Inside the article is a drawing for Patent #755,209, "Base Ball Catcher", a device which was supposed to keep a catcher from having to hurt his hands while catching the ball.
The expression on the catcher's face in the patent drawing is the best part.
Despite its cumbersome cage construction, the J.E. Bennett Base Ball Catcher contraption was far more effective than the J.E. Bennett First Base Scarecrow, Patent # 755,208, engineered to keep runners off first.
In the old days, you had to submit an actual working model of your invention to the PTO when you wanted to patent it. The PTO used to - I think they still do - have some of the models on display. Too bad that no such model was sent in for the catcher's device, at least according to page from the patent Bob linked to above.
Ah 8, but the patent would have long since expired by the time Yeager's throat flap came along.
It could have served as anticipatory prior art had Yeager tried to patent his throat flap. If an examiner would actually have found it, which is debatable.
Bob re: 7 - I am a patent attorney, and your last sentence is much truer than I like to think about.
So is the idea that the ball hits the swinging cage doors, pushes them open, hits the pad behind them, and then drops out the little pipe on the bottom? I wonder what the purpose of the wider frame around the cage is. I would make the bottom of the thing funnel-shaped so the catcher wouldn't have to dance around to make the ball come out the hole, like a big version of those games that you have to tilt so the little marble goes in the hole.
I read the whole description and the tube at the bottom where the ball comes out isn't open. The ball would come to rest and there is a cut away portion of the tube where you would stick your hand in to get the ball.
When the doors of the cage are open, supposedly the pressure of the ball closes the doors behind them.
At least that's what I think it says.
You can view the whole patent at
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/patimg.htm
Bob re 10 - I did a quick search and could not find an issued patent on it. So, probably not, though if someone can prove me wrong, I'd be very happy to be proven wrong.
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"Help! I'm being held prisoner in a cage by an insane inventor!"
This probably keeps the USPTO from filling up with even more junk than it has now.
It could have served as anticipatory prior art had Yeager tried to patent his throat flap. If an examiner would actually have found it, which is debatable.
Bob re: 7 - I am a patent attorney, and your last sentence is much truer than I like to think about.
When the doors of the cage are open, supposedly the pressure of the ball closes the doors behind them.
At least that's what I think it says.
You can view the whole patent at
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/patimg.htm
Enter the patent number as: 0755209
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.