Improvements in Apparatus for the Game of Quoits.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd May, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 4th Oct., 1893-Accepted, 4th Nov., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for the Game of Quoits.
I, WALTER HENRY BURDOCK, of New Street, Painswick, in the County of
Gloucester, Builder, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for the game of quoits,
whereby it may be played, as an interesting and useful training for the eye and
hand, indoors or elsewhere, with greater precision, convenience and certainty of
record than heretofore.
The apparatus consists of what I call my "table quoit-board" and a number of
india rubber rings with which the game is played. The rings may be of any
convenient dimensions proportionate to the size of the quoit-board, but by
preference I make them three inches in diameter with a square or circular section
of about one-quarter-of-an-inch area. The quoit-board contains the essentially
novel features of my invention and is constructed with a succession of annular
steps, which may either deepen towards the centre or rise in shelves or terraces to
a central disc or plateau. In either case the middle point of the central flat is
occupied by a peg with a more or less overhanging top. The players stand at a
distance and cast the rings at the board with the supreme object of causing them to
fall and rest over the peg; whereby the highest number of points in the game is
secured. To each shelf or step a distinctive lower value is assigned, and when a
ring rests on a shelf the assigned value is credited to the player's score.
object of the shelf-like arrangement is to prevent uncertainty as to the points
made, a thing next to impossible when the scoring areas are marked off only by a
line. Preferentially I use the form of quoit-board in which the steps deepen
towards the centre, and I make these steps few in number. Thus, for three-inch
rubber rings, I make the central or deepest depression eight inches in diameter
and one inch below the level of the board, and I surround it by a concentric
depression four inches wide and half-an-inch below the board level, so as to form
an annular shelf half-an-inch above the central flat. To the peg I assign the
value 25, to the central pit 10 and to the annular shelf 5 points. Two rings are
used by each player and the one who first scores 100 wins.
The
I prefer to construct the board in three laminæ, each half-an-inch thick and the
upper two perforated to form the central pit and the shelf. The perforations may
be variously shaped but are better either circular or square, and the middle lamina
is best placed so that the grain of the wood shall cross at right angles that of
the top and bottom lamina.
Dated this First day of May 1893.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for the Game of Quoits.
I, WALTER HENRY BURDOCK, of New Street, Painswick, in the County of
Gloucester, Builder, 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 :-
My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for the game of quoits,
whereby it may be played, as an interesting and useful training for the eye and
hand, indoors or elsewhere, with greater precision, convenience and certainty of
record than heretofore.
The apparatus consists of what I call my "table quoit-board" and a number of

page_text: india-rubber rings with which the game is played. The rings may be of any
convenient dimensions proportionate to the size of the quoit-board, but by
preference I. make them about-three inches in diameter with a square or semi-
circular section of about one-quarter-of-an-inch area. The quoit-board contains
the essentially novel features of my invention and is constructed with a succession
of annular steps, which may either deepen towards the centre or rise in shelves
or terraces to a central disc or plateau. In either case the middle point of the
central flat is occupied by a peg with a more or less overhanging top. The
players stand at a distance and cast the rings at the board with the supreme object of
causing them to fall and rest over the peg; whereby the highest number of points
that can be scored by one throw of the ring is secured. To each shelf or step a
distinctive lower value is assigned, and when a ring rests on a shelf the assigned
value is credited to the player's score. The object of the shelf-like arrangement
is to prevent uncertainty as to the points made,-an end almost impossible of
attainment when the scoring areas are marked off only by a line. By preference
I use the form of quoit-board in which the steps deepen towards the centre, and I
make these steps few in number. Thus, for three-inch rubber rings I make the
central or deepest depression about eight inches in diameter and one inch below
the level of the board, and I surround it by a concentric depression about four-
inches wide and half-an-inch below the board level, so as to form an annular shelf
half-an-inch above the central flat. To the peg I assign the value 25, to the
central pit 10 and to the aunular shelf 5 points. Two rings are used by each
player and the one who first scores 100 wins.
I illustrate apparatus made in accordance with my invention in the accompanying
sheet of drawings, to which reference follows:-
Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are sectional elevations of the board. The letter p in each
denotes the central peg with overhanging top, and the letters a, b and c indicate
the shaped lamina which constitute the successive annular steps of my apparatus.
Preferably I construct the board in three laminæ, each half-an-inch thick, and
perforate the upper two to form the shelf and central pit, as shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 is a plan of the board showing an arrangement of circular shelves or
steps, and is in correspondence with each of the sectional elevations in Figs. 1, 2
and 3. The shelves, steps, or perforations, may be variously shaped without
departing from the essence of my invention, but they are better either circular-
as shown in the plan-or square, and it is best to place the sections of which the
board is built up athwart, so that the grain of the wood in contiguous laminae shall
cross at right angles. Although I prefer wood as the material for my board I do
not confine myself solely to its use; for I may make my apparatus cheaply and
conveniently enough of papier-mache, raised sheet metal or the like.
In Fig. 5 two convenient forms of india-rubber quoit-rings for use with my
board are shown in sectional elevations at r and and in plan at R. To eliminate
as far as possible the element of chance and make success in the game dependent
on the skill of the player, I lay it down as a rule of the game that no ring shall
score unless it rest on the board with a marked face uppermost. To this end, and
for the purpose of distinction. I either make the upper face of the ring rounding,
as shown at r, or mark it by making one side of the ring of ordinary black
rubber and the other of white or vulcanised material, as shown at r.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
The improvement in apparatus for the game of quoits which consists in the
construction of a quoit-board, or its equivalent, with scoring areas in the form of
shelves or steps, substantially as described herein.
Dated this 3rd day of October 1893.
WALTER HENRY BURDOCK.