IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MARKING LAWN TENNIS COURTS AND OTHER SURFACES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to the Reverend John Constable, of the Agricultural College,
Cirencester, in the County of Gloucester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR MARKING LAWN TENNIS COURTS AND OTHER SURFACES,"
478 C
OLL T10170
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Constable at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th June 1878.
The Reverend JOHN CONSTABLE, of the Agricultural College, Cirencester, in the
County of Gloucester. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MARKING LAWN TENNIS
5 COURTS AND OTHER SURFACES."
This apparatus consists of a vessel mounted on a frame upon wheels, and con-.
taining the colouring wash or matter. An endless band, by preference of india-
rubber, passes through this vessel so as to become covered in its passage through the
vessel by the colouring matter, and thence over a wheel in front of the apparatus,
0 by which wheel the said endless band, when covered or charged with the colouring
wash, touches and so marks the ground.
The endless band may be either plain, so as to mark a line, or figured so as to
mark any required device.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said John Constable in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th December 1878.
JOHN CONSTABLE, of the Agricultural College, Cirencester, in the County of
Gloucester, Master of Arts, Clerk in Holy Orders. AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
MARKING LINES UPON THE GROUND."
"
This apparatus consists of a vessel mounted on a frame and carried upon three
wheels, and containing the coloring wash or matter. An endless band, by
preference of india-rubber, passes through this vessel so as to become covered in
its passage through the vessel by the coloring matter, and thence over a wheel in
front of the apparatus, by which band or wheel the ground is marked.
The endless band may be either hollow or solid, round or flat. The front wheel
has a groove in it for an endless band, which, by means of two grooved pulleys on
the edge of the buckett nearest the said front grooved wheel, and another grooved
pulley working close to the bottom of the inside of the bucket, is kept wet with the
whitewash or other colouring matter for making the lines of the lawn tennis court.
There is a special contrivance for increasing the distance between the front wheel
and the wheel in the bucket, so as to tighten or relax, as required, the endless band.
The two back wheels helping to carry the bucket might be replaced by a roller
without in any way departing from the principal features of my Invention.
The band carries the wash so profusely to the wheel that even if the band be free
of the ground the wash, running down each inner side of the groove of the wheel,
will mark the ground.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood I have annexed
hereto Drawings of the same, wherein Fig. 1 represents a perspective view of the
apparatus, and Fig. 2 a longitudinal section of the same.
a, a, are the handles, the lower ends of which are prolonged so as to form the
under carrying or frame b, b, the latter carrying the vessel e; d, d, are the following
wheels at each side of the vessel c; e is the front grooved wheel, round which the
endless band passes. This band f proceeds over the top of the front side of the
vessel, and thence round a grooved pulley g within the interior of the same, and is
thus made to dip into and become charged with the white or colored wash or
matter with which the vessel is filled.
When the apparatus is propelled forward the revolution of the front e wheel
gives motion to the band f, and the latter on passing through the white or colored
wash or matter carries off in its surface a certain quantity of the same and delivers
it on the ground.
There is a special arrangement attached to the top of the front side of the vessel
for giving the proper degree of tension to the band f. It consists of two small
pulleys h and i mounted in a frame j; the upper pulley h can be by means of the
slots k, k, and thumbscrews l, l, raised or lowered, and thus give more or less tension
to the band f as required.
Having thus described the nature and object of my said Invention, I declare that
what I claim and desire to be secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is, the general combination and arrangement of apparatus for
marking lines upon the ground, substantially as herein-before described, and shewn
on the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Constable, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.