Improvements in Apparatus for Marking or Scoring Billiards and other Games.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Aug., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 6th May, 1892-Accepted, 18th June, 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Marking or Scoring Billiards and
other Games.
I, CECIL HORNBY CHURMS, of Fern Bank, James Street, Civil Engineer, and
LOUIS JOHN POOLE, of Three Cups Hotel, Queen Street, Hotel Proprietor both of
Oxford, in the County Oxford, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:
Our invention relates to apparatus for marking or scoring billiards and other
games.
The object of our said invention is to provide an improved apparatus which will
automatically register or record each game that has been marked or scored thereon,
thereby enabling the number of the games marked or scored in any given period
to be ascertained, and preventing fraud.
In carrying our said invention into practice we provide (when the said apparatus
is intended for marking or scoring billiards) a suitable casing having two dials,
one for the spot ball and the other for the plain ball. These dials are preferably
divided or graduated for marking or scoring games of fifty points up. Each of the
said dials is provided with a hand or pointer which can be moved or adjusted to
indicate thereon the number of points scored by the player using the corresponding
ball. In each of the said dials is provided moreover a second or smaller dial or
plate divided or graduated in any suitable manner, and provided with a hand or
pointer so connected with the main hand or pointer by means of toothed gearing
or otherwise that each complete revolution of the said main hand or pointer will
move the said hand or pointer of the secondary or smaller dial, through one of
the said divisions or graduations upon the latter, and thus register the number
of games of fifty points up that have been marked or scored upon the main dial.
Ratchet wheels and pawls or other suitable means are provided for preventing
the hands or pointers from being moved in a backward direction, and the above
mentioned secondary or smaller dials are fitted with doors or shutters which can
be locked or secured so as to prevent tampering with the said dials by unauthorized
persons.
To enable the apparatus to be employed for marking or scoring games of more
than fifty points up we sometimes provide in connection with each of the said
dials a slide or roller having marked thereon fifty, one hundred or other number,
or numbers, and which can be drawn out or adjusted so as to exhibit the said
number, or numbers at a slit or window, or otherwise. By this means games of
one hundred or other number of points up can be marked or scored upon our
improved apparatus, a record being kept upon the hereinbefore mentioned
secondary or smaller dials of every fifty points marked or scored upon the main
or principal dials.
Although we have herein before described our improved apparatus as adapted
more especially for marking or scoring games of billiards; it will be readily
understood that it is also advantageously applicable for marking or scoring other
games.
It is obvious moreover that we can somewhat modify the construction of our
improved marking or scoring apparatus without departing in any way from the
nature of our said invention.
Dated this Lith day of Anost 100T
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Marking or Scoring Billiards and
other Games.
We CECIL HORNBY CHURMS, of Fern Bank, James Street, Civil Engineer, and
LOUIS JOHN POOLE, of Three Cups Hotel, Queen Street, Hotel Proprietor, both
of Oxford, 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 :-
Our invention relates to apparatus for marking or scoring billiards and other
games.
The chief object of our said invention is to provide an improved apparatus which
will automatically register or record each game that has been marked or scored
thereon, thereby enabling the number of games marked or scored in any given
period to be ascertained.
By our improved apparatus the proprietor of the table can ascertain by a simple
inspection of the apparatus whether or not the marker or attendant has paid in the
right. money and it thus affords a valuable check on the honesty of the said marker.
Our said apparatus also possesses other advantages over billiard scoring boards as
heretofore constructed.
In the accompanying drawings we have shown by way of example how our said
invention may be conveniently carried into practice in the case of an apparatus for
scoring billiards.
Figure 1 is a front view of the whole apparatus and
Figure 2 is a detail view drawn to an enlarged scale of the recording mechanism
for one of the dials, a part of the front plate being removed.
Figure 3 is a plan view of the same.
A A¹ are two scoring dials on the front of the casing one dial being used for the
spot and the other for the plain ball the said dials are divided and marked from
one to fifty. B is a hand or pointer provided for each dial and which can be
rotated round the dial so as to point to any number on the same to indicate the
points scored. C is a door in the casing provided with a lock if required and
which covers when shut the figure shewing the number of games scored on the said
dial, C is a square arbor adapted to be rotated by means of a key on which is used
for adjusting the scale of recording figures behind the door C as hereinafter
explained. D is another arbor which on being rotated by a suitable key prevents
the pointer B being moved beyond zero on the dial when necessary. Similar
mechanism is used for recording on both dials.
The automatic mechanism for recording the number of games scored is con-
structed as follows, that is to say, the pointer B is mounted on an arbor a which
also carries a ratchet wheel a', a' is a pawl pivoted at and having a heavy
tail piece a which maintains the said pawl in gear with the ratchet wheel a¹.
This prevents the pointer being turned back more than an amount corresponding
with the distance between two contiguous ratchet-teeth, which may represent two
or three points on the dial. Provision however is made at intervals for turning
back the said pointer for say 10 or more points by omitting some of the ratchet
wheel teeth as shown at a³. The arbor a also carries a cam a which is furnished
with a pin a that actuates a bell hammer lever 6 causing it to strike a bell b
when the pointer is turned nearly to the end of the scale on the dial. A single
tooth as is also fixed to the arbor a which for every revolution of the pointer B
operates to turn a spur wheel c one tooth forward. d is a rack which slides in
suitable guides in the framing and gears with the aforementioned wheel c.
said rack is pressed against the front plate of the mechanism by a spring
A scale of numbers from 1 to 50 more or less is painted or secured on the rack
and the said scale is arranged to travel behind an opening or window e in the
The

page_text: The
framing so that each time the pointer B is turned once round, the rack d is moved
one tooth forward and thereby brings a new figure opposite the window e.
arbor D carries a pin f which passes through a slot in a plate f which plate f*
is arranged to be capable of sliding towards and from the cam disc a' in slides 'f*
formed in the framing. By turning the arbor D the plate f is moved inwards and
engages with a tooth on the cam a when the hand or pointer has marked the
game, or moved to zero. The object of this is to enable the attendant to lock the
apparatus so as to prevent the marking pointer being turned round while he is
out of the room and the recording mechanism thereby being made to register
more games than have actually been played. In the apparatus illustrated each
dial marks up to fifty points, to enable the same to be employed for marking or
scoring games of more than fifty points up we arrange small subsidiary dials
the numbers 50, 100, 150, 200, and so on painted thereon, these dials can be rotated
by the milled heads E so that any particular number can be brought into view
through a small window E' in the casing. The registering mechanism however
records each set of fifty points whatever the length of the game may be.
with
It is obvious that by slightly modifying our invention we can detach the recording
mechanism from the scoring board and place it in another room or in another part
of the room away from the scoring board and in suitable electrical connection
therewith so that the proprietor or other interested person can see the number of
games of fifty up played, without going into the billiard room.
Our improved apparatus affords a valuable check on the honesty of the marker
or other person whose duty it is to take the money for the games played and more-
over by means of the stopping device hereinbefore described the said marker can
prevent the apparatus being tampered with by mischievous persons if he is called
out of the billiard room. At the end of each day or oftener if desired, the rack d
can be set back to its initial position and it will then begin a new record.
Although we have hereinbefore described our improved apparatus as adapted for
scoring billiards, it will be easily understood that it can be applied for marking or
scoring other games.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
First. The combination, with an apparatus for scoring billiards, of a recording
device which is actuated by the scoring devices and automatically registers the
number of games marked or scored on the said apparatus, for the purpose specified.
Second. The combination with a dial and finger for scoring or marking billiards
of a rack or its equivalent which is intermittently moved by the finger each time
the said finger is turned once round the dial, the said rack being provided with a
series of figures which are brought successively opposite a window, substantially as
described and for the purpose specified.
Third. In an apparatus for scoring billiards, the combination with the recording
or registering device, of mechanism which when actuated operates to lock the
apparatus in such a manner that no new games can be scored thereon until the said
mechanism has been turned back from its operative position, substantially as and
for the purpose specified.
Fourth. The improved scoring board for billiards constructed substantially as
hereinabove described with reference to the drawings and operating as and for the
purpose specified.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.