GOLF BALL

• US 3,782,730 A
• Filed: 12/02/1971
• Issued: 01/01/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Stephen Alexander Horchler
• Original Assignee: Stephen Alexander Horchler
• Inventors: Horchler, Stephen Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Marlo, George J.
• Application Number:
  US05/204,109
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: 273/213,63R,183,199,200
• US Class Current: 473/353
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0053 for locating an object, e.g. a lost ball
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/15 with identification means that can be read by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/54 Transponders, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0021 Tracking a path or terminating locations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 43/00 Balls with special arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 43/008 with means for improving visibility, e.g. special markings or colours illuminating or reflecting means A63B43/06

Abstract

This invention relates to an electronic golf ball comprising a central resilient sphere, a mass of elastic material surrounding the sphere and an outer casing, the central sphere including an electric squegging oscillator circuit, a battery therefor and a transmitting coil, all enclosed in a spherical mass of a set resin which forms a solid core, the spherical mass being located with close fit in a hollow spherical cavity formed in the central resilient sphere. The battery is a mercury cell located within the transmitting coil, as are the other components of the squegging oscillator circuit. The electrical circuit may include components which permit the oscillator to be turned on and off when the golf ball is brought into and then moved out of an A.C. magnetic field having a predetermined frequency.

Claims

1. A golf ball comprising an outer spherical casing;

an elastic spherical mass inwardly of said outer spherical casing; and

squegging oscillator means accommodated within said elastic spherical mass and including an inductor serving as a transmitting coil, said oscillator means being operative for intermittently generating an oscillating electromagnetic field for periods of time which are shorter than the periods of time during which said field is not generated.

2. A golf ball as defined in claim 1, wherein said squegging oscillator means comprises a source of electrical energy.

3. A golf ball as defined in claim 2, wherein said source of electrical energy is a mercury cell.

4. A golf ball as defined in claim 1, and further including a resilient spherical central core inwardly of said eleastic spherical mass and having an internal spherical cavity, and further including a spherical mass of set resin material inwardly of said central core and tightly fitted within said cavity, said squegging oscillator means being embedded within said spherical mass of set resin material.

5. A golf ball as defined in claim 4, in which said transmitting coil is wound in the form of a cylinder and positioned in said spherical mass of resin material so that a median plane of said coil normal to the axis of said coil lies in a diametric plane of said spherical mAss of resin material.

6. A golf ball as defined in claim 5, in which said squegging oscillator means comprises a mercury cell having a central axis of symmetry and serving for the supply of electrical energy and positioned in said spherical mass of resin material and inside said coil so that the axis of said coil is normal to the axis of said mercury cell, and wherein said squegging oscillator means includes a plurality of other electrical components located to either side of said mercury cell and also located within said coil.

7. A golf ball as defined in claim 1, wherein said inductor constitutes a transmitting coil, and wherein said squegging oscillator means comprises a npn transistor having an emitter, a collector and a base, a capacitor connected in parallel to said transmitting coil to form a parallel LC circuit having a predetermined resonance frequency, and a battery connected between an intermediate tap of said coil and said emitter, a parallel RC-circuit connected to said base, the ends of said parallel circuits not connected to said transistor being connected together and the resonant frequency of the RC circuit being a fraction of said predetermined resonance frequency.

8. A golf ball as defined in claim 1, wherein said squegging oscillator means includes magnetic-field responsive means operative for terminating operation of said oscillator means when the golf ball is brought into and then moved out of an A.C. magnetic field.

9. A golf ball as defined in claim 1, and wherein said squegging oscillator means includes magnetic-field-responsive means operative for terminating operation of said squegging oscillator means when the golf ball is brought into and then moved out of an A.C. magnetic field having a predetermined frequency.