Mechanical guns and projectors – Projectile impelled by coacting wheels
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-01
2001-05-29
Ricci, John A. (Department: 3712)
Mechanical guns and projectors
Projectile impelled by coacting wheels
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237583
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a device useful for pitching baseballs and other spherical objects at selected motion characteristics for purposes of either recreation or as a training aid for persons regularly engaged in ball sports, such as baseball. It relates more particularly to a pitching device which is wholly automated, and which can be automatically and readily collapsed into a form which lends itself well to storage and transportation. A device according to the invention may be used by batters, to increase their performance at hitting pitched balls, and may also be used by catchers and fielders, to increase their performance in catching balls travelling at varying rates of speed.
BACKGROUND
It has been an ongoing goal since the earliest of times when objects were first cast or projected from one desired location to another to continuously improve the characteristics of the motion imparted to such object by a human hand or a contrivance designed for such purposes. Hence, the prior art in the field of casting objects is replete with devices such as bows and arrows, catapults, mortars, firearms, guided missiles, and the like. Generally speaking, incremental increases in the degree of control over the linear, rotational, and vibrational motion of various objects have been made in a fairly continuous fashion.
One particularly interesting field of causing the motion of objects is in the American-born sport of baseball. As is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, baseball may be a recreational activity in which a human thrower (“pitcher”) hurls a baseball (defined by regulations as being of a specific weight, diameter, and construction) towards another person (“batter”) who holds a wooden, metal, or plastic stick or “bat” in readiness to strike the hurled ball with an impulsive force back in the direction of the pitcher. A successful contact with the baseball permits the batter to run the bases, as is well-known to nearly all US citizens of ordinary skill in observing sports events.
The number of differences in the physical and mental capabilities and characteristics of various individuals who act as pitchers by virtue of the natural variance inherent in a diverse population as currently exists is indeed large. A natural result of these statistical differences is that occasionally an individual having a particularly beneficial set of characteristics comes to act as a pitcher, and the motion qualities provided the baseball during a pitch by such an individual are especially favorable from the standpoint of making the pitches especially difficult for a typical batter to hit the ball. From the earliest times in the game of baseball, observers have studied the paths of balls thrown by the hand, arm, and body of the pitcher, and the interpretation of such observations are full of controversy. The physics of ball flight in general require that the ball thrown must leave the hand from an initial position with an initial velocity in an initial direction and a given spin rotation about a definable axis, and pass through space being acted upon by the presence of the air through which it travels, and the normal force of gravity. Alteration of one or more of these variables may be made or attempted by the pitcher from pitch to pitch, or, a pitcher may try to maintain the same characteristics for a series of pitches. Typically however, batters are highly desirous of increasing their chances of landing a successful hit against baseballs thrown by pitchers whose thrown balls are known to be difficult to hit.
It has long been an objective to attempt to duplicate subsets of these variables by mechanical means in order to give batting practice without tiring the arms of pitchers and the like. Thus the prior art has seen the development of a wide variety of types of contrivances for simulating the flight of a ball as thrown by the human hand, or projected by some other means, or the flight which results as the result of a collision involving impulsive forces, whether elastic or inelastic, as such collisions and the motion associated therewith are believed to be relatively well understood.
It has also been an objective to provide rapidly moving baseballs along the ground or in the air and combinations thereof, in order to provide a method for fielding practice to infield and outfield players. Thus, the number of uses for devices for pitching baseballs is quite varied, and such devices have been gaining in popularity since the first introduction of a reasonably practical device designed specifically for such purposes.
It is desirable in general for pitching machines to be able to pitch a ball spinning with the spin axis in the plane normal to the direction of travel and to spin about the direction of travel. It is also desirable for pitching machines to be able to make a change between these modes of spin, in addition to being able to place the axis of spin in all the possible orientations with respect to the direction of travel. It is also desirable for the direction of the flight of the ball to be well defined from pitch to pitch, being completely dissociated with any level of expertise of the operator who operates the machine or intrinsically related to the design thereof Further, it is desirable for a pitching machine to be readily adjusted when initially placing the machine into a service position. Further still, it is desirable to be able to predict the flight path of the ball when the pitches are changed, as by changing a single or plurality of variables.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,791 teaches a ball throwing machine having a flat, circular resilient disc with an off-center opening formed therein through which a ball to be thrown is forced at a predetermined velocity. By properly positioning the flat circular resilient disc, having the off-center opening formed therein, a thrown ball can be made to spin about any axis perpendicular to the ball trajectory. A tubular barrel is mounted adjacent to the resilient disc so that as a ball is forced from the throwing machine it is forced through the opening in the resilient disc and into and out of the barrel. The barrel, which is positionable, permits the ball ejected from the throwing machine to be accurately aimed in any desired direction. A firing chamber is located adjacent the resilient disc on the side opposite the barrel. Balls to be thrown are fed into the firing chamber by a ball feeder. When a ball to be fired is positioned in the firing chamber, the firing chamber to the rear of the ball is sealed and a compressed air charge of a predetermined pressure is introduced into the rear of the firing chamber rapidly forcing the ball through the opening in the resilient disc and out of the barrel. The pressure built up in the firing chamber before the ball is expelled through the resilient disc and the barrel determines the velocity of the thrown ball. Thus it can be seen that any type of curved ball, at any desired velocity, can be thrown from the disclosed ball throwing machine. An air reservoir chamber axially aligned with the firing chamber and the tubular barrel is disposed behind the firing chamber. A firing valve, having an open position allowing free communication between the air reservoir and the firing chamber and a closed position eliminating any communication therebetween, is disposed between the air reservoir and the firing chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,284 discloses a baseball-pitching machine wherein a baseball is delivered into the constricted space between, and thereby gripped frictionally by, to oppositely rotating wheels which throw the ball. A single DC shunt wound motor is used to drive the wheels in cooperation with one variable drive pulley and an assortment of guide pulleys. One wheel is driven at a constant speed by the motor while the speed of the second wheel is adjusted by means of a variable drive pulley. By thus changing the speed of one of the two oppositely rotating wheels, it is possible to impart a variety of spins to the thrown ball and thus simulate curve and slider balls thrown by a professi
Flynn James E.
Ripley Richard W.
Ricci John A.
Ripley Richard W.
Whewell Christopher J.
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