Ground Surfaces for Playing Lawn Tennis, Cricket, and other Uses.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Oct., 1886.
Complete Left, 30th Mar., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 6th May, 1887.
Ground Surfaces for Playing Lawn Tennis, Cricket, and other Uses.
I JOHN HENRY WALSH of 7 Montserrat Road Putney in the County of Surrey
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
In order to play lawn tennis and other games it is desirable to have the ground
free from inequalities as much as possible and to level the lawns or other surfaces by
the application of mould or soil is attended ordinarily with much waste of time and
labor and the same applies to surfaces of ground for other uses.
My object is to provide simple inexpensive and effective means for distributing
evenly, applied mould or material, upon the surfaces of lawns and places whose
inequalities are thereby to be filled up levelled or smoothed over and consolidated
more or less.
For this purpose I form a long open vessel, or vessel capable of being opened by
removing a hinged or other lid or cover or plugged enclosure for liquid and this
vessel is supported upon arms or supports on which are mounted wheels and handle
parts the wheel axle serving as a pivot or fulcrum on which the vessel swings or
turns when the handle parts are depressed.
A convenient form of the apparatus may be made of the following details and
dimensions but these are only as an example for easier comprehension of the
construction.
A trough or vessel of about six feet length quadrant section, five inches depth the
curved side forward or away from the operating handle parts, the straight side
normally about upright and bolted to the handle arms rocking on the axis of the
wheels.

page_text: In the vessel is loaded ballast or weighting material to give pressure.
The section of vessel may be composed of two curved sides, the lines intersecting
each other at or about the ground level or base or otherwise.
In use the convenient plan to follow in levelling afresh say a Tennis lawn with my
improved apparatus is to lay down some fine mould and draw my levelling implement
along levelling or striking off the superficial material and causing the dressing to be
laid and spread evenly, as it is renewed in front of the line of draught of the im-
plement that is to say with a quadrant shape of weighted levelling vessel the dressing
is striken along and levelled by the upright side and bottom surfaces, with a rapidity
and facility unattainable by the ordinary method of hand spreading.
Dated this 15th day of October 1886
WM. BROOKES & SON,
55 & 56, Chancery Lanc, London,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in Apparatus for Use in Effecting the Levelling of
Ground Surfaces for Playing Lawn Tennis, Cricket, and other Uses.
I JOHN HENRY WALSH of 7 Montserrat Road Putney in the County of Surrey,
Gentlenian do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
In order to play lawn tennis and other games it is desirable to have the ground
free from inequalities as much as possible and to level the lawns or other surfaces by
the application of mould or soil is attended ordinarily with much waste of time and
labor and the same applies to surfaces of ground for other uses.
My object is to provide simple inexpensive and effective means for distributing
evenly, applied mould or material, upon the surfaces of lawns. and places whose
inequalities are thereby to be filled up levelled or smoothed over and consolidated
more or less.
For this purpose I form a long open vessel, or vessel capable of being opened by
removing a hinged or other lid or cover or plugged enclosure for liquid and this
vessel is supported upon arms or supports on which are mounted wheels and handle
parts the wheel axle serving as a pivot or fulcrum on which the vessel swings or
turns when the handle parts are depressed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a plan view Figure 2 a rear view Figure 3 a cross section and
Figure 4 an end view of a convenient form of the apparatus which may be made of
the following details and dimensions but these are given only as an example for easier
comprehension of the construction. Figure 5 shews in perspective drawn to a smaller
scale the appearance of the apparatus in use except that the weighting material is
omitted.
A trough or vessel a of about six feet length quadrant section-five inches depth
the curved side a¹ forward or away from the operating handle parts bb the straight
sides a² normally about upright and bolted to the handle arms b rocking on the axis c
of the wheels d.
Into the vessel a is loaded ballast or weighting material to give pressure in operating
to spread and level the loose material.
This may be bricks, stones or weights for which an open trough is useful or if a
liquid be employed then I close in the top as well as the side and supply replenish or
empty by means of an ordinary plug hole or holes.
The two iron stays b attached to the trough and to the axis of the two wheels d and
prolonged outward and upward to form a handle b as shewn provide a light and strong
construction.

page_text: The section of vessel a may be composed of two curved sides as a the lines
intersecting each other at or about the ground level or base a* or otherwise the form
may be varied.
In use the convenient plan to follow in levelling afresh say a Tennis lawn with my
improved apparatus is to lay down some fine dry mould upon the turf or surface in
front of the implement all the way to the opposite edge and when the handle has been
lifted so as just to take the wheels off the ground and the trough is drawn straight
across the surface filling up the hollows with the sifted or fine earth and at the same
time levelling or striking off the superficial material and causing the dressing to be
laid and spread evenly, as it is renewed in front of the line of draught of the imple-
ment that is to say with a quadrant shape of weighted levelling vessel a the dressing
is striken along and levelled by the upright side a² and bottom surfaces a*, as with a
straight edge" with a rapidity and facility unattainable by the ordinary method of
band spreading,
"
In this way, by working backwards and forwards and finally across the ground, an
ordinary grass court, such as for tennis, can be levelled by a couple of men in three
hours. It will be found convenient where the hollows are more than half an inch
below the surface that the turf should be lifted and a little soil introduced beneath it.
The load in the trough which it will be found convenient to use if of the size
suggested will be for levelling turf irregularities about 7 or 8 bricks or an equivalent
weight of gravel or liquid; but for levelling simply the worm casts it will be found
generally that 4 or 5 bricks are a sufficient load and that this weight answers better
than a heavier one.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
The construction or arrangement and employment of parts of apparatus for use in
effecting the levelling of surfaces of ground for use in playing Lawn Tennis Cricket
and for other uses substantially as set forth.
Dated the 29th day of March 1887