Year: 1898

page_text: I, HARRY THEOBALD, of 32, Gracechurch Street, London, E.C., Accountant,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:--
This invention relates to that class of games in which balls are projected along
tracks on a board to goals.
The said board is provided with two spiral tracks starting from different points
and running in opposite directions so that in every complete circuit intersections
occur in such a manner that each ball on the way to its own goal must cross
places common to both tracks.
The game is played by projecting one ball after the other, each along its own
track, with the object of making the second ball dispatched strike the first ball
at one or other of the intersections and so divert it from its own track into the
track of the second ball.
Dated this 20th day of August 1898
HY. THEOBALD,
32, Gracechurch Street, E.C., Accountant.
I, HARRY THEOBALD, of 32, Gracechurch Street, London, E.C., Accountant, 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 relates to improved game apparatus, and is represented on the
accompanying drawings, in Figure, 1, in plan, and, in Fig. 2, in sectional
elevation on the line A-B, Fig. 1.
The improved apparatus consists of a "board," a, characterized by being
formed with two grooved tracks, b, c, each being of a spiral or analogous convo-
luted formation having a tangential continuation (b', or c¹,) forming the starting
path, at its outer periphery, and a terminating enlargement, (2, or 2) forming
a goal, at its inner periphery adjacent to its focus of generation, and the two being
oppositely or reversely arranged, the one convoluting with a right handed incurve

page_text: and the other with a left handed incurve, and the two being arranged in symme-
trical disposition in such manner that they intersect or cross each other at various
points, 63, 3, 4, 4, 5, 65, 66, ", the series of which are in alignment, (Fig. 1,)
so that, in a complete circuit of the two curves, they intersect at three points,
and, in two complete circuits, at five points, and so on, these intersections of the
tracks being the only parts thereof where their courses are common.
The improved board may be made of wood or of metal or of any other suitable
material, and the grooved tracks therein may be, made either by cutting, mould-
ing or otherwise forming the same in any convenient manner in and below the
general surface of the board to a depth just exceeding their semi-diameter, or by
metal strips let into the face of the board.
In a small board having comparatively short tracks or courses intersecting at
few points, the board may be flat and the tracks may be of even depth through-
out; but, in a large board having longer tracks or courses intersecting at several
points, the board may, with advantage, be slightly coned or dished towards the
poles or foci of the spirals as a centre and the tracks made of even depth through-
out, or, the board may be flat and the tracks be made each with a gradually
increasing depth evenly declining from its starting point to its goal.
The improved gameboard is intended to be used with balls used by two
players, each of whom projects a ball along one of the tracks, each of the players
using a different track, and one of them projecting his ball, after the first player's
ball has passed the first point of intersection, 63,, with the object of intercepting
the first despatched ball at one or other of the remaining intersections, 64, 4,
b³, c³, 66, 6, before it reaches its goal, while the object of the first player is to get
his ball to goal without its being struck or intercepted by the ball of the second
player.
In the use of the board in such a game, the balls used should be of equal size
and weight, but balls of different sizes and unequal weights may be used with
the object of causing the larger or heavier ball, upon meeting the other, at any
one of the said intersections common to both tracks, to reverse the motion of the
latter ball and divert it from its track into the other track.
The tracks may be made of a semi-circular or of any suitable shape in cross sec-
tion, and should be made sufficiently deep to counteract the centrifugal tendency
of the projected balls to cause them to follow the desired course. To ensure
this action, if the course be long and the balls be required to be sharply projected,
the outer edges of the tracks may be somewhat raised or embanked above the
general surface of the board, and, on the leading sides of the intersecting parts
of the tracks, such outer edges may be made tangential to a slight extent so as
the better to direct the ball when emerging from a track towards the re-entrance
to the continuation of such track.
To readily distinguish the tracks, they may be differently coloured, and
different scoring values may be given to the different intersections of the two
tracks and to their respective goals.
The balls may be projected over the starting paths either by hand or by any
suitable ball projecting appliance applied to the board, the object being to tax
the skill of the players in playing their balls with such respective velocities as
will attain their respective objects.
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
A gameboard, for use with rolling balls, characterized by being formed with
two grooved tracks each being of a spiral or analogous convoluted formation.
having a tangential continuation forming a starting path at its outer periphery
and a terminating enlargement forming a goal at its inner periphery adjacent
to its focus of generation, and the two being reversely arranged, the one convo-

page_text: luting with a right handed incurve and the other with a left handed incurve, and
the two being arranged in symmetrical disposition in such manner that they inter-
sect each other at various points where their courses are in common, as set forth.
Dated this 3rd day of March 1899.
DAY, DAVIES & HUNT,
Chartered Patent Agents, 321, High Holborn, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.