Improvements in Attachments for Lawn Tennis Nets or similar. Articles to Ground Holdfasts.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 7th June, 1895--Accepted, 13th July, 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Attachments for Lawn Tennis Nets or similar.
Articles to Ground Holdfasts.
I, PHILIP GEORGE PRICE, of St. Margarets, The Park, Beckenham in the
County of Kent, Gentleman, 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 :-
My invention relates to attachments used for holding down lawn-tennis nets, or
similar articles, to holdfasts fixed in the ground; and has for its object a cheap
form of attachment which shall be capable of easy and prompt. adjustment as to
length, and which when fixed, shall yet be a secure and reliable attachment.
To carry out my invention, I form my improved atttachment essentially in two
parts, which are capable when freed from contact with one another of sliding
easily and promptly one on another, for adjustment of length, but which mutually
grip securely, one to the other, by serrated teeth, or by screw threads, when
pressed together by a set screw or similar pressing device.
I may make such an attachment in various forms whilst retaining the above
essence of my invention and by way of example I now proceed to describe three
various, but equivalent, forms, reference being had to the drawings attached hereto,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon.
Figure 1 is an outside view and Fig. 2 a side sectional view of one form of my
attachment.
Figure 3 is a perspective detail of the internal half round rod.
Figure 4 is an outside view, and Figure 5 a side sectional view of a modified
form of my attachment.
Figure 6 is an outside view, and Figure 7 a side sectional view, of a further
modified form of my attachment.
Like letters refer to similar parts in the various figures.
A is the upper member of my attachment device, which is secured by the eye
or hook B, in any convenient manner, to a tennis-net or other object, which it may
be desired to bold firmly within a specified distance of the ground.
This upper member A may be a tube, as in Figures 1, 2, 6 and 7, or a flat plate
as in Figs. 4 & 5.
C is the lower member of my attachment device, which is secured by the eye or
hook D to any hold-fast in the ground.
The upper and lower members of my attachment are held in rigid contact with
one another, when fixed by a set screw or thumb nut E, and when the said set
screw or thumb nut is released, and screwed back, the upper and lower members
are free to slide easily and promptly upon one another, so that they may be
re-adjusted in any desired position to one another at once.
Where the upper member A is a tube, as in Figs. 1, 2, 6, & 7, the lower part of
the tube is provided inside with a female screw thread, and the upper part of the
lower member, or rod C, is also provided with a similar outside screw thread.
In the case of Figs. 1 and 2, the tube A is solid, and the lower member C is of
smaller diameter than the inside of the screwed end of the tube A, and is
flattened on one side (as seen in Fig. 3) so that the said rod C is free to move
inside the tube A when released from the pressure of the set screw E. When
the set screw E is tightened down, the threads of the balf round rod C securely
engage with the female thread in the tube A.

page_text: In the case of Figs. 6 & 7, the tube A is split, "and the lower rod C may be a
round screwed rod, but of so small a diameter that it will not engage into the
female screw of the tube A, until the split tube is compressed sufficiently by the by
the set screw E, in the ring-compress F.
In the case of Figs. 4 & 5, both top and bottom members are flat plates, one of
them having a slot G to admit the shank of a fly nut E.
The faces of the plates that come in contact are provided with serrated teeth H,
which engage securely into one another when the plates are pressed into contact
by the nut E.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1st. An adjustable attachment for lawn-tennis nets, or similar articles, consisting
of two parts or members, adapted to engage firmly to one another by threads or
teeth under the pressure of a set screw or nut, and to readily and promptly be
movable to one another, for adjustment of length, upon release of the pressure of
the said set screw or fly nut.
2nd. The construction of an adjustable attachment, consisting of two plates
with serrated teeth on the contact faces adapted to engage into one another by the
pressure of a fly nut substantially as described.
3rd. The construction of an adjustable attachment consisting of a tube with
female screw, and an entering rod of smaller diameter than the said female
thread, adapted to engage into one another by the pressure of a set screw.
4th. The construction of an adjustable attachment, substantially as described
and illustrated in Fig. 1 to 7 herewith.
Dated this 7th day of June 1895.
FELL & WILDING,
1 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicant.