Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Sept., 1886.
Complete Left, 11th June, 1887.
Complete Accepted, 12th July, 1887
I, GEORGE HENRY HOCKEY, of 34 Egerton Road, Bishopston, in the city and county
of Bristol, gun maker, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention has reference to those appliances known as "ball-traps" which are
commonly employed for impelling balls of glass or other substances into the air to
serve as objects or marks to be shot at in shooting practice.
The improved trap in which this invention consists is constructed to afford a supply
of balls to be fed in succession to the trap and ejected therefrom in such manner that
until the said supply is exhausted, no necessity exists for an attendant to approach
the trap.
Fixed to the stand or base of the trap is a shute, preferably of tubular form, inclined
downwards towards that end of the trap at which the balls are discharged. In this
tube are placed the balls. Secured at one end to the base or stand of the trap is a flat
spring furnished at its free end with a cup. By means of a lever acted upon by an
attendant through the medium of a string the flat spring is depressed when the trap
is being set and the cup thereon is thereby brought opposite an orifice in the forward
end of the shute and the spring is held in this position by a spring pawl or catch or
equivalent device. The lever by which the spring is depressed, as aforesaid, is provided
with an arm which, when the lever is lowered to depress the spring, acts upon two
separate counterweighted valves or doors fitted in the shute. The arrangement is such
that in the normal position of the valves the leading ball, which has, by gravitation,
presented itself at the orifice in the forward end of the shute, is prevented by one of
the valves from issuing therefrom. When, however, the flat spring aforesaid is

page_text: depressed, the said valve is raised and the ball issues from the shute and falls into the
cup on the forward end of the flat spring. Immediately prior to the issue of the
leading ball the second valve, which is placed behind the first, is operated to prevent
the succeeding balls from issuing with the leading ball. The lever by which the spring
is depressed is now permitted to be withdrawn under the influence of a spring, and
the valves are returned by their counterweights to their normal positions. By pulling
a string connected with the catch or equivalent device by which the flat spring is held
down, the attendant frees the said spring which rebounds and imparts the requisite
motion to the ball.
The spring is then again lowered and the operation repeated until the supply of
balls in the shute is exhausted.
The base or stand of the trap may, if desired, be pivotted on a table or bed, so that
when the said table or bed is held stationary, the base or stand carrying the trap may
be turned through a variety of angles for the purpose of discharging the balls in
various directions at the will of the attendant.
Dated this 11th day of September 1886.
W. LLOYD WISE,
Per F. J. Brougham,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: A Repeating "Ball-trap" for Shooting Practice.
1, GEORGE HENRY HOCKEY, of 34 Egerton Road, Bishopston, in the City and
County of Bristol, gunmaker, 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:-
This invention has reference to those appliances known as "ball-traps
"which are
commonly employed for impelling balls of glass or other substance into the air to serve
as objects or marks to be shot at in shooting practice.
The improved trap in which this invention consists is constructed to afford a supply
of balls to be fed in succession to the trap and ejected therefrom in such manner that
until the said supply is exhausted no necessity exists for the operator to approach
the trap.
Fixed to the stand or table of the trap is a shute, preferably of tubular form,
inclined downwards towards that end of the trap at which the balls are discharged.
In this tube are placed the balls. Secured at one end to the base or stand of the trap
is a flat spring furnished at its free end with a cup. By means of a lever acted upon
by the operator through the medium of a string the flat spring is depressed when the
trap is being set and the cup thereon is thereby brought opposite an orifice in the rear
end of the shute and the spring is held in position by a spring pawl or catch or equiva-
lent device. The lever by which the spring is depressed, as aforesaid, is provided
with an arm which, when the lever is lowered to depress the spring, acts upon two
separate valves or doors fitted in the shute. The arrangement is such that in the
normal position of the valves the leading ball, which has, by gravitation, presented
itself at the orifice in the rear end of the shute, is prevented by one of the valves from
issuing therefrom. When, however, the flat spring aforesaid is depressed, the said
valve is raised and the ball issues from the shute and falls into the cup on the free end
of the flat spring. Immediately prior to the issue of the leading ball the second valve,
which is placed behind the first, is operated to prevent the succeeding balls from
issuing with the leading ball. The lever by which the spring is depressed is now
permitted to be withdrawn under the influence of a spring, and the valves return to
their normal positions. By pulling a string connected with the catch or equivalent
device by which the flat spring is held down, the operator frees the said spring which
rebounds and imparts the requisite motion to the ball.
The spring is then again lowered and the operation repeated until the supply of
balls in the shute is exhausted.
The table or stand of the trap is pivotted on a base or bed, so that when the said
base or bed is held stationary the table carrying the trap may be turned through a
variety of angles for the purpose of discharging balls in various directions at the will
of the operator.

page_text: Referring to the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings, Fig. 1 thereon
represents a side elevation of my improved repeating ball-trap. Fig. 2 is a plan
thereof.
Supported at the front by the stay a and connected at the rear to the plate 6 is a
shute c in which are placed the balls d, of glass or other suitable substance, which are
to be ejected from the trap to serve as marks or objects to be shot at.
A flat spring e
secured at the forward end to the table is furnished towards the rear end with a
cup g. This spring having been depressed by drawing down the cocking bar h by
pulling the string passed under the pulley i and so bringing the arm h² to bear upon
the upper face of the spring, the rear end of the spring engages with the spring catch
or pawl j. The spring e is thus represented in the drawing.
h2
The cocking bar h, which is hinged to the table towards the forward end thereof,
is.fitted with a second arm k which, while the bar is being lowered to depress the
spring e, as aforesaid, bears upon the arms / and m of the valves n and o, the former, n,
of which is pivotted at p to the plate 6 and the latter pivotted to a support situated
below the shute c. The spring q secured at one end to the plate b and connected at
the other to an arm n' of the valve n tends to maintain the latter in the position at
which it is shewn in the drawing, and the counterweight of the valve o tends to
maintain the latter in the position at which it is shewn in the drawing. By the arm k
of the cocking bar h the valve n is tilted and the ball immediately behind it runs into
the cup g of the spring e the shute being inclined towards the orifice to facilitate the
movement of the balls. Whilst a ball is thus fed to the cup g of the spring e the ball
next following is prevented from issuing from the shute by the valve o which is tilted
upwards from below and obstructs the passage of the said ball. The spring e having
now been set or "cocked" the cocking bar his allowed to rise under the influence
of a springs connected thereto at one end and at the other to a standard t fixed at
the lower end to the table f. The ball next following after that now fed to the cup g
is by the return of the valve o to its normal position permitted to advance but is
prevented from issuing from the shute by the valve n which has also returned to its
normal position. The catch or pawl pivotted in the table f has a forward pull
exerted on it by the spiral spring u anchored in the table and connected to the pawl.
To discharge the trap the operator pulls the string attached to the slotted link v¹
connected by a second link to the pawl j and so frees the spring e which rebounds
to the position represented in dotted lines at Fig. 1 and the ball in the cup g is thus
impelled therefrom. Through the slot in the link v¹ is passed a pin between the
underside of the head of which and the top of the thimble the link is supported.
The link is free to be turned about the pin to permit the operator to withdraw
the pawl from engagement with the spring e from various stand points.
Until the supply of balls in the shute c has been exhausted the operator need not
handle the trap and hence a succession of discharges more or less rapid is obtained
without the necessity of handling the trap between each discharge. By extending
the shute provision may be made to allow of the employment of an increased number
of balls.
The table is pivotted at A to the base or stand B which, when the trap is in use,
is made stationary. Towards the front side of the base B are the pulleys C and at
the opposite side are guides D through which and round the pulleys are passed
strings E, E' anchored below the front end of the table f. It will be seen that if
the string E be pulled the table f will move towards the right and that if the string E'
be pulled the table will move towards the left and hence at the will of the operator
the direction in which the balls are discharged may be varied.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :—
1. In a ball trap the use of a shute tube or channel such as c fitted with valves or
doors such as n and o actuated through the medium of a cocking bar such as h by
the operation of which when the spring whereby the balls are discharged is set or

page_text: cocked the balls are delivered one at a time for each discharge to the said spring, and
handling of the appliance until the supply of balls is exhausted is rendered unneces-
sary, substantially as herein before described.
2. In a ball trap the use of a cocking bar such as hinged towards the front of the
trap and arranged to be drawn down by the operator through the medium of a string,
line or wire for the purpose of setting or cocking the trap and acted upon by a spring
or equivalent device whereby the bar is raised after the trap has been set, substantially
as herein before described.
3. In a ball trap the means for releasing the spring whereby the balls are discharged,
consisting of a link such as v₁ and connected by a link such as v² to a spring pawl
such as or equivalent catch so as to allow the latter to be pulled back and the
discharging spring released by a strain exerted from various standpoints and through
various angles.
4. In a ball trap the use of a base or stand such as B having pivotted thereto the
table which carries the trap and being fitted with pulleys such as C and guides such.
as D through which latter and round the pulleys aforesaid are passed lines or strings
such as E, E attached to the front end of the table of the trap and whereby the
latter is capable of being moved on its pivot to the right and left by an operator
holding the opposite ends of the strings or lines, substantially as hereinbefore
described.
5. The combination of parts constituting the improved ball trap arranged and
operating substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this 11th day of June A.D. 1887.
W. LLOYD WISE,
Per F. J. Brougham,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the Applicant.