AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MARKING AND CHECKING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED AT RIZLYADDe PUDAMING AND Poor
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Best, of High Holborn, in the County of
Middlesex, Wine Merchant, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR MARKING AND CHECKING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED AT
RIZLYADDe PUDAMING AND Poor "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Best at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 30th March 1875.
I, ALFRED BEST, of High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Wine
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MARKING AND CHECKING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED
AT BILLIARDS, PYRAMIDS, AND POOL," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to check the number of games played
at billiards, pyramids, and pool, in such a way that at the end of the
day the proprietor of the table shall be able to see at a glance the

page_text: incorrectly. Also at the portion of the wheel nearest the cypher 0 a
small slit is made in the wheel, into which the catch takes when the
slit arrives opposite to it, and which will lock the wheel and prevent it
from being moved either way. The apparatus should be kept locked so
that the marker will be unable to tamper with the mechanism, and so
behave in a dishonest manner to his employer.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Alfred
Best in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
BEST, of High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Wine Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Best, Her special licence
that I, the said Alfred Best, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alfred Best, 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 "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MARKING
AND CHECKING THE NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED AT BILLIARDS, PYRAMIDS, AND
POOL," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Best,
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 on or before the Twentieth day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Best, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto.
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say) :-
The object of this Invention is to check the number of games (played
on a billiard table) in such a way that at the end of the day the pro-
prictor of the table shall be able to see at a glance the number of games
that have been played, and will know thereby the exact amount of
money he should receive from the marker,
In marking the game of billiards according to one arrangement of my
improved apparatus the checking mechanism may be connected with the
movements of the marking fingers which register the tens, and not to
the fingers that mark the units of the game; for instance, supposing a
game of fifty is being played no register of the game will be made until
one of the players has scored at least twenty or forty points, when the
finger which marks the tens of the game will be advanced and cause a
small dial contained within the board to revolve, when the dial will
register, and it will at once be evident that a game of fifty points has
been played, but should the game be continued beyond fifty the finger
will act upon the internal mechanism, and if the dial marks 2 it will
indicate that two games of fifty, or one of one hundred, as the case
may be, will have been played. This is effected by attaching to the
marking finger a small spring pawl, which will take into the teeth of
a ratchet wheel (as the finger is pushed forward), and will cause the
ratchet wheel to turn part of a revolution. On the face of the ratchet
wheel is a dial which is marked with suitable figures, which figures may
if desired be presented in succession at a small opening made in the front
of the board, and which at any moment will show how many games
have been played; or the figures may be marked on the back of the
ratchet wheel, access to which can only be obtained by the proprietor of
the table, as the front of the board will be locked up.
As a modification of the above the indicating mechanism may be
worked by a ratchet or click adapted to the marking fingers for the
units.
The indicating mechanism is similar in both cases, but when adapted
to the units, which may extend from 0 to 50 on the board, I place the
ratchet or indicating wheel at, say, 3, and when the finger passes

page_text: that number it will be evident that a game must have been played, and
therefore paid for. This arrangement is shewn in Sheet I. of the accom-
panying Drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a back view of the mechanism
belonging to one marking finger, the back of the board being removed to
show the working parts more clearly.
The marking finger is shown by dotted lines at a, and slides in the
groove b in the usual manner, except that at the bottom of the groove
is cut a slot 6¹ for the purpose of admitting of the pawl or click c with
its spring to be attached to the movable finger a. This click c takes
into the teeth of a ratchet whcel d, on the back of which is marked the
numerals 0 to 50, or any other number. This ratchet wheel is prevented
by the spring stop e from rotating in the wrong direction, and this stop
also serves to stop the wheel and hold it fast when the full number of
games (say fifty) which are capable of being registered by the wheel
have been played. This is effected by the stop dropping into a notch ď¹
at the zero point.
Instead of actuating the ratchet wheel direct by the pawl or click
attached to the marking finger this object may be effected by means of a
click attached to a sliding bar. This arrangement is shewn at Figures 2,
3, and 4, Fig. 2 being a front or outside view of the marking board A,
which is hinged to a fixed frame B; Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the
same; and Fig. 4 is a view shewing the marking board A turned down
on its hinges, and consequently exposing all the working parts. The
pawle or click c carried by the marking finger a takes into the teeth
of a long ratchet rack f fixed just below the slot b¹ on the marking board,
so that the finger cannot be moved back in the wrong direction (until
the click is lifted out of the ratchet rack f), but must be carried forward
to the end of the game.
When the game is finished and it becomes necessary to bring back the
indicating fingers to zero (in order to begin again) the clicks c, c, are
lifted out of the racks ff, by means of rising and falling bars g, g,
which are connected to the back of the board by links g¹, g', 9'. This
lifting operation is effected by means of an arm / mounted on the
square spindle i. A pin fixed in the bar g takes into a slot in the arm h,
and when this latter is turned on its centre by means of a key applied
from the outside a rising and sideway motion is given to the bar 9. The
rising motion will lift the pawl or click c out of the ratchet rack fat

page_text: whatever part of the board it may be, so that the finger may then be
drawn back. The sideway motion will carry forward the click j on the
bar g, and will thereby push the ratchet wheel d round one tooth. In
order to prevent the click j 'from pushing the wheel d more than one
tooth at a time, its operating end is made to rest upon a stationary disc k
which is fixed by screws to the board immediately behind the ratchet
wheel d. From the periphery of this disc k a small curved piece is cut
out, as shewn at k¹, Fig. 4. The ratchet wheel d is prevented by the
spring stop e from rotating in the wrong direction, and when it has
made a complete revolution it is stopped, as in Fig. 1, by the
stop e dropping into a notch made in the periphery of the ratchet
wheel d.
It will now be understood that when the bar g is raised so as to lift.
the click c of the marking finger out of the ratchet rack f the finger
may be drawn back to zero, and upon removing the key from the
ended spindle i and releasing the bar g the latter will be thrown back
into its normal position by the spring 7.
square
Instead of moving the bars g, g, by means of a key applied to the
squared ends of the spindles i of the arms h, h, as just described, this
object may be effected by extending the ends of the bars g to the out-
side of the frame of the board and providing them with handles, as
shewn in the detached view, Fig. 5, but when this arrangement is
employed a device for locking the bars should be provided in order to
prevent the bars from being surreptitiously tampered with.
Since filing my Provisional Specification I have found that the appa-
ratus I devised for registering the game of pyramids is open to some
objection, and will not, in fact, prevent the attendant from deceiving his
employer. As therefore I deem this form of my apparatus to be to some
extent imperfect, and not calculated to effect all the objects I had in
view, I have not thought it advisable to show any apparatus for marking
the games played at pyramids.
A board for marking the games played at pool is constructed some-
what differently, but the principle in every case remains the same. The
spring pawl is attached to the sliding piece which covers the slip on
which are marked the three dots or spots which represent the three
"lives" apportioned to each player. At the commencement of the game
as many of these sliding pieces are pulled out as there are players, and

page_text: on pulling out the slides the spring pawls attached thereto will catch in
the teeth of their respective ratchet wheels and cause them to revolve
the space of one tooth. A dial on the face of the wheel will then
present the figure 1 at the opening in the front of the board, if a dial
and opening are used for the purpose. I however prefer to mark the
numbers on the face of the ratchet wheels, as in the billiard marking
board. When the next game is played the dial or wheel will mark 2,
and so on for as many games as have been played. The "star" point
of every colour is also attached to a sliding piece, and is provided with a
ratchet wheel and pawl, so that should any player desire to "star" the
stars slide will be pulled out and a corresponding number will be
registered on the dial, as in the other instance. Every ratchet wheel is
further provided with a spring catch or stop which will prevent the
ratchet from being pushed backwards, and thereby registering incorrectly.
Also at the portion of the wheel nearest the cypher 0 a small slit or
notch is made in the ratchet wheel into which the catch or stop takes
when the slit or notch arrives opposite to it. This catch or stop locks
the ratchet wheel and prevents it from being moved in either direction
until it is released. The apparatus should be kept locked so that the
marker will be unable to tamper with the mechanism and so behave in
a dishonest manner to his employer.
The slides
will expose
Fig. 6, Sheet II., is a front view of a pool marking board constructed
according to my Invention; Fig. 7 is an end or edge view of the same,
and Fig. 8 represents the apparatus open, the marking part A of the
board which is hinged to the fixed frame B, being thrown down to
expose the interior mechanism and working parts to view.
8, 8, when drawn out as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 6,
to view the three dots or spots which indicates the three "lives
" of each
player. Beneath each of these slides and in the back of the board are
made slots r, r, Fig. 8 (and indicated by dots in Fig. 6) to receive the
movable blocks q, Fig. 8, to which are secured spring clicks c, c, which
(when the slides s are drawn out) will come against the teeth of the
ratchet wheels d, and will drive the latter round one tooth. One of these
ratchet wheels is shewn detached and drawn full size at Fig. 9. It will
be seen that on the face of the wheel there is a series of numerals
corresponding to the number of teeth, and that there is a notch or slit
made in the edge of the wheel at the end of the numerals to receive a
catch or stop of the spring stop c, which will prevent the wheel from

page_text: moving any further in either direction until released from the stop.
Behind the ratchet wheels d, and fixed to the board by screws or other-
wise, is a disc or plate %, shewn detached at Fig. 10. At the lower part
of this disc , and at that part where the click e acts, a curved piece is
cut out of the disc as at ¹. This will prevent the click c from acting
upon more than one tooth of the ratchet wheel at a time and thereby
registering incorrectly. The star slides s*, s*, are shorter than the
other and when not in use are concealed behind the border of the
frame. They carry on their face a star as indicated by dotted lines in
Fig. 6. They are provided with blocks q*, which slide in the slots r*,
and carry the click c*, which take into and operate the ratchet wheels
d* precisely as in the other instance; one of these ratchet wheels d* is
shewn detached and drawn full size at Fig. 11. It is also provided with
a fixed disc * shewn detached at Fig. 12, and with a spring top e*. All
these parts act precisely in the same manner as the corresponding parts
connected with the long slides 8, 8.
When any of the "star" slides have been drawn out, they will be
closed with the other slides when the latter is pushed home, when a
player has lost all his lives. The apparatus is fixed up against a wall by
screws passed through the eyes t, t, Fig. 6, and when the apparatus is
set for the day it is closed and secured by means of the lock u, which
can only be opened by the proprietor. In order to prevent the slides
from being tampered with or drawn out in the absence of the marker,
so as to mark against him, the ends of all the slides are covered up by a
flat barv, extending from the top to the bottom of the apparatus. This
bar is secured in place by a padlock *, the key of which is kept by the
marker, so that none of the slides can be drawn out and made to register
against the marker without his knowledge, he therefore will be held.
accountable for all the games that are indicated on the ratchet wheels as
having been played.
Having now described my Invention, and having explained the man-
ner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to
me by Letters Patent as aforesaid,—
First. The adaptation to the marking fingers of billiard marking
boards of spring clicks, for actuating ratchet wheels and dials, or
ratchet wheels alone, provided with a series of numbers on their faces
for indicating the number of games played as herein set forth.

page_text: Second. The combination with the marking fingers and spring clicks
of ratchet racks and movable bars, for lifting the clicks out of the racks
and actuating the indicating ratchet wheels as and for the purposes
herein set forth. I also claim adapting to the indicating ratchet wheels
the spring stops e, as and for the purposes described.
Third. I claim the combination with the slides of a pool marking
board of the spring clicks c and c*, the indicating ratchet wheels d and
d*, and the spring stops e and e* and the fixed circular discs k, and k*, as
and for the purposes herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Best, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.