Improvements in Balls for Use in Golf and other Games.
Year: 1898

page_text: Reprinted as amended in accordance with the decision of the Chief Examiner dated
the 29th day of January 1903.
Date of Application, 15th Aug., 1898-Accepted, 29th Oct.,
1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (AMENDED).
Improvements in Balls for Use in Golf and other Games.
(A communication from BERTRAM GEORGE WORK, Superintendent of Rubber Manu-
facture, Akron, County of Summit, State of Ohio, United States of America, and
COBURN HASKELL, Gentleman, of Glenville, Ohio, in the United States of
'America).
**I, Alfred Julius Boult, of 111, Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, 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 is in the nature of an improved ball for use more especially in the
game of golf, though it may be used in other games where a ball of similar properties
is desired.
The object is to provide a ball which shall possess the desired qualifies of lightness,
elasticity and resilience, coupled with sufficient hardness to give it the requisite
wearing qualities.
The object sought, is accomplished by making the main body of the core prefer-
ably of higher elastic material, such as rubber thread wound under high tension into
spherical form, and covering the same with gutta-percha or one of its substitutes.
such as Balata gum, the covering possessing the attributes, comparatively speaking,
of inelasticity, toughness, hardness and lightness.
The invention is shown in its preferred form in the accompanying drawings, in
which
Fig. 1 is a view of the exterior of the ball: Figs. 2 and 3, interior views of the
two halves of the outer shell or covering laid open: Fig. 4, an outer view of the
elastic core employed; Fig. 5, a section taken on line 5 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 6, a view.
partly in section, of a modified form of the elastic core. showing the rubber thread
from which it is preferably made as wound upon a central core-section of gutta-
percha, or the like.
The preferred manner of making the ball is to wind a rubber thread upon itself.
under a tension approaching the elastic limit, to produce a spherical core A, and to
cover this core with a gutta-percha shell. The preferred method of applying the
covering, is to wrap or inclose the core in a suitably cut sheet or sheets of gutta-
percha, previously heated sufficiently to give the gutta-percha a certain degree of

page_text: plasticity, as by dipping it in boiling water, and then place the core thus wrapped in
à mold and subject to sufficient pressure to mold it to the exact shape desired, which
shape is retained on cooling.
B is the complete ball, and B' B2 the halves of the comparatively inelastic shell
which receives the elastic core A. The exterior surface of the ball may be roughened,
as shown in Fig. 1, by using a mold having intersecting ridges on its inner surface.
Fig. 5 shows a complete half-section of the ball, the core being shown as made
simply by winding a rubber thread upon itself to form a sphere.
Fig. 6 shows the rubber winding inclosing a small central core-section C, which
may be of any suitable material, serving to facilitate the winding and, if desired, to
regulate, to some extent, the weight of the ball.
The outer coating or shell may be applied by repeatedly dipping the core into a
solution of gutta-percha till the desired thickness of accretion is reached, after which
the ball may be placed in a mold for receiving a true spherical form and a roughened
surface. The core itself, though preferably wholly or mainly of rubber wound under
a high degree of tension, may be made from any analogous suitable material and in any
suitable-manner-to-produce-a-highly-elastic-core, and the feature of the gutta-perclia
still be preserved with advantage. It is to be understood that it is an essential
feature of the construction that the core shall closely fill the interior of the shell, and
desirable that the core be confined under some compression.
A core produced bywinding a rubber thread under high tension into spherical form
possesses a remarkably high degree of elasticity, coupled with high rigidity, in the
sense of resistance to distortion, which imparts to the ball the property of very great
resilience. As the result of the described construction, therefore, our golf ball has
exceptionally high "driving" qualities owing to the fact that the impact of a golf
club is capable of distorting it,and little tendency to bound, by reason of the fact that
little, if any, distortion takes place upon contact with the ground. The very great
resistance to change in form which the core possesses is due to the fact that the
thread is at all parts of the ball under a tension close to the clastic limit tending to
maintain a perfect sphere, and, hence, the slightest distortion is resisted by approxi-
mately the full strength of the material.
The covering of gutta-percha acts not only as a protection to the softer and more
highly elastic material beneath it, but also as a muffle to the latter preventing exces-
sive springiness under slight impact and yet permitting the concussion of the golf
club to act sufficiently on the elastic core. It is evident that the elasticity of the
ball, as a whole, may be regulated within limits by regulating the thickness of the
outer shell. The thicker this shell the less the elasticity, and vice versa.
6
In the appended claims the term "elastic-cord" is meant to cover that portion
of the ball included within-the-outer-shell-and-composed wholly or mainly of rubber
or-analogous material, while the term gutta-percha shell "is intended as limiting
the claims wherein employed to gutta-percha or one of its substitutes, such as the one
mentioned above.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature, of the said
invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:-
1 A ball, comprising an elastic core, and a gutta-percha shell-inclosing said
eore; substantially-as-and-for-the-purpose-set-forth.
7. A ball, comprising a core formed with a rubber thread wound into spherical
form under tension approaching the elastic limit, and a shell of relatively hard,
inelastic material. inclosing said core, substantially as and for the purpose set
forth.
2. 3-A ball, comprising a core composed wholly or in part of rubber thread
wound under high tension, and a gutta-percha shell inclosing said core, substantially
as and for the purpose set forth.
3. 4A ball, comprising a central core-section, rubber thread wound thereon under

page_text: tension, and an inclosing shell of relatively hard, inelastic material, substantially as
and for the purpose set forth.
4. A ball, comprising a central core-section of relatively non-elastic material.
rubber thread wound thereon under tension, and an enclosing shell of gutta-percha,
substantially as and for the purpose set forth.