US749053A - Charles james grist - Google Patents

Description

110.749.053. V PATBNTED JAN.5,1904.

I G. JLGRIST'." GOLF BALL, am.

APPLIoJlIoN FILED SEPT. 1a,`19os.

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UNITED STATES Patented January 5, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

GOLF-BALL, ac.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 749,053, dated January 5, 1904. Application filed September 19, 1903. Serial No. 1731895. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES JAMES GRIsT, consulting engineer, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Apsley, Banstea'd, in the county of Surrey, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements. in the Manufacture of Golf-Balls and Balls for Like Uses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the improved manufacture of balls for use in the game of golf or the like and is designed to produce a golfball possessing the requisite qualities of lightness, elasticity, and resilience, so that it may be driven well and truly and yet possess sufcient toughness and strength to resist hard wear.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the application, Figure 1 shows a partly external view and partly sectional view of a ball. Fig. 2 is an external view of the core of such an improved ball, and Fig. '3 is a detail view piece of the indiarubber tape.

lor, indicates the solid core, b the india-rubber tape, and c the external shell or cover.

In carrying out my invention I take linseed or other drying oil and heat it up to at least 400 Fahrenheit, adding litharge or other suitable drying agent, taking care that it does not boil continuously for more than six hours at any one time, the whole ofwhich time the oil is kept continuously in motion by suitable apparatus. I then take a brous substancesuch as hemp, jute, cotton, suitable animal ber, or other brous substance suitable for the purpose-and subject the bers to a cleaning process, such as carding. The bers now are spread and subjected to a drying process, such as by means of heated air propelled or drawn through them, in order to remove as much as possible any trace of aqueous moisture. The oil having regained its normal temperature, I take the bers which have been treated as above described andimmerse them in such oil, immediately removingthem and placing themin a hydro extractor or other suitable machine for the purpose of extracting as much as possible all the superfluous oil, which is then drained away and may be used again. The bers will now be found to have small globules of partially-oxidized oil adhering at intervals on each ber. These coated bers being now in a somewhat matted condition from the previous treatment are pulled apart and thoroughly loosened by the aid of suitable opening mechanism, such as a carding-machine. Then the bers are spread loosely on Wire gauze or netting and a current 0f heated air is made to pass through them by means of a fan or other suitable machine, and in order that all the globules of oil in the bers may be brought into contact with the heated air as much as possible the bers must be turned or redistributed in the nettingv about every hour. By these means nearly every globule of oil adhering to the bers is thoroughly oxidized and dried. When this is accomplished, I take the bers and redip in the oil, and when taken out of the hydro extractor it will be found that more globules of oil are adhering to the bers in the vacant spaces in between the former and already-oxidizedparticles. I repeat the drying process. A third and last time I dip the bers and proceed as before. I nd that it is not expedient to dip more than three times, because most'of the bers being covered With globules of oxidized oil, should another dip take place the unoxidized oil might coat and spread on the oxidized oil, and if this happens the drying process cannot be thorough, as the heated air would not be able to play upon the whole of the unoxidized oil, and, oxidation being imperfectly accomplished, the resulting material would be worthless. The bers are now placed in Vmasticating or grinding rolls lof dierent diameters, running at a high speed and worked till they assume a homogeneous condition. When thoroughly crushed, I place the material in mixing-rolls and add from ve per cent. to ten per cent. of powdered sulfur. Care must be taken that the material does not become too highly heated, and this may be prevented by continually stripping the material off the rolls by means of a knife or gage adapted fr the Y purpose. When the sulfur is thoroughly mixed with `the material, the material is taken out and placed in an inclosed vessel, and this vessel is heated up to about 360 Fahrenheit, preferably by means of a vessel steam-jacketed all over. The material is then laid on trays,avoid ing any heaping up ofthe matters that will in- IOO terfere with uniform access of the heat thereto. When the material has assumed a porous or dry consistency, it is taken out and again placed in the mixing-rolls and ten per cent. to seventy-five'per cent. of gutta-percha or rubber or other suitable substance, to impart to the material greater cohesion, tenacity, and resiliency, or a mixture of such materials, can be added. When thoroughly mixed, the material is placed in suitable molds to be pressed into rod or other convenient shape or be passed through a squirting-ma chine of the ordinary pattern for the same purpose. It can then be cut into pieces which are heated to soften them, and these pieces While in a soft state are placed in suitably-sized molds adapted for balls of any desired pattern and pressed into shape. These balls are then allowed to become thoroughly hardened and afterward painted with any suitable paint, if required. Alternatively these balls are made with a hollow center by adopting the following process, say, for golfballs: I make a small hollow ball of the described material and of a diameter of, say, about one and one-eighth inches,using acupshaped mold, the hollow portion of which receives suflcient material for the production with the aid of correspondingly shaped plunger of about three-fourths of an inch diameter of a cup or half-ball. The material when heated or softened is then placed in the mold and the plunger being pressed centrally in a press a half-hollow ball will be made. Two of these halves can be united firmly together to make one hollow ball by means of heating the edges and pressing them firmly together or by means of a suitable adhesive material. The hollow ball so made is then allowed to get cold and hard. The ordinary golf-ball mold is now brought into use and some more of the material is heated or softened and is divided into two equal or nearly equal portions, one being placed in each half of the mold. The hard hollow ball is now placed in the center between these two portions of soft material, and care should be taken that no moisture is present. The mold can then be placed in the press and the finished ball be pressed out and allowed to cool and harden, the whole forming one mass of like material with a hollow center, as the interior, cold, and hard hollow ball will resist the pressure and the superuous soft material will be exuded from the mold.

I sometimes make the balls (say golf-balls) by molding a hard solid ball of the aforesaid material (or any other suitable hard materi'al) of about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and then this solid central-ball core is covered with rubber tape or thin sheetrubber stretched over it until the size is increased to about one and one-eight inches and this inserted centrally, as before described, in the outer cover.

The small central ball must be made of a hard and comparatively light material, such as described, in order that when the finished ball is hit the rubber ball or wrapping inside will be compressed upon it and not into it, and by this means the full resilient energy of the blow will be utilized in the drive. In a ball so constructed I embody a compressed hard core of prescribed composition larger and harder than the india-rubber elastic core referred to, and I use a thin vulcanized indiarubber-tape winding which has been vulcanized to the point requisite to enable it to retain its elasticity even after it has been wound upon the hard core in a condition of considerable tension.

A noticeable feature of my improved construction is the limited thickness of the vulcanized india-rubber-tape winding upon the enlarged hard core and Within a substantial cover of the prescribed material.

When my improved ball is hit by the club, the outer cover will be compressed, and this compression will be conveyed to the rubber tape; but the core resists the compression and presents a fairly large surface of resistance. Now the extra distance that a filled ball will carry in comparison to a solid ball is caused by the sharp recovery after compression by the wound filling of india-rubber, and in my improved ball this recovery is very quick because of such larger and harder core.

When the ball strikes the ground, the recovery of form will tend to make the ball shoot forward and not upward. The result of this reaction is that the energy of the resilient rubber in my improved ball is utilized to its fullest extent for the purpose of the stroke, and the movement of the ball is found to be more under the strikers control and this, especially for putting, is a great consideration.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is- A golf-ball comprising a spherical core formed of fibrous material, oxidized oil, a drying agent, sulfur and rubber treated and compounded in the manner and substantially in the proportions herein described, a wrapping of vulcanized rubber tape Wound about said ball, and an outer shell or cover molded about the tape or Wrapping.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES JAMES GRIST. Witnesses:

RICHARD ELY, ANDREW C. KNOELLER.

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