Tennis ball retriever
US4721428A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 10, 1986 |
| Grant date | Jan 26, 1988 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 10, 2006 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC A)Human Necessities
- CPC primaryA63B2225/30
- WIPO fieldFurniture, games
- WIPO sectorOther fields
Abstract
A tennis ball retrieving apparatus comprises a wheeled vehicle having a front end and a rear end. The vehicle has a ball storage container disposed at a level enabling ready removal of balls therefrom by a person next to the vehicle while the person is in a standing position. There are a pair of horizontal ball gathering arms at the front of the vehicle arranged in V formation to provide an apex portion to which gathered balls are fed. A pair of the wheels of the wheeled vehicle are in traction contact with the surface on which the vehicle is supported to be driven thereby in rotary fashion as the vehicle is moved over the supporting surface. The wheels are supported with the lower portions of the tires spaced from one another less than the diameter of a tennis ball so as to grip the same when a ball is fed thereto. A chute extends from the area just rearwardly of the lower portions of the tires upwardly to the storage container. The feed wheels are operable by successively feeding balls into the chute to cause previously fed balls by nudging contact to be fed upwardly to deposit the balls into the storage container.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.