For Geoff and Peter

[ryanah147]

Reading through one of Geoffs earlier threads where he found a ticket under the leg of a table for some event reminded me of a very similar experience I had way back in 1987. I had purchased 2 tables from the CYMS Hall in Cobh Co. Cork (formerly Queenstown). One table was an ordinary Orme & Son, and the other a rather robust Cox & Yemen oak framed table with the half circular pocket plates and the rosettes on the cushion bolts. (The rosettes I still have in stock as there was not a full compliment of them when I sold on the table).
I had worked in that Hall previously but never really took any notice of the Cox & Yemen table as my boss would always cover that, and Id do the Orme.
On the day of the dismantle I found under the leg of the Orme Table a Wills Three Castles Cigarette packet with the name A.W.Birch written in pencil and dated 10th April 1912. This must have been the date the table was installed, and if my history is correct it was the day before the Titanic berthed in Queenstown before taking her ill fated journey. A.W.Birch worked for Orme & Sons in Belfast, and quite a lot of his stamps can still be found stamped on the inside of cushions on old tables to this date.
On the Cox & Yemen table I found two things that I had never seen on a Billiards table before. One was a series of brackets which ran around the frame of the table, there was 10 in all, ie: 2 at the spot gable end, 2 at the baulk end, and three on each long side. The spot end ones were very close to the top of the rail, whereas the baulk end ones were about 3" lower. The ones on the long sides varied in depth from 1" to 3" as it came nearer to the baulk end.
The other curiousity I found was on the inside of the body of the cushion, right in the middle of the cushion was a channel cut out 1/4" deep which then fanned out under the block and a wire was embedded but was going nowhere.
The only reasonable explanation I could come up with is that there must have been some kind of electrical or battery operated heating system for the cushion rubbers. The cushions had been reblocked and rubbered doing away with the old layered rubber strips, so it may have been possible that this may have been some for of early heating that C&Y may have used. I found no electrical or battery components on the inside of the frame.
Could you or any of the members shine any light on these for me.
Gerard

[Geoff Large]

hi Gerard , I have never heard of a heating system for the rubber that was inlaid into the cushion .
a one off I would think .
where the 10 brackets around the outside of the frame ?
Maybe Peter has an advertisement from cox and yeman

It is amazing some of the messages that are left either under the legs on packing pieces or written on the cushions by Billiards fitters , I often see a Bench joiners name on various makes stamped into the cushions .
and I do now sign cushions myself and date them .


Geoff

[100-uper]

I suspect that this table may have been fitted by one of Burroughes & Watts' stranger innovations, the "Pocket Searchlight."

This was patented in 1910 and would seem to have been put into production the same year as there is a report of a professional match (between E. Diggle and W. A. Lovejoy) having a table fitted with this invention. John Roberts describes it as follows: A small tubular light was placed about half an inch behind the leather binding. Protected by gauze it had the effect of illuminating the pocket openings. It was claimed that the electric bulb could not be broken, no matter how forcible the shot and it certainly survived the efforts of the two players on this occasion."

That it was not a particularly great success can be gathered from the next reference to this invention in Burroughes & Watts' own magazine, The Billiards Monthly, in March 1912. This states: " Burroughes & Watts' patent " Searchlight " pocket lamps have been tried, but not with the success desired by the experimenter."

I would also assume that the brackets were fitted to the table at the same time to hold another Burroughes & Watts invention, the "Automatic Ball Returner." This channelled any ball pocketed, by gravity, to the baulk end of the table.

[ryanah147]

The brackets in question were black metal and about the size of an old half crown and fitted to the outside of the frame by 2 small screws. The brackets were circular with a kind of a stationary ring protruding from them, as if something or other passed through the ring. Two were fitted to the spot end of the gable end just about an inch below the slate, the other two at the baulk end but about 3" below the slate, the ones on the sides were fitted at 1", 2" and 3" intervals below the slate and between the legs.
At first I thought it may have been some form of rest hooks for the X , spider, and long tackle, but the variation in height discounted that.
Re the `Cushion Heating System`... I think it may have been a one off as you sugested as I havnt seen nor heard anything of this nature in all articles I have seen or read. If you can imagine a chased furrow on the inside of the cushion body, entering as one, but then going off in a trident to under the block. What was behind the block remains a mystery to me, but in order for a cushion heating system to work it would have had to be attached to something or other on the inside of the frame, and although all six cushions had the wires attached, there was nothing on the inside of the frame to show what it was attached to.... so, Im as wise as ever.
Come on Peter, get your thinking cap on !!

[ryanah147]

Peter, we must have been typing at the same time answering these. I can now see the significence of the brackets and the automatic ball returner, and also the possibility of the pocket light. Your knowledge and wisdom still amaze me. Thanks a million.
Gerard

[Geoff Large]

Yes I see what you are saying Peter , I have seen a 9 foot table with the weighted ball return system that came in for some work about 25 years ago , sadly the owner had the rail system scrapped , and I am ashamed to say it was me who put it in the skip when we moved premises about 10 years ago , I should have kept it because it was complete and in very good working condition , a long rail the whole lenth from spot end to Baulk down each side curving around end leg to baulk end of table , the middle pocket and the baulk pocket having the weighted rail guide for a ball to be gentley lowered to the sloping long rail , this I take it for returning balls for billiards . when the in off shot is performed .

I have also come across a ball rail system that had hole's in spot end legs and centre pocket of frame . where the ball dropped down at the spot end and through an hole in the leg to the inner frame , same with the centre pockets a hole through the side frame for ball to also exit onto main rail system under the table and returned to Baulk .

I often see some tables that have had the holes filled in on this type of rail system , one this year in london in an old church and I think it was a burroughs and watts table .

[BrendanC]

heated cushions

In the course of a job for a Columbian pool hall owner he requested that I retrofit his carom table with heated cushions. I had never seen a table like that, but he assured me that all the larger tables in Columbia were heated. (not the slate) A few years prior a Vietnamese cafe owner made the same request, they claim it makes the cushions play faster. I still have't seen one in person.

[jb134]

What a boost the return mech would have been for solo red ball billiard practice.

It's a joy to read these threads, thanks so much guys.