by separate numerals and quarters of
hundreds or other proportional numbers simultaneously, as well as the regis-
tering or indicating at the same time the gross number played up to any given
period.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Towers, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
THOMAS TOWERS. (L.S.)