Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/293

 Two Hundred-Yard Drives inYour Parlor

��"Fore " you yell, as of old, and hit the golf ball as hard as you like

��PARLOR golf would, in theory, seem to have all the benefits and thrills of parlor baseball, as both games are supposed to require much room, but you can make no inventor believe this.

The very latest endeavor to har- ness down the game to the con- fines of the largest apartment in your residence, is a ma- chine which lets you whack the ball with all your might and which indicates not only the length of the drive, but also the elevation and de- flection, so that you can judge what the ball might have done in the open air, un- tethered to an un- romantic contrap- tion of springs and things.

The machine consists first of a plunger working in a stout tube and compressing a coil- ed spring as it is drawn out. On the tube are grad- uations represent- ing yards of drive. The ball is har- nessed to the end of this plunger by a stout bit of wire rope, then it is teed or whatever is the preliminary necessary to smacking it clear

���The machine indicates not only the length of the drive but also the elevation and deflection

��Golf ball wire fastened to this end lndic3tor6 tor

tength of flight

���When the ball is struck, the plunger is forced out and compresses a coiled spring, causing the pointer to register the length of drive

��Gelf ball ts struck nOirectiori shown

���Lateral and vertical scales show the elevation and deflection of the ball, which is fastened to the plunger with wire rope

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��out of the county, and the golfer soaks it with all the malice he would display in an attempt to reach a green two hun- dred difficult yards away.

The blow yanks out the plunger against the force of the coiled spring. By the construction of the tube, the plunger is held out at the point where it stops, lest the re- turning spring smite the golfer with the ball. A pointer indicates on the tube the number of yards the ball would have gone in a real game.

Also, as the bar- rel containing the plunger is free to swing upward or sideways, there are provided lateral and vertical scales to show whether the ball would have gone straight, and whether in* elevation it would have endeavored to emulate the cow that jumped over the moon. For- tunately, no pro- vision is made for measuring the strength and flu- ency of the lan- guage used in case the ball is missed or topped as it is semi-occasion ally indoors as well as outdoors.

���Wire to golf ball which may be laid on the floor some distance av.ay from machine

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