In- PROVEMENTS IN BILLIARD AND BAGATELLE TABLES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Pitts, of the Firm of Messieurs Thurston
and Company, of No. 14, Catherine Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Billiard Table Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
Sealed the 12th November 1861, and dated the 17th May 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Pitts at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
May 1861.
I, SAMUEL PITTS, of the Firm of Messieurs Thurston, and Company, of
No. 14, Catherine Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Billiard Table
Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN BILLIARD AND BAGATELLE TABLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the readily converting a billiard or
bagatelle table into a dining, supper, or ordinary table, and is effected by
applying hinges to the cushion frames so that they can be turned down and
under the table, so forming an ordinary table, and by raising them again and
fixing them upright and secure by screws, levers, or brackets, the table is
again converted into one for playing billiards or bagatelle upon, as the case
may be.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Pitts in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th
November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
PITTS, of the Firm of Messieurs Thurston and Company,, of No. 14, Catherine
Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Billiard Table Manufacturers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for IIerself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel Pitts, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Pitts, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Pitts, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN BILLIARD AND
BAGATELLE TABLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel Pitts, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands 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 Samuel Pitts, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This Invention has for its object the readily converting a billiard or bagatelle
table into a dining, supper, or ordinary table, and is effected by, applying
hinges or other suitable contrivance to the cushion frames so that they can.
be turned down under the table or taken off and removed, so forming an
ordinary table; aud by raising them again and fixing them upright and
secure, either by screws, levers, or brackets, the table is. again converted into
one for playing billiards or bagatelle upon it, as the case may be.
In order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible, I will now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the

page_text: Drawing hereto annexed, and to the letters of reference marked thereon
respectively, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
By reference to the Drawing it. will appear that a is the cushion frame,
with the india-rubber stuffing b attached to the under lining of the table c by
a hinge d, the frame being kept in position by screws e which screw into the
slate top f, as shewn. When the sides and ends are turned up in their places
the corners are secured together by means of extra corner pieces furnished
with studs which drop into openings or slotted plates on the ends of the cushion
frames, and thus give the appearance of a continuous moulding. The table
may be furnished with pockets, if desired, by means of thumbscrews, so that
they may be readily attached to or detached from the cushion frames.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention of
"Improvements in Billiard and Bagatelle Tables," and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, I would remark, in conclusion, that I do not
confine or restrict myself to the precise details herein described and shewn, as
many slight modifications or variations may be made therein without in any
way departing from the principle of my Invention, such, for instance, as I have
before stated by using bolts, levers, or brackets, although the plan I have
shewn in the Drawing I have found to answer well in practice; but what I
claim as my Invention, and therefore desire to have secured to me by the
herein in part recited Letters Patent, is, the manufacture of billiard or
bagatelle tables in such a manner that they may be converted into ordinary
dinner or supper tables, or vice versâ, in a speedy and efficient manner, as
shewn by the Drawing, or by all or any of the means herein described and set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Pitts, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of November, One thousand eight
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Agent for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross.
SAM. PITTS. (L.S.)