Patent Application
20240050837
This invention relates to improvements in relating to snooker pocket rails. Snooker, and games like snooker, such as billiards and pool, are played using plastics balls on a knapped fabric surface. The object of play is to cause the balls to drop into pockets by hitting one ball against another using a cue. Typically, the white ball or cue ball is struck using the cue, and the cue ball hits another ball, which is deflected into a pocket during play.
Mathematically, it is possible to calculate angles and speeds at which the balls will move during a collision event, and with considerable practice, such as is obtained by professional players, this can become instinctive. However, there are certain artefacts of playing, which can cause the balls to move in unintended directions and/or speeds, and this is due to a number of physical and/or environmental factors.
Because the balls are manufactured from plastics and are designed to roll across the fabric surface, the coefficient of friction is generally quite low. However, if a ball skids, rather than rolls, which could occur if the ball is contaminated with dust, grease, or anything else, then it may have a tendency to slide over the fabric surface, rather than roll, which can cause static electricity to build up on the ball's surface. Then, at the point of impact with another ball, charge can be transferred from one ball to the next, and this electrostatic discharge can give rise to an effect known as “kick”. During a “kick” collision, the impacting and impacted balls do not necessarily appear to observe the laws of classical physics (conservation of momentum) due to the additional impetus caused by the electrostatic discharge. Indeed, it is possible for one of the balls to actually jump off the table surface and bounce somewhat during a “kick” collision event. This gives rise to unpredictability in play and is often the difference between winning and losing a professional game.
In order to ameliorate against this, various steps are taken, such as temperature-controlling the table surface by heating the slate layer underneath the fabric covering; by pre-heating the balls before they are wrapped up and placed on the table so as to minimise temperature differentials between them (the heated slate also contributing to maintaining consistent ball temperature throughout game play); and controlling the environmental conditions within the playing room. Moreover, other steps can be taken, such as regularly brushing the fabric surface between game play so as to lay the knap in a consistent direction, cleaning the balls whenever they are reset and using dust-free chalk on the cue tips. However, even these measures are often insufficient to eliminate kick, a solution is therefore needed to address this problem, which the present invention aims to provide.
Aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended independent claim or claims. Preferred and/or optional features of the invention are set forth in the appended dependent claims.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a snooker pocket rail system comprising: a ball ring from which the pocket rail is suspended, in use, below a pocket by a net; an end stop; a plurality of rails affixed at one end to the ball ring and at their opposite ends to the end stop; and suspension means for suspending, in use, the end stop below a table, wherein the snooker pocket rail further comprises an atmospheric control system for heating the atmosphere in a region adjacent the rails where one or more balls are supported in use.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a snooker, pool or billiards table comprising one or more snooker pocket rail systems as described herein.
The present invention works by providing a heating/environmental control system for the balls when they are not in-play. A lengthy frame of snooker, for example, can take up to an hour to play and the balls, once potted, simply rest in the pocket rails below the table. During this time, no attempt is made to regulate the environment that the balls are kept in, and this can lead to balls cooling down, attracting contamination, becoming humid, etc. whilst a game is in-play but whilst the ball itself is not in use. The problem is further exacerbated because the balls tend to be potted one after another, and so the first ball to be potted usually has a much lower temperature than the last ball to be potted when the balls are re-racked for the next round of play. Having different ball temperatures can exacerbate the effects of kick and can also have more straightforward implications, such as thermal expansion/contraction of the balls giving rise to differences in diameter, etc.
However, by ensuring that the balls are kept in an environmentally controlled location once they have been potted, many of the aforesaid issues can be overcome.
Suitably, the atmospheric control system comprises means for heating the rails. This could be by way of directly heating the rails, for example, by using a heating element, or by blowing warm air through them. The latter can be accomplished by providing a housing which has a fan and a heater and by providing at least one tubular rail. The downstream side of the fan can be in fluid communication with the bore of the tubular rail so as to direct heated air inside the rail so as to heat it. In certain embodiments of the invention, the tubular rail is perforated or apertured so as to direct heat there inside the rail towards and/or over a ball or balls supported by the rail.
Additionally or alternatively, the atmospheric control system may comprise a housing which contains a fan on a heater and in which the downstream side of the fan is in fluid communication with one or more apertures in a wall of the housing. The apertures are suitably arranged to direct heated air towards and/or over a ball supported by the rails.
In one embodiment of the invention, the ball rails are surrounded by a cover, preferably a thermally insulating cover, which reduces the amount of heat loss from the balls to the environment and also shields the balls from airborne contamination and drafts, etc. Preferably, the cover is made from a transparent, insulating glass material, (e.g., Pilkington® K-Glass®) such that heat is retained within the cover and such that the pocketed balls are visible therethrough.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the balls are actively temperature regulated in the pocket rails, and this could be achieved, for example, by providing a heating element within the afore-described insulated tube. In order to be able to gain access to the balls when they are in the insulated tube, the insulated tube preferably has a hatch or doorway, which can be lifted or removed to gain access to the interior thereof, and so access the balls within it.
Preferably, the pocket rails themselves are heated, for example, by being manufactured from tubes with heating elements located within the interior bore of the tubes. Additionally or alternatively, the pocket rails could be tubular and have a stream of hot air passing through them so as to maintain their temperature. In a most preferred embodiment of the invention, a hot air system is provided, which blows air through tubular pocket rails, and wherein the pocket rails have apertures therein to allow respective jets of heated air to be blown onto the balls. In order to control the atmosphere better around the balls, the hot air blown into the tubes, in this situation, is suitably dehumidified and/or decontaminated. This can be accomplished, for example, by using a filtration system and/or a liquid trap or dehumidifying device. In one possible embodiment of the invention, a fan is provided, which has an upstream filter and dehumidifier (e.g., silica crystals) and a downstream outlet connected to the internal bore of the pocket rails.
Suitably, any temperature control is thermally regulated, and this could be accomplished, for example, by using a thermostatic controller or, more preferably, by using a PTC (positive temperature coefficient) heating element, which self-regulates its temperature in a manner that will be well-understood by the person skilled in the art.
A most preferred embodiment of the invention sees the pocket system comprising a combination of conditioned air provision as well as environmental isolation as explained in greater detail herein below.
Referring firstly to
However, it will be seen, in particular from
To stop the balls 18 from falling off the rails 16, an end stop 20 is provided. The end stop 20 is formed as the end wall of a hollow housing 24 as shall be described in greater detail herein below. The tubular rails 16 penetrate the end wall 20 of the housing 24 and a fluid passageway is thus formed between a hollow interior volume of the housing 24, the tubular rails 14 and the perforations 16.
A D-ring 30 is affixed to the housing 24, and this enables the housing 24 to be suspended below a snooker table (not shown for clarity) in the usual way, using a leather strop 26. By supporting the rail system 10 by the net (not shown) attached to the ring 12 and by the strop 26 attached to the D-ring 30, the impact of the balls 18 as they drop onto the rails 14 and/or collide with the end wall 20 of the housing 24 is absorbed somewhat.
The object of the invention, as previously described, is to maintain the balls 18 in an as environmentally-controlled manner as possible. This is accomplished, in the embodiments shown by providing a cover 40, which at least partially encircles the balls 18 when they are retained by the rails 14. As can be seen, most clearly in
During normal play, the cover 40 is moved to the position shown in
In addition to the foregoing, the housing 24 also contains a heating/air control system.
Referring, in particular, to
A further function of the cover 40 is that it minimises heat loss and contains, somewhat, the warm, dried air thus helping to maintain the balls 18 at a constant temperature and/or humidity.
When it is desired to replenish the silica crystals (not shown) the tray 56 can simply be retracted, as shown in
In order to ensure that the balls 18 are kept under optimum conditions, various temperature and/or humidity sensors may be provided. Locations for these could be within the plenum chamber 62, within the cores 22 of the rails 14, within the housing 40 etc. A thermostatic control system is suitably provided, which controls the operation of the fan 50 and the heater coil 60 so as to ensure that the balls 18 are maintained as a desire temperature.
Referring now to
The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiments, which are merely exemplary.
