Electrically conductive tennis ball
First Claim
1. An electrically conductive tennis ball for use with an electrical detection circuit in which touchdown of the ball in a selected area is detected by completion of a circuit between spaced apart electrical conductors extending along said area, said electrically conductive tennis ball comprising an elastically deformable sphere, a cover of woven fabric covering said sphere, said fabric being woven with a set of warp strands interlaced with a set of woof strands, the strands of one of said sets comprising a quantity of electrically conductive fibers and a quantity of electrically nonconductive fibers, and the strands of the other of said sets being composed entirely of electrically nonconductive fibers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electrically conductive tennis ball comprising a cover of woven fabric in which the yarn used for weaving the fabric in at least one direction is made by twisting together a blend of electrically conductive and electrically nonconductive filament fibers. The electrically nonconductive fibers may predominate, and the woof yarn may be thicker than the warp yarn which may be so woven with the woof yarn that the latter occupies the major part of the ball'"'"'s surface. To promote continuity of the electrical paths in the ball'"'"'s cover, an electrically conductive adhesive, or mat, or scrim or other base may be interposed between the woven cover, and an electrically conductive coating may be applied to the inner, or back, side of the cover. Needling may also be employed to reorient the fibers in the cover and thereby enhance the conductivity of the electrical paths along the inner side of the cover. Features of the invention such as those just described reduce the number of electrically conductive fibers needed to make the ball operate satisfactorily, eliminating objectionable discoloration of the ball attributable to those fibers and also eliminating changes in the playing characteristics of the ball which a greater number of those fibers might create. Tennis balls as just described may be made more conductive than water to keep water on the court from generating a false signal.
56 Citations
14 Claims
- 1. An electrically conductive tennis ball for use with an electrical detection circuit in which touchdown of the ball in a selected area is detected by completion of a circuit between spaced apart electrical conductors extending along said area, said electrically conductive tennis ball comprising an elastically deformable sphere, a cover of woven fabric covering said sphere, said fabric being woven with a set of warp strands interlaced with a set of woof strands, the strands of one of said sets comprising a quantity of electrically conductive fibers and a quantity of electrically nonconductive fibers, and the strands of the other of said sets being composed entirely of electrically nonconductive fibers.
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4. An electrically conductive tennis ball for establishing a current-conducting path across spaced apart electrical conductors extending along a selected area of a tennis court and/or the top surface of a net, said electrically conductive tennis ball comprising an elastically deformable sphere and a cover of woven fabric covering said sphere, said fabric being uniform over the entire surface of the ball and:
- (a) having a set of strands of warp yarn interlaced with and extending transversely of a set of strands of woof yarn with the yarn for the strands in at least one of said sets being formed of a plurality of electrically conductive fibers with metal surfaces and electrically nonconductive fibers which are twisted together and the number of said electrically nonconductive fibers exceeding the number of said electrically conductive fibers in the yarn for the strands of said at least one of said sets to the extent that excessive discoloration of said cover by said electrically conductive fibers is avoided, or (b) having a set of warp strands interlaced with a set of woof strands with the strands of one of said last mentioned sets comprising a quantity of electrically conductive filament fibers with metal surfaces and of random lengths and a quantity of electrically nonconductive filament fibers mixed with said conductive fibers, said conductive and nonconductive filament fibers being twisted together to form the yarn for said one of said sets of strands.
- View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
Specification