NEW OR IMPROVED APPLIANCES OR APPARATUS FOR MARKING OUT LAWN TENNIS COURTS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Atkins Collins at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th May 1882.
CHARLES ATKINS COLLINS of Trowbridge in the County of Wilts
"NEW OR
IMPROVED APPLIANCES OR APPARATUS FOR MARKING OUT LAWN TENNIS COURTS
"
Heretofore much time and labour has been necessary to properly mark out the
courts for lawn tennis with accuracy; as a rule to mark out a court, two men will
take from one hour to an hour and half to do the work whereas by my invention
I am enabled to accomplish the work and do it in a better and more accurate
manner in from fifteen to twenty minutes.
I use a chain which is of the length of the court to be marked out say the length
of a full sized court of 78 feet. I preferably employ a chain because it does not
contract or expand under changes of weather as does a rope or cord and does not
become entangled, the chain is preferably galvanized. It is divided calculating
from one end into six parts first of four and half feet, second, eighteen feet, third,
thirty one and half feet, fourth, thirty six feet, fifth, thirty nine feet, and sixth,
sixty feet. Each of such lengths representing one division of the court the eighteen
feet length representing two of such divisions Each length is indicated by
distinctive colours or marks.
The length of the chain represents the length of the court. I make use of an
apparatus or frame to obtain the right angles which is constructed as follows: I
make a frame resembling a set square at an angle of 45° the angle pieces are
preferably made of bars of the required length say each four and half feet long
pinned or otherwise secured together at right angles to one another and strengthened
by a cross bar or piece. I preferably make this angle frame of bars of wood for the
sake of portability so that it can be folded into one straight piece. To mark out a
Court with this apparatus I lay the chain the full length and insert a peg at one
end and I whitewash outside. I then insert pegs at the divisions 18, 39, 60 and 78.
I place my square at the starting Corner on the whitewash line and bring the chain
at right angles along the other side of the square up to the mark 36 feet and
whitewash outside as before and I insert pegs at divisions 4, 18, 31 and 36.
I remove the starting end of the chain to the corner opposite that at which I
commenced and place the square at the corner as before and proceed as in producing

page_text: the opposite end of the court. I then connect the two ends and insert the pegs at
divisions 18, 39, 60 and 78 all these pegs are preferably inserted outside the
chain.
Having thus obtained the outline of the Court and the divisions marked at both
ends and sides by the pegs all I have to do to complete the Courts is to place the
chain from one corresponding peg to the other and to mark with whitewash as
before. Division No 39 on each side represents the position of the net
In marking out the internal lines the three longest are preferably marked first
because the two divisions 18 and 60 do not extend wholly across.
The Court is now completely marked out; For a smaller court the chain must
be divided in a similar manner to the chain before described but the divisions or
marks on the chain must be regulated according to the size of the Courts to be
made.