IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNISHING AND ADAPTING ORDINARY TABLES FOR PLAYING BILLIARDS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Snart Marshall at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
December 1865.
I, HENRY SNART MARSHALL, of Archway Road, Highgate, in the
County of Middlesex, Accountant, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FURNISHING AND ADAPTING ORDINARY
TABLES FOR PLAYING BILLIARDS," to be as follows:-
Attempts have been made heretofore to render tables applicable for the
purpose of playing billiards, and also as suitable for ordinary purposes, bý
hinging or otherwise attaching cushions thereto, so that they may be
adjusted for play or so disposed that the table may be used for ordinary
purposes; but in all cases the table has been in the first instance more or
less especially prepared as a billiard table.
Now according to my Invention I can take any ordinary dining or other
oblong (by preference) table and by simply placing cushions upon it
render it suitable for billiards. I prefer to provide a green or other cloth
cover, which having been laid over the table so as to form a level surface,
I then lay on the cushions, either in four or six pieces, and connect them
at the corners by metal bridge pieces, to which the wire stretchers of the
pockets may be attached. These metal bridge pieces 1 arch upwards
instead of outwards as usual, in order to allow the ball to pass freely under-
neath and while still on the surface of the table, in order that it may run
over the edge of the table and into the pocket, which must be extended

page_text: more than in ordinary on account of the absence of the hollows cut in the
corners of billiard tables. The bridge pieces are provided with strong
metal prongs of a rectangular form, which are received in sockets provided
in the cushions. I prefer to make these sockets some three or four inches
long by about a quarter of an inch in breadth. This provides a firm attach-
ment of the one cushion to the other, and the sockets being heavy afford
pressure to keep the cushions in place. If necessary the cushions
themselves may be weighted at bottom by running in lead. The cushions
are of course made of wood faced with india-rubber and cloth in the
ordinary manner. If the cushions divide into six pieces the middle pocket
metal bridge pieces are fitted into sockets as at the corners, whereas if the
side cushions do not separate the bridge pieces may be fixed thereto,
and connect them permanently. Instead of weighting the metal bridge
pieces of the cushions, I sometimes provide two, four, or more cramps,
the upper limb of each of which enters a hole in the side cushions,
while the lower one, provided with a thumbscrew, passes under the top of
the table and pinches the cushion thereto. Instead of making the cushions
with pockets they may be dispensed with, as in French tables for playing
the cannon game only. In this case the cushions will require attaching to
each other at the corners only, or they might even be all fixed together
like a frame and simply laid on the table top. Dining and other tables to
which these cushions are furnished may of course be made with slate tops
to improve them as billiard tables.