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Popular Scieficc Monfhh/ 



The mechanical batting instructor not only pitches the ball but returns it to the pitching- 

 machine. You simply bat and bat and bat until your arms ache. The ball is sent up an 

 inclined plane, which has a reverse curve at the top, so that the ball finds its way into a 

 hopper and into a funnel leading to a pitching-machine. The insert shows how the pitch- 

 ing-machine works. The ball drops on the upper end of a pitching-arm. As it does so 

 it releases a latch by which the pitching-arm is held against the tension of powerful springs. 

 Suddenly freed, the pitching-arm hurls the ball at the waiting batter. On the home plate 

 is a pedal connected with the pitching-arm. By pressing the pedal with his foot the batter 

 can reset the pitching-arm as fast as he wishes 



As. one inventor plans it, the chest- 

 protector of the figure of a catcher in 

 lifelike attitude is made as an opening 

 of such size and shape as will accurately 

 represent the plane in space, of which 

 the width is that of the plate and the 

 height the distance between knee and 

 shoulder, through which, according to 

 the rules, a pitched ball must pass in 

 order to be a "strike." 



Far more interesting, however, to the 

 average visitor to a counlry fair is the 

 type of device in which he takes bat in 

 hand and stands in a batting cage, to 

 try his skill with the ash against a 

 mechanical pitcher which actually pitches 

 real baseballs. He does this fearle.ssl>- 

 enough; for it is the one great advantage 

 of the pitching-machine that it is ne\-er 

 "wild" and never, therefore, at all apt 

 to "bean" the i)atter (hit him on the 

 head). Some of these mechanical pitch- 

 ers are but spring-guns designed to (ire 



tiaseballs at the Ijatter. Others have a 

 figure in front of the gun-barrel which 

 raises its arm, goes through a "wind-up" 

 and makes a throwing motion coincident 

 with the actual delivery of the ball. 



To still further extend the illusion and 

 make of the practice of batting a "game," 

 a "mechanical ball field" at a reasonable 

 distance from the batter is sometime.-^ 

 provided. Here a numerous crop of 

 targets appear in serried ranks and 

 various heights. Any one of these 

 targets, hit with a batted ball, registers 

 in a convenient place the "value" of 

 the batttni ball. It may be a one, two 

 or three-base hit, a "home run," "ground- 

 er," "lly-ljall" or what not. 



Ot the devices actually u.sed b\' base- 

 ball players to train them.selves in the 

 art of playing the game, the i)ilching- 

 machini' would sei'in the most i-ommon. 

 The ".uitomalic iini|)ire," howex'er, seems 

 to ha\e some claims to real use. 



