Signals and indicators – Indicators – By location
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-05
2001-03-06
Gutierrez, Diego (Department: 2859)
Signals and indicators
Indicators
By location
C116S200000, C116S210000, C040S610000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196153
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to markers suitable for use in golf fairways, especially to indicate the distance of a particular position on the fairway to the green. The markers may also be used as distance markers for golf driving ranges, as markers for airport runways and taxiways or for soccer field corners, and as benchmarks in parks of public lands.
2. Prior Art
It is common for distance markers to be placed on golf fairways to help players estimate the distance of their ball to the green. Many of these markers are set flat into the ground and as such are hard to find.
Markers have also been used which project above the ground. However, such markers either have to be removed when the grass is being mowed, or have to be made very flexible so that they can be pushed flat by a mowing machine. The latter type of marker has two drawbacks. Firstly it is likely to become broken with repeated bending caused by frequent mowing operations. Secondly, it is not favoured by golfers since it interferes with the rolling of balls.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,171, which issued Jun. 15, 1993 to Kirby et al., proposes a golf fairway marker which collapses from a raised condition to a retracted, lowered condition when run over by a mowing machine. This includes a spring loaded central plunger and a series of trapezoidal leaves each having their narrower end held by the top of the plunger, and the wider end held by a surrounding support ring. This construction, in addition to being somewhat complex, has the drawback that the spring causes the plunger to rise as soon as the lead roller of a mower has passed over it, and so is subjected to repeated impacts by other parts of the mower.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,669, which issued Dec. 25, 1984 to Carman, shows a golf marker having a base and having an upper portion including a resilient dome which is depressed when a mower passes over it. There is nothing to delay recovery of the resilient dome to its normal position, so it would be expected that after a mower wheel or roller has run over it, the dome would spring back to its normal position where it could be cut by mower blades.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a marker having a resilient dome, but in which, unlike in the Carman construction, the return of the dome to the raised position is delayed at least until the whole of a mowing machine has passed over it.
According to the present invention, a marker suitable for use in a golf fairway comprises:
a base portion suitable for installation in a ground hole,
a hollow upper body portion fixed to the upper end of said base portion, said upper body including a dome formed of resilient material and having a normal, unstressed raised condition in which it protrudes above the level of ground in which the base portion is installed to be readily visible to golfers, and having a depressed condition in which it is close to ground level and in which the material is stressed such that it tends to move to the normal, raised condition,
and motion control means for delaying movement of the dome from the depressed condition to the raised condition.
Preferably, a partition defines a generally closed chamber beneath the dome, and one-way valve means allows air to be readily expelled from the chamber when the dome is depressed but restricts air flow into the chamber to create a partial vacuum and to delay recovery from the depressed condition. The valve means may include an aperture in the partition, and a valve member below the partition which is readily opened by positive pressure air in the chamber, but which is closed by spring means when the air pressure in the chamber is at or below atmospheric pressure.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3796181 (1974-03-01), Collins
patent: 4489669 (1984-12-01), Carman
patent: 4729337 (1988-03-01), Schopp
patent: 5219171 (1993-06-01), Kirby et al.
patent: 5357897 (1994-10-01), Bailey
patent: 5441257 (1995-08-01), Sheaffer
patent: 5474017 (1995-12-01), Mohebbi et al.
patent: 5607153 (1997-03-01), Bailey
patent: 6095081 (2000-08-01), Gochenour
Guadalupe Yaritza
Gutierrez Diego
Jones Tullar & Cooper P.C.
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