A NEW AND IMPROVED PORTABLE COURT FOR PLAYING THE ANCIENT GAME OF TENNIS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Clopton Wingfield, of Belgrave Road,
Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "A
NEW AND IMPROVED PORTABLE COURT FOR PLAYING THE ANCIENT GAME OF
TENNIS."
Scaled the 24th July 1874, and dated the 23rd February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Clopton Wing-
field at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 23rd February 1874.
I, WALTER CLOPTON WINGFIELD, of Belgrave Road, Pimlico, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW AND IMPROVED PORTABLE COURT FOR PLAYING THE ANCIENT GAME
OF TENNIS," to be as follows:
-
The object and intention of this Invention consists in constructing a
portable court by means of which the ancient game of tennis is much
simplified, can be played in the open air, and dispenses with the necessity
of having special courts erected for that purpose.

page_text: The manner by which I propose to accomplish the above object is as
follows:-I insert two standards in the ground at about twenty-one feet.
from each other; between these two standards a large oblong net is
stretched. To each of the said standards I attach a triangular shaped
net in such a manner that the standard shall divide the said triangular
net into two straight angle triangles, each of which is kept respectively
at right angles to each side of the oblong net aforesaid by means of
loops and strings, and is fixed to pegs driven in the ground.
The large oblong net forms the dividing wall of the court, and the
triangular net the wings or side walls thereof, whilst the floor is marked
out by paint, coloured cord, or tape into "in" and "out" courts,
serving as crease, right and left courts, and boundaries. By this simple
apparatus a portable court is obtained by means of which the old game
of tennis, which has always been an indoor amusement, and which few
can enjoy on account of the great expense of building a brick court, may
be made an outdoor one, and placed within the reach of all, as the above
described portable court can be erected in a fow minutes on a lawn, on
iec, or in any suitable sized space either in or out of doors.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Walter Clopton Wingfield in the Great Seal Patent :
Office on the 22nd August 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
CLOPTON WINGFIELD, of Belgrave Road, Pimlico, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the.
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Walter Clopton Wingfield,
Her special licence that I, the said Walter Clopton Wingfield, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Walter
Clopton Wingfield, 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
:

page_text: And in order to explain my said Invention more fully I now proceed
to describe the means by which it may be carried into practical effect,
reference being had to the illustrative Sheet of Drawing accompanying
these Presents, and to the figures and letters of reference marked
Colloma