AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SETTING OUT LAWN TENNIS COURTS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur Rathbone Cobbett at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th June 1882.
ARTHUR RATHBONE COBBETT of Pall Mall in the City of Westminster, "AN
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SETTING OUT LAWN TENNIS COURTS "
My Invention relates to an improved apparatus for setting out Lawn Tennis
Courts whereby this operation may be accomplished with much greater case and in
a very much shorter time than is now possible. Lawn Tennis Courts are bounded
by a series of lines intersecting one another at right angles and dividing the
ground into a number of rectangles bearing a certain definite relation to one
another as regards their dimensions and their relative positions to one another and
to the net over which the game is played. The object of my apparatus is to enable
the different points of intersection of the various lines to be readily found so that
when the lines are marked through or in the direction of those points they shall
intersect one another truly at right angles and form rectangles of the proper
dimensions and relative arrangement. To do this accurately by the ordinary
means of setting out the Courts is an extremely tedious operation and may some-
tines take hours to perform, but by the apparatus of my Invention it may be
accomplished in a few minutes by one person.
My apparatus consists of a flexible indicator provided at intervals with certain
distinguishing marks situated at certain definite distances from one another and
having attachments at the ends for connection with pegs driven into the ground in
order to enable the indicator to be strained taut along the ground in various
positions, forming in succession a series of triangles upon the line of the net as
a base.
The method of setting out the Courts is as follows:-First, establish the position
of the net and having strained the indicator along that line, drive pegs in the
ground at each end and at certain points to establish the positions of the outer and
inner boundary lines of the Courts. Then connect the attachments at the two ends
of the indicator to the pegs driven in at the two ends of the net respectively and
strain the indicator so as to form one side and the hypothenuse of a right angled
triangle, the correct point at which to form the angle in the indicator being

page_text: indicated by a distinguishing mark. When found a peg is driven in at this point
to Mark it. This hypothen use and side respectively form one diagonal and side of
the rectangle to be formed by the outer boundary line of the Courts, and upon
these lines other pegs are driven in at points indicated by certain other marks to
indicate the points of intersection of the longitudinal and transverse divisional
lines. Proceed in the same way by forming a similar triangle to obtain the
corresponding points at the opposite side of the Court, and then upon the net line
as a base, strain the indicators in the form of an isosceles triangle, the correct
position for the vertex of which is indicated by a distinguishing mark on the
indicator and drive a peg in at this point to mark the position for the centre line.
Then join the various points by a string or other guide and proceed to mark lines
upon the ground in the ordinary way; these various operations are repeated, for
the Courts at the opposite sides of the net.