58 



PopnJnr Science Monthly 



INOICATOR 



BUCKET WH 

 ON WHICH BAS^L 

 FALLS AND OPER'irtfcS.- 

 BELT TO IMDlCATElSjWjlK; 

 OR'BALLS'ON INDICAJOR 



This apparatus for teaching the art of pitching a baseball provides for everything except 

 derisive howls from the bleachers. Both the batter and the catcher are dummies. The catcher- 

 dummy has a cavity for receiving pitched balls, the entrance to which corresponds with 

 the area for a "strike." Above is an indicator for "strikes" and an indicator for "balls." When 

 the pitcher throws a ball over the home plate at the right height, it enters the cavity in the 

 dummy-catcher, drops down a chute and hits the blade of a bucket-wheel. Since the 

 bucket-wheel is connected by belts with the indicator above, the pitcher sees his "strike" 

 recorded. The ball is ultimately sent back to him by a return trough. If the pitcher fails 

 to make a "strike," the ball drops into a bowl in which both the batter and catcher stand. 

 The ball rolls into an opening and falls upon a bucket-wheel, connected by belts with 

 a "ball" indicator. A special trough is provided for the return of the ball 



But such games, no iiiatlcT how in- 

 genious and interesting to those who 

 love ha.seball for itself, are tame sport 

 for the active and are really only for 

 the sedentary. Much larger and more 

 intricate mechanisms are invented, pat- 



iMiteil, and operated at country fairs, 

 where the spectator becomes an actual 

 ])layer and ])itches against an auto- 

 matic umpire. 



The "automatic umpire" is usually 

 some form of opening in a background. 



