IMPROVEMENTS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Malings at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd October 1883.
CHARLES MALINGS of Woolwich in the County of Kent.
LAWN TENNIS BATS"
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
The object of this invention is to keep the gut in a lawn tennis bat tight and
to afford facility for tightening it up as required.
For this purpose I mount on the top of the so called middle piece, a metallic
plate which may be of a curved or channel section and is united to the middle
piece by screws or otherwise. The plate is pierced with one or more holes say
three in number which are screw threaded forming nuts for three adjusting screws
which pass freely through a metallic bar which may be of a curved or channel
section. To this latter are attached the central longitudinal gut strings, which by
preference are passed through holes in the said bar. By turning the aforesaid
adjusting screw or screws one way or the other the upper bar is made to approach
to or recede from the plate fixed to the middle piece thus tightening or slackening
the longitudinal gut strings and thereby also the transverse strings and in fact the
whole system of gut stringing. The top of the middle piece and the plate and
the adjustable bar may be straight or convex or concave,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Charles Malings in the Patent Office on the 23rd April 1884.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
CHARLES MALINGS of Woolwich in the County of Kent
LAWN TENNIS BATS
"
The object of this invention is to keep the gut in a lawn tennis bat tight and to
afford facility for tightening it up as required. For this purpose I mount on the
[Price 411

page_text: top of the so-called middle piece a metallic plate which may be of a curved or
channel section and is united to the middle piece by screws or otherwise. The
plate is pierced with one or more holes say three in number which are screw
threaded forming nuts for three adjusting screws which pass freely through a
metallic bar which may be of a curved or channel section. To this latter are
attached the central longitudinal gut strings which by preference are passed
through holes in the said bar.
The top of the middle piece and the plate and the adjustable bar may be straight
or convex or concave.
In order that my invention may be more fully and completely understood I
will now proceed to describe the same with reference to the accompanying sheet
of drawings.
Figure 1 is a view in plan of a lawn tennis bat constructed according to my
invention and Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of a portion of the bat
through the line x y of Figure 1 but drawn on a larger scale than the previous
Figure in order to show the parts constituting my invention more clearly. a is
the metallic plate which is shown in Figure 2 of a crescent section but any other
suitable section may be used; b is the middle piece to which latter the metallio
plate a is secured by screws a' shown in dotted lines in Figure 1 or in any other
approved manner; c is the upper metallic piece made of the section shown or of
any other suitable section but preferably of the section shown and of the curved
form shown at Figure 1; d d d are the adjusting screws passing through the
metallic piece c and screwing into the metallic. piece a. e shows the gut strings
which are passed through apertures formed in the upper metallic' plate a; f repre-
sents pieces of leather or other suitable material forming pads or fenders for the
gut strings to bear against.
г
- r
The method of altering the tension of the gut is as follows; by turning the
screws done way or the other the upper har c is caused to approach to, or recede
from, the metallic plate a (which plate as before stated is fixed to the middle
piece b) thus tightening or loosening the longitudinal gut strings e this causing,
by the almost unperceivable depression or extension as the case may be in the
length of the bat framing a proportional extension (or contraction) of the sides
and consequently of the transverse gut strings also; in short the result of altering
the relative position of the plates a and c causes an alteration as regards tension
or otherwise in the whole system of the gut strings.
د
Having now described the nature of my said invention and in what manner the
same may be carried into effect I declare that I claim as my "Improvements in
lawn tennis bats"
A fixed metal piece a metallic plate or piece c to which longitudinal strings are
attached, the plate c being so connected to the plate a that the space between a
and c may be lengthened or decreased thus tightening or loosening the gut strings
both longitudinally and transversely substantially as and for the purposes set
forth.
In witness whereof I the said Charles Malings have hereunto set my hand and
seal this Twenty second day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty four.