Pool ball return control apparatus
AssigneeKidde Recreation Products, Inc.
InventorsRichard B. Shelton, Bruce D. Allen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pool table having a playing surface with which ball accommodating pockets are associated. Pocketed balls are conveyed by a runway system via a trap toward a compartment at one end of the table that is accessible to a player. The trap has a gate magnetically latched in closed position so as to prevent passage of the object balls into the compartment until such time as a coin control mechanism is operated to effect unlatching and opening of the gate. The gate is maintained in its open position for a sufficient period of time to permit the passage of all the object balls from the trap to the compartment. Following movement of the last object ball past the gate the latter returns automatically to its closed, latched position.
Claims19
Ball control apparatus for selectively disabling and enabling delivery of one or more balls to a compartment, said apparatus comprising means forming a ball-supporting pathway leading to said compartment;
- a gate;
- means mounting said gate for movements between first and second positions in which said gate respectively prevents and permits passage of a ball from said pathway to said compartment;
- magnetic means operable to exert a magnetic latching force on said gate and releasably retain the latter in said first position;
- and operating means movable from an inactive position to an active position in which said operating means exerts on said gate a force of such magnitude as to overcome said magnetic force and move said gate to its second position.
Apparatus for selectively enabling and disabling delivery of a complement of balls to a single compartment, said apparatus comprising means forming a pathway leading to said compartment;
- a gate athwart said pathway upstream from said compartment and past which gate each ball admitted to said compartment must move;
- means mounting said gate for movements between a first position in which said gate obstructs said pathway and disables said balls from entering said compartment and a second position in which each of said balls is engageable with but may pass said gate and enter said compartment, said gate when in said second position being biased gravitationally to return to said first position;
- latch means for releasably latching said gate in said first position;
- movable operating means;
- and means for moving said operating means in a direction to release said latch means and move said gate from said first position to said second position, movement of said balls along said pathway following movement of said gate to said second position causing each of such balls successively to engage said gate and prevent return of said gate in said first position until all balls on said pathway have moved past said gate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.