IMPROVED METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING, CONVERTING, AND USING BILLIARD AND OTHER TABLES.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Jekyll Westley, of 62, Camden Road,
Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING, CONVERTING, AND
USING BILLIARD AND OTHER TABLES.
"
Sealed the 19th August 1870, and dated the 26th February 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Jekyll Westley
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 20th February 1870.
I, ROBERT JEKYLL WESTLEY, of 62, Camden Road, Camden Town, in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVED METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING, CONVERTING,
AND USING BILLIARD AND OTHER TABLES," to be as follows:-
:-
In respect of a former Provisional Specification for a Patent for some
only and less perfect methods of constructing, converting, and using
billiard and other tables, and which was dated the 30th day of August
A

page_text: 1869, I have further improved the same in manner herein-after described,
and now combine any of these with any of the parts, methods, or pro-
cesses described with my present further improvements, whereby I am
enabled to construct, convert, and use the combined improvements, not
only with better economy in their manufacture, but in the greater
variety of uses for which these combined improvements will apply.
Having in the early part of the year 1868 conceived the means of
accomplishing some of these objects, I in about the month of Sep-
tember 1868, constructed a working model, but without the more
important parts of the improvements herein described and shown, and
I-clamped-and-combined_a_frame_and_cushion with pockets to the
said model with the common dining and library table, and numerous
friends besides members of my own family during that and the early
part of the year 1869, from time to time played thereon the game of.
billiards, but the plan being imperfect I made and combined the
herein described improvements formed with my own basis of prior
Invention only, and I petitioned Her Majesty for Letters Patent, and
filed in the office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th day of
August 1869, Provisional Specification of that dato.
I construct an expanding and contracting frame of wood or sheet
metal of a sectional form that will conform to and embrace the rim or
edge of, and thus combine with any common dining, library, or similar
table for temporarily converting any such table into either a billiard or
bagatelle, or other similar table, and which I denominate a convertible
domestic billiard table. They may be made of various sizes, with given
expansions and contractions to suit smaller or larger tables. I construct
the frame of longitudinal and transverse sections or lengths, and connect
them by screw bolts and fixed nuts for better kinds, or plain covered
dowels for inferior kinds, so as to join and lengthen or contract them
and shorten or elongate the sections of the frame by, in the former case,
turning the pins, on which are screw threads acting in the screw nuts
intruding into, the dowels to elongate the sections when required to fit
a table, and fill up the interstices thus formed over the screw bolts
and between the ends by slipping over the screw bolt spaces short
pieces or sections like to the frame. The sections of frame when so
formed will constitute when connected a compound frame of six lengths,
and the method of connecting them at the corner and side pockets will
be by strong curved detachable metal brace, but which are permanently

page_text: attached by one side to one end of each section of frame, and fitting into.
a metal bracket or socket on the side end of frame, and permanently.
fixed on one end of the alternate end of next section, and held tem-,
porarily by a thumbscrew on the connecting end of the joining-section..
The compound sections of frame will thus for a table be in six parts
united by the six curved metal pocket braces, to each of which the
common billiard ball pockets will be suspended, and if the corners of
table be of short curves a thin metal plate may be slipped on to the
table or frame at the corners; the inside edges of the sections of frame
so shaped as either to conform to the curved or bevelled edge of any
dining or like table, or chamfered off so as to lay over. To the under
side of each section of the frame a moveable radiating flat metal brace
bit, pinned or screwed on at one end, will be attached either to take into
a flat metal socket permanently attached to the under side of the table,
or the moveable leaves thereof, or to slide and embrace the under side
of the table. The cross section of this frame will be of the form of the
upper edges of a common billiard table. To form the cushion of this
frame a recess or rablet or groove of either flat or elliptic form must
be formed on the inner face of the sectional frame. This cushion
may be constructed by drawing a vulcanized india-rubber tube over an
elliptical or D shaped wooden rod, the rod being first covered by a
surface of woollen cloth, and is then placed in the rablet, when it is held
by the upper and lower edges of rabbet, when it is desired to elongate
the sections of the frame or to shorten or contract it to fit any one or
different sizes of common dining or library or other table to elongate the
sections, such rod may be inserted into each vulcanized india-rubber
tube, or to shorten or narrow the frame may be taken out, and when
thus made to fit a table the cushion may be fixed to the said groove
of the frame by screws from the outside thereof to temporarily or
permanently fix the cushion; and in order to stretch or contract this
elastic cushion if the frame be contracted a part of the D shaped wooden
rod may be taken off near to the ends at the pockets, and the ends of the
tubes may be passed round round the sections of frame stretched and
hooked to studs on the outside by its eylet holes.
In connecting the billiard frame with any such dining or other table,
or any temporary surface suited as a base for the game or other games
herein described if for a dining table, the ordinary baize or other cover
is laid on and stretched tightly under the edges of the frame, the flat
A 2.

page_text: radiating braces or round pins or bolts are inserted into the slots or fixed
bracket or tubular bolt holes in the under side of the table or its
moveable leaves, then the table will be in a condition to be used for
performing the game of billiards.
Dining tables may be specially constructed so as to be combined with
my aforesaid billiard frames with common elongating leaves or segment,
or may be specially constructed so as to introduce also an indented
section or leaf for receiving balls that may on occasion be placed upside
down and formed into a bagatelle board when in combination with my
aforesaid sectional billiard frame, and then lay on to the table near to the
end and beyond the indentations for balls a light wood or metal curved
piece to form the usual bagatelle end curve.
In order to raise or lower any such table as described to any desirable
height or to place it on a proper level, the casters of each leg must be
attached to screw bolts which bolts should be inserted into permanent
female screw apertures made and fixed in the lower legs or feet of said
table so as to be turned by either a fixed spanner or be turned by hand to
lift or depress the table but first lifted by a trestle.
In order to convert any dining or other table into a bagatelle it may
be constructed and effected so as at or near to one end or near to each,
end a detachable moveable leaf or leaves on one side of which the
common indentations or receptacles for balls should be made so that by.
turning such leaf or leaves upside down it or they may serve either as
single or double bagatelle or a billiard or ding or other table, and for a
raised curved end a removeable metal wooden curved piece may be laid
temporary on to it and connected with a middle wooden or metal long.
section of like frame described but cushioned on both sides in the described.
manner of forming and attaching the frame to the sectional frame.
In order so to construct a similar convertible table described as to
form it into cither a curved or square end dining table the base frame
and attached legs may be constructed in the manner of a common
elongating table, but the end leaves if curved made to turn on a fixed
centre piece connected with the base frame, so that by turning cach
curved leaf towards the centre of the table and then laying on a sectional
leaf of an alternate concave and convex edge to fit one or both ends of
the table it may be rendered square at one end, or both ends, or curved at
one end for the bagatelle game or curved at both ends to enable two sets
of players on the same base of table to play at bagatelle without one set

page_text: or, party, interfering with the other, and furthermore when, the table is
thus arranged for two parties, at, bagatelle, other games, those of cuc
ninepins,, cuc lawn billiards, or cue croquet may be played thercon by
either one or two sets of players may in like manner without one party
interfering with the game of the other or suffering from impatience in
the domestic circle for opportunity to play may perform, or one party
may as thus arranged play at the same time bagatelle whilst the other
is engaged in cue ninepins, as herein described.
To play the game of cue ninepins the standing pins may be placed.
with or without removing the removeable curved pieces, when removed
and the leaf of the table reversed so as to form a plane surface for the
ninepins, small holes, say the eighth of an inch diameter, are pierced in
that part of the reversed leaf, and into the lower ends of the pins flexiblę
steel wire are attached, say an inch long, which are inserted into the pin
apertures in the leaf so that the pins may not be knocked down, but
instead the tops of the pins may have shallow cups into which ivory or
india-rubber balls may be placed to, be knocked off for the game.
By similar combination of the constructions and methods of use
herein described another well known game may be played which I de-
nominate cue lawn billiards. This game herein described is played in a
somewhat similar manner to what is known as lawn billiards whereby.on
a square or oblong field or lawn with raised sides and ends, and with a
central loosely turning ring pivotted in a fixed aperture the ring turns,
heavy balls of large diameter are thrown at the said ring with a view to
pass the ball through the ring..
Now in the centre of my said expanding and contracting frame so
combined with a common, or my improved dining or library table or any
other suitable raised surface for a base and placed on trestles or temporary
legs, I make a small aperture in the exact middle part of the top side of
the table at equal distances from the sides and ends of the upper surface
by letting in and permanently fixing a smooth circular metal, silver, or
brass bit about the size of a two-shilling pice even with the surface of
table, and through the centre of which, through table top, I make an
aperture about one quarter of an inch diameter, and I contract a silver
or brass ring about two inches and a half internal diameter flattened on
the lower side about an inch; in the centre of the flattened part I per-
manently attach a projecting solid short cylinder of the same metal or
steel about a quarter of an inch diameter, and say two inches long, and I

page_text: protrude this projecting bit into and through the said aperture in the
centre of the tube, and thus form a swivel ring.
Then to play the game on my described table by throwing the balls
with hands I project the billiards or something larger balls with a
common billiard cue, and in this manner. perform the game of lawn
billiards. Thus the frame may be attached or detached to or removed
from any such tables and removed and concealed behind the window
curtains of a dining or withdrawing room in a few minutes.
Then the whole of the aforesaid sections of frame, with its connected
apparatus described, may be taken apart and packed in an oblong box
about five feet long by one foot square, into which-the-expanding-and-
contracting frame with its cloth, cues, ninepins, bagatelle forms, lawn
apparatus may be packed and conveyed to any part of this kingdom,
or its empire abroad, or exported to any part of the world, and made to
fit any table square, oblong, or round.
On land or in fair weather at sea by my described trestle surface, when
for sea it is on a suitable standard under which the surface of table is
poised by a heavy ball pendulum to maintain the horizontal level.
In Drawing No, 1, Fig. 1, is a plan of table B, B, the sections of
expanding frame; d, d, d, is an expanding cushion; C, C₁, the billiard
pockets; a, a, a, are expanding screw pins or dowels; b, b, b, a female
recess screw, but which may be placed on the end of section by
and behind a metal plate screwed on to the ends; h, h, h, are braces
attached to the lower side of the frame to embrace the table and table
cover. In Drawing No. 2, Fig. 2, A, an end view of converted table ;
C, C, are ball pockets; R, R, are the lifting and depressing castors.
In Fig. 3, B and A is a sectional end view of a frame table; c, the
metal suspending angle iron; d, the india-rubber cushion; e, the wood
shaping piece; the billiard table. Fig. 4, sectional end view and plan
of piecing blocks. In Drawing No. 2, Fig. 5 is a round-ended table
converted into a square table at both ends, G as converted to a square
at one end and round at the other; 7 is a reversing leaf with receptacles
for balls, sectional end view of table; D, frame; C, cylindrical tube;
and R, winding rod for cover in a tin cylindrical case having a long slot
to admit the cloth for winding on the rod in the case, on one end of rod
protruding through end of case may be attached a moveable handle lever

page_text: acting on cogged wheels to wind the cloth tightly on the iron rod in the
case; mm, table cover..
Another form of construction of the frame to be attached to any such
tables or surfaces is. that of a combination of four parts, so hinged cach to
the other so that the frame may hold and open, with a parallel motion
when once contracted or expanded to suit the dimensions of any table;
to such frame the cloth may be permanently attached so as to stretch on
all sides and lay smoothly on the table, having two rows of cylet holes. at
sides and ends to fix on studs under table or made to. roll up, enveloping
the frame, and be capable of being, packed in a small case for trans-
portation or exportation..
In arranging the apparatus: of the converted billiard table, so, as to
render it applicable and convertible to a bagatelle board I either contract
the frame to the desired width or instead thereof I lay the described the
longitudinal piece to similar part of the frame on to the top of the
table cover, and attach the end to the centre piece to the end pieces of
the oblong contracting and expanding frame. I thus double or divide
the table longitudinally into two cqual parts, and I apply by laying on
one end of the table, but at opposite ends of the division of the table
formed by the centre piece the said curved piece of a form common. to.
bagatelle boards, thus I enable two different sets of persons to play
the game at the same time without one set interfering with the
other..
Another form of frame may be applied by making the flexible table
cover to wind on a rod suspended in a metal cylinder suspended under:
and attached to one longitudinal part of the contracting and expanding:
frame as shown on sectional end view in Figures, the metal cylinder
is so suspended below the rail of the frame as to allow the attaching
bolts to pass between the under side of the rail, and the top side of the.
metal cylinder as seen in Figures.
By another form of construction of the expanding and contracting;
frame in some applications of the smaller and less costly frames. is that.
instead of expanding and contracting right and left handed screw
pins, and screw recess, strong wood or plain metal pins without threaded
screw or screw recess may be substituted, which being covered with ȧ
tube of vulcanized india-rubber and other suitable flexible material
stretched over said plain pins, and with enclosed ends of tube, and made

page_text: to nit tightly in the dowels of the ends of frame with some force approu
will be suitably applicable.
In order to convert a round table into a square table with which the said
apparatus for the described games may be used the supporting legs of the
table may be four, attached to a square or oblong frame, or the supporting
frame may be connected by radiating angular parts, the ends of which
forming star-like projections approaching near to the outward edges of
the under side of table. The leaves of the round table are made in
say two equal sections, each section turning on a centre piece attached
to the star-like angular projections so that the peripheries of each section
_may_be_turned outwards, whilst the straight or rectangular edges will
form a square or oblong sides leaving or forming curvilinear spaces
between the curved edges.
The table leaves form two tops one laying under the other, the top onc
as described sectional, whilst the lower top is of one solid piece and of
curvilinear form conforming to and exactly filling up the spaces formed
by the curved peripheries of the reversed sectional leaf, the centre part
of which is permanently fixed to central wood or metal screw pin acting
on a female threaded quick screw fixed to the central part of the said
starlike form, so that when the lower surface of the top of table is
raised by the action of the screw pin, it shall lay in close contact with
the curved peripheries of the leaves of the table, and being attached
thereto by and made of even level surface, or dowels and pins, bolts or
brackets, it shall form one even square or oblong surface of a table. The
curved edges or peripheries of the top of table may be rectangular and
faced with brass or steel strips of metal, and the curved edges of the
lower top may also be faced with like metal strips to conform so as to
make even level joints when the pins are inserted into the dowels on the
curved edges or under them.
The converted table so formed, the said contracting and expanding
frame may be combined, when on, to perform the billiard or other games
herein-before described. Thus the table may be re-formed into its
original circle by slightly moving the top section an inch or two, so as to
free the dowels and pins, when the screw pins may be turned by the
hand, or a fixed spanner or pin inserted in a hole of the screw pin, and
the lower solid top of table may be depressed lower than the top leaves,
and the latter may be then reversed by their central bearings, their

page_text: pins inserted into their dowels, and the table thus become round, the
lower curved lifting and depressing top should be imbedded on a metal
plate of its own form for strength and with metal edges.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Jekyll Westley in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
JEKYLL WESTLEY, of No. 62, Camden Road, Camden Town, in the
County of Middlesex, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Robert Jekyll Westley, Her special licence
that I, the said Robert Jekyll Westley, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Jekyll Westley, 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 might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED
METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING, CONVERTING, AND USING BILLIARD AND OTHER TABLES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Jekyll
Westley, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention; and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Jekyll Westley, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to a former
Provisional Specification for a Patent for some only and less perfect
methods of constructing, converting, and using billiard and other tables,
and which was dated the Thirtieth day of August, One thousand eight

page_text: hundred and sixty-nine, I have further improved the same in manner
herein-after described, and now combine any of those with any of tlic
parts, methods, or processes. therein described with my present further
improvements, whereby I am enabled to construet, convert, and use
these combined improvements, not only with better economy in their
manufacture, but in the greater variety of uses for which these
combined improvements will apply.
Having in the early part of the year Eighteen hundred and sixty-nine
conceived the means of accomplishing some of these objects, I, in about
the month of September Eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, constructed a
working model, but without the more important parts of the improve-
ments herein described and shown, and I clamped and combined a frame
and cushions with pockets to the said model with the common dining or
library table, and friends besides members of my own family during that
and the carly part of the year Eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, from
time to time played thereon the game of billiards, but the plan being
imperfect I combined the herein described improvements formed with
my own basis of prior Invention only, and I petitioned Her Majesty for
Letters Patent, and filed in the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
on the Thirtieth day of August 1869, Provisional Specification of that
date, and I now construct an expanding and contracting frame of wood
or sheet metal of a sectional form that will conform to and embrace the
rim or edge of and thus combine with any common dining, library, or
similar table for temporarily converting any such table into either a
billiard or bagatelle or other similar and herein described table, which I
denominate a "convertible domestic billiard or bagatelle table; " they
may be made of various sizes with given expansions and contractions to
suit smaller or larger tables.
I construct the frame of longitudinal and transverse sections or lengths
and connect them by screw bolts and fixed nuts in one form. For better
kinds or plain clastic covered dowels and sockets for inferior kinds
so as to join and lengthen or contract them to shorten or elongate the
sections of the frame by in the former case turning the pins on which
are screw threads acting in the screw nuts intruding into the dowels to
clongate the sections when required to fit the table, and I fill up the
interstices thus formed over the screw bolts and between the ends of
sections by slipping over the screw bolt spaces to clongate short pieces
of sections alike to the frame in form. The sections of frame when so

page_text: formed will constitute when connected a compound frame of six lengths,
and the method of connecting them at the corner and side pockets will
be by strong curved detachable metal braces, but which are permanently
attached by one side to one end of each section of frame and fitting into
a metal bracket or socket in the side end of cach section of frame and
permanently fixed on one side of the alternate end of next connecting
section and temporarily held by a thumbscrew on the connecting end of
the adjoining section. The compound sections of frame will thus for a
table be in six parts united by the curved metal pocket braces, to cach
of which the common billiard ball pockets will be suspended, and if the
corners of tables be of long curves a thin metal plate may be slipped on
and attached to the frame at the corners. The inside edges of the
sections of frame so shaped as either to conform to the curved and
bevelled edges of any dining or like table or chamfered off so as to lay
over it.
To the under side of each section of the frame a moveable
radiating flat metal brace bit is pinned or screwed on at one end and may
be so connected as either to take into a flat metal socket permanently
attached to the under side of the table or the moveable leaves thereof, or to
slide and embrace the under side of the table, or instead thereof common
cotter joints of metal may be attached to the middle of each section of
frame and lay under the edge of the table and be adjusted by a thumbscrew.
The cross section of this frame will be of the form of the upper edges of a
common billiard table, as shown in the annexed engravings. To form
the cushion of this frame a recess or rabbet or groove, either of flat or of
elliptic form must be formed on the inner face of the sectional frame as
shown. This cushion may be constructed by drawing a vulcanized india-
rubber tube over an elliptical or D shaped wooden rod, may be first
covered by a surface of woollen cloth to give clasticity and is then
placed in the rabbet, where it is held by the upper and lower edges of
rabbet or thumbscrew from the outside of frame. When it is desired to
clongate the sections of the frame or contract it to fit any one or different
sizes of common dining or library or other table to elongate it the section
of each rod may be inserted into each section of vulcanized india-rubber
tube, or to shorten or narrow the frame may be taken out, and when the
sections thus made to fit a table the cushions may be fixed to the said
groove of the frame by thumbscrews from the outside thereof to tem-
porarily or permanently fix the cushion, and in order to stretch this
clastic cushion if the frame be clongated a part of the D shaped wooden rod
may be elongated by a short piece near to the cuds at the pockets, and the

page_text: ends. of tubes may be passed round the ends. of sections: of frame stretched
and hooked to studs on the outside, and for contracting, the cushions the
short wood pieces may be taken out of the clastic tubes, which will then
contract and may again he attached to, the studs by their eyelet holes..
In connecting tho billiard frame with any such dining or other table
or any temporary surface suited as a base for the game or other games
herein described, if for a dining table the ordinary baize or other cover is
laid on and stretched tightly under the edges of the frame, the flat radiating
braces or round pins or bolts are inserted into slots or fixed brackets or
tubular bolt holes on the under side of the table or its moveable leaves,
or the said cotter joints or braces shown may be applied, then the table
will be in a condition-to-be-used-for-performing the game of billiards.
•
Dining tables may be specially constructed so as to be combined
with my aforesaid billiard frames, with common elongating leaves or
segments or may be specially constructed so as to introduce also an
indented section or leaf for receiving balls that may on occasion be placed
upside down and formed into a bagatelle board when in combination with
the aforesaid sectional billiard frame, and I then lay on to the table near
to the end and beyond the indentations for balls a light wood or metal
curved piece to form the usual bagatelle end curve.
In order to raise or lower any such table as described to any desirable
height or to place it on a proper level, to the castors of each leg must be
attached screw bolts or dowels which should be inserted into permanent
vertical female screw apertures made in the lower parts of the legs or
feet of said table so that the screw bolts may be turned by either a fixed
spanner or turned by hand by the castors to lift or depress the table,
which may be first raised by a trestle at each end, which may be fixed
to the under side of a table by hinges,
In order to convert any dining or other table into a bagatelle board it
may be constructed so as at or near to one end or near to each end a
detachable moveable leaf or leaves, on one side of which the common
indentations or receptacles for balls should be made by turning cach
leaf or leaves upside down it or they may serve either as a single or
double bagatelle or billiard, or dining, or library, or other table, and
for a raised curved cnd a removcable metal or wooden curved piece may
be laid temporarily on to it, and connected with a middle wooden or metal
long section of like frame described, but cushioned on both sides in the
described manner of forming and attaching the same to the sectional frame.

page_text: may
In order so to construct a similar convertible table described as to form
it into either a curved or square end dining table the base frame and
attached legs may be constructed in the manner of a common clongating
table, but the end leaves, if curved, made to turn on a fixed centre piece
connected with the base frame, so that by turning each curved leaf
towards the centre of the table, and then laying on a sectional leaf with.
an alternate concave and convex edge to fit one or both ends of a table
it be rendered square at one end or both, or curved at one end for
the bagatelle game, or curved at both ends to enable two sets of players
on the same floor of table to play at bagatelle without one set or party
interfereing with the other; and furthermore when the table is thus
arranged for two parties at bagatelle other games, such as cuc ninepins,
lawn billiards, or cuc croquet may be played thereon, by either one or
two sets of players in like manner, in like manner without one party
interfereing with the game of the other, or suffering from impatience
in the domestic circle for opportunity to play, or one party may as thus
arranged play at the same time bagatelle whilst the other is engaged
in cuc nincpins, as herein described.
To play the game of cue ninepins the pins may be placed with or
without removing the said curved pieces, when removed and the leaf'
of a table is reversed so as to form a plane surface for the nincpins
small holes, say the eighth of an inch diameter, are pierced in that
part of the reversed leaf, and into the lower ends of the pins flxible.
steel wires are attached, say an inch long, which are inserted into pin
apertures in the leaf, so that the pins may not be knocked down, but
instead the tops of the pins may have shallow cups, into which ivory or
india-rubber balls may be placed to be knocked off for the game; and
to further convert said table, when in this altered condition, into a
form to play the game of Chinese billiards, then two parallel pieces of
thin flat boards are placed on their edges and held by pins on the lower
edges; so that being placed near the sides of the said expanding and
contracting frame they will form channels or gutters through which to
project the balls on the indentations and pins for the game. The said
screw dowels of the castors raising the table at one end to form an.
inclined plane, or the same may be effected by so raising the table by
the said attached trestles suspended by hinged joints...
By similar conditions of the constructions and methods of use
11
lavad
hih T

page_text: -
denominate cuc lawn billiards. The game herein described is played in
a somewhat similar manner to what is known as lawn billiards, whereby
on a square or oblong field with raised sides and ends, and with
a central loosely turning ring pivotted in a fixed aperture the ring
turns, and heavy balls of large diameter arc thrown at the said ring
with a view to pass the ball through the ring.
Now in the central part of my expanding and contracting frame so
combined with a common or my improved dining or library table, or any
suitable raised surface for a base or floor, and placed on trestles or
temporary legs I make a small aperture in the middle part of the top side
_of_the_table at equal distances from the sides and ends of the upper surface
by letting in and permanently fixing a smooth-circular-metal_or_brass
bit about the size of a two-shilling piece, and made even with the
surface of table, and through the centre of which and through table
top I make an aperture about one-quarter of an inch diameter, and I
construct a silver or brass ring about two inches internal diameter
flattened on the lower side about an inch, and in the centre of the
flattened part I permanently attach a projecting solid pin of the same
metal or steel about a quarter of an inch diameter and, say, two inches
long, and I protrude this projecting bit into and through the said
aperture in the centre of the table, and thus form a swivel ring.
Then to play the game on my described table instead of throwing the
balls with hands I project the billiard balls with the common billiard
cuc, and in this manner perform the game of lawn billiards. Thus the
frame may be attached or detached or removed from any such tables,
and removed and concealed behind the window curtains of a dining
or withdrawing room in a few minutes.
Then the whole of the aforesaid sections of frame, with its connected
apparatus described, may be taken apart and packed in an oblong box
about five feet long and one foot square, into which the contracting
and expanding frame with its cloth, cucs, balls, ninepins, bagatelle
forms, lawn apparatus may be packed and conveyed to any part of this
kingdom, or its empire abroad, or exported to any part of the world,
and made to fit any table-square, oblong, or round.
On land, or in fair weather at sea, by my described trestle and floor
surface, the games may be played; when for sea it is on a suitable
standard under which the surface of table is poised by a heavy ball

page_text: pendulum, held in a ball-and-socket suspension joint to maintain the
horizontal level by gravity during the motions of the ship.
=
In Drawing No. 1, Fig. 1 is a plan of table, and B, B, the sections of an
expanding frame; d, d, d, is an expanding cushion; C, C1, the billiard
pockets; a, a, a, are expanding screw pins or dowels; b, b, b, a
female screw recess, but which may be placed on the end of section by
and behind a metal plate screwed on to the ends; h, h, h, are braces
attached to the lower side of the frame to embrace the table and
table cover, or instead thereof cotter joints or braces and a ≈ may be
applied as shown in Drawing No. 1. .In Drawing No. 1, Fig. 2, A, an
end view of a converted table; C, C, are ball pockets, and D, D, are the
lifting and depressing castors. In Fig. 3, B and A is a sectional end view
of a frame table; c, the metal suspending angle iron; d, the india-
rubber cushion; e, the wood shaping piece; g, the billiard balls. Fig. 4
the sectional end view and plan of piecing blocks. In Drawing No. 2,
Fig. 5, a round-ended table converted into a square table at both ends, 6
as converted to a square at one end and round at the other; 7 is a
reversing leaf with receptacles for balls. In No. 1, D, sectional end
view of table with D frame; C, cylindrical tube; and K, winding rod
for table cover in a tin cylindrical case having a long slot to admit the
cloth for winding on the rod in the case; on one end of rod pro-
truding through end of case may be attached a moveable handle lever
acting on cogged wheels to wind the cloth tightly on the iron rod on
the case; m, m, is the table cover.
Another form of the construction of the frame to be attached to any
such tables or surfaces is that of a combination of four parts, so hinged
to each other as that the frame may fold and open with a parallel
motion when once contracted or expanded to suit the dimensions of
any table to such frame; the cloth may be permanently attached, so as
to stretch on all sides and lay smoothly on the table, or having two
rows of eylet holes at sides and ends to fix on studs on under the side
table or made to roll up enveloping the frame and be capable of being
packed in a small case for exportation or transportation.
In arranging the apparatus of the converted billiard table so as to
render it applicable and convertible to a bagatelle board I either
contract the frame to the desired width, or instead thereof I lay the
described longitudinal piece to the similar part of the frame on to
the top of the table cover and attach the end of this centre piece to the

page_text: end pieces of the oblong contracting and expanding frame. I thus
divide the table longitudinally into two equal parts, and I apply by
laying on one end of the table, but at opposite ends of the division of
the table formed by the centre piece, the said curved piece of a form
common to bagatelle boards; thus I enable two different sets of persons
to play at the game at the same time without one set intruding upon
the other.
Another form of frame may be applied by making the flexible table
cover to wind on a rod suspended in a metal telescopic cylinder
suspended under and attached to one longitudinal part of the con-
tracting and expanding frame, as shown in sectional end view in
Figures D, C, the metal cylinder is so suspended-below-the-rail-of-the-
frame as to allow the attaching bolts to pass between the under side of
the rail and the top side of the metal cylinder, as seen in Figures.
. By another form of construction of the contracting and expanding
frame in some application of the smaller and less important frames is,
that instead of the expanding and contracting right and left handed
screw pins and screw recess, strong wood or plain metal pins without
thread screw or screw recess may be substituted, which being covered
by a tube of vulcanized india-rubber or other suitable flexible material
stretched over plain pins and with enclosed ends of tube and made to
fit tightly in the dowels of the ends of frame with some force applied
will be suitably applicable.
In order to convert a round table into a square table with which the
said apparatus for the described games may be used, the supporting legs
of the table may be four attached to a square or oblong frame, or the
supporting frame may be connected of radiating angular parts, the ends
of which forming star-like projections approaching near to the outward
edges of the under side of table. The leaves of the round table are
made into, say, four equal sections, cach section turning on a centre
piece attached to the star-like angular projections so that the peripheries
of each section may be turned inwards whilst the straight or rectangular
edges will form square or oblong sides leaving or forming curvilinear
spaces between the curved edges.
The table leaves form two tops, one laying under the other, the top
one, as described, sectional, whilst the lower top is of one solid piece
and of curvilinear form conforming to and exactly fitting up the spaces
formed by the curved peripheries of the reversed sectional leaf, the

page_text: centre part of which is permanently fixed to central wood or metal
screw pin acting in a female threaded screw fixed to the central part of
the said star-like form, so that when the lower surface of the top
of table is raised by the action of the screw pin it shall lay in close
contact with the curved peripheries of the leaves of the table, and being
attached thereto by and made of even level surface or dowels and pîn
bolts or brackets it shall form one even square or oblong surface of
table. The curved edges or peripheries of the top of the table may be
rectangular and faced with brass or steel strips of metal, and the curved
edges of the lower lip may also be faced with like metal strips to
conform so as to make even level joints when the pins are inserted
into the dowels on. the curved edges or under them.
: The converted table so formed, the said contracting and expanding
frame may be combined whereon to perform the game of billiards or
other games before described. Thus the table may be reformed into
its original circle by slightly moving the top section an inch or two so
as to free the dowels and pins when the screw pins may be turned by
the hand, or a fixed spanner, a pin inserted in a hole of the screw pin
and the lower solid top of table may be depressed lower than the top
leaves, and the latter may be then reversed by their central bearings,
their pins inserted into their dowels, and the table thus made round,
the lower curved lifting and depressing top should be imbedded on a
metal plate of its own form for strength and with metal edges.
Having in the foregoing Specification described the several methods
of constructing to convert common dining, library, or other tables not
only into temporary billiard boards, but also into converted surface
planes on which to perform as well the several other games herein-
before described and exemplified in the annexed Drawings, Numbers
One and Two, and the Figures thereon exhibiting the detached parts of
mechanical forms, which, when as shown combined, effect the con-
structions suitable for the said Inventions of tables on which to perform
'the several games in my said former Provisional Specification mentioned
as also in this, I claim,-
Firstly. The expanding and contracting frame with its parts com-
bined therewith, as shown in the Figures in Drawing Number One,
and their further combinations with said tables, substantially as herein
described

page_text: Secondly. The elongating and contracting cushion and its method of
use, as described.
Thirdly. The application and combination with said tables of the
raising and lowering castor, screw dowels, or lifting tressels, substantially
as herein described, or other similar convenient means.
Fourthly. The telescope cylinder wherein to wind and roll up the
cover of said tables and its combination therewith, substantially as
hercin described.
Fifthly. The centre piece, indented leaves, curved end pieces, as in
Drawing Number Two, and methods of use for converting said tables.
into-bagatelle-boards, substantially as herein described.
Sixthly. The method of converting the curved ends of said tables
into square end or ends, as herein described.
Seventhly. The method of suspending, balancing, and maintaining
in a horizontal position on shipboard at sea said tables or plain surfaces
for the object mentioned, substantially as herein described.
Eighthly. The methods described for reconverting any such tables in
the forms for playing thereon any of the several games mentioned,
substantially as herein described.
In witness thereof, I, the said Rob. Jekyll Westley, have here- 1
unto set my hand and seal, this 25th day of August, 1870.
Witness,
ARTHUR BELL,
Fitzroy Place,
(L.S.) ROBERT JEKYLL WESTLEY.
Regent's Park Road, N.W.
(L.s.) ROBERT JEKYLL WESTLEY.
Witness,
ARTHUR BELL,
Witness,
Fitzroy Place,
Regent's Park Road, N.W.
CHARLES HARVEY WATKINS,
5, Oakley Square, N.W.
August 25th, 1870.