US 5,301,991 AGranted

Tennis ball retriever and storage cart

OwnerSam H. Chen, Shunder Chang +1inventors

InventorsSam H. Chen, Shunder Chang, East White

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Abstract

A ball retrieving and storage cart generally comprises a wheeled carriage that rollingly supports a basket in a ball retrieving position. In an exemplary embodiment, the basket has a front end and a rear end and includes a bottom wall having two side members oriented front to rear and having a normal position spaced apart less than the ball diameter and defining a slotted aperture for entrance of a ball into the basket. In the ball retrieval position, at least one of the side members is a slanted member having a front end higher from the ground than a ball radius and a rear end lower to the ground than the ball radius. At least one of the side members is a deflectable member and is biased to the normal position but is sideways deflectable such that a ball on the ground entering the aperture sideways deflects the deflectable member sufficiently for the ball to pass into the basket. The wheels may define a rolling plane. The carriage includes a vertical frame member terminating in a push handle and the vertical frame member includes brackets for attaching a moveable basket at a serving position higher that is than the ball retrieving position.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A ball retrieval and storage cart for collecting a ball from the ground and inserting it into a basket;

said cart comprising:
wheel means, including a plurality of wheels, for rollingly supporting a basket bottom wall in position for retrieval of a ball from the ground;
a basket rollingly supported in a ball retrieval position by said wheel means;
said basket for retaining a plurality of balls therein;
said basket having a front end and a rear end;
said basket including:
a bottom wall including:
two side members oriented front to rear and having a normal position spaced apart less than the ball diameter and defining a slotted aperture for entrance of a ball into said basket;
in the ball retrieval position:
at least one of said side members being a slanted member;
said slanted member having a front end higher from the ground than the ball radius and a rear end lower to the ground than the ball radius;
at least one of said side members being a sideways deflectable member;
said deflectable member being biased to the normal position but being sideways deflectable such that a ball on the ground entering said aperture sideways deflects said deflectable member sufficiently for the ball to pass into said basket;
and wherein:
said deflectable member si a rod having a front end and a rear end;
and
said bottom wall includes a V-shaped guide supporting said rod front end such that said rod may move upward and outward in response to encountering the horizontal diameter of a ball on the ground.

14 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.