US2040252A - Golf club head - Google Patents

Description

M y 1936 i w H FARRINGTON 2,040,252

GOLF CLUB HEAD Fi led May 5, 1954 Patented May 12, 1936 PATENT OFFICE GOLF CLUB HEAD William Henry Farrington, Chicago, Ill.

Application May 5, 1934, "Serial No. 724,030

Claims.

The object of the present'inventionis to make it possible to drive agolf b'a'll much farther with :a club of the wooden head type than is possible .with clubs-now in use, assuming, -of course, that 5 the applicationof force :or power in each case is the same.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but,

for a full understanding of my invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is an elevation of the lower end of a golf club embodying the present invention; and Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the head of the club, a portion being shown in section.

Referring to the drawing, l represents the wood head of any usual or suitable golf club of a type having a wood head. In the center of the striking or driving face of the head is a large cavity 2 of considerable depth. This cavity is preferably circular at the outer end or mouth of the latter, and may conveniently be in the form of a cylindrical chamber, as shown. Spanning this cavity and forming a cover or closure therefor is a comparatively stiff, resilient member 3 which is securely fixed to the head and constitutes the effective driving or striking face. In the arrangement shown, the member 3 is in the form of a thick plate of resilient metal countersunk into the face of the club so as to lie flush with what may be termed the normal or original wood face. The diameter of the cavity is preferably large being, in the arrangement shown, about two-thirds as great as the height of the actual face of the club. The member 3 must, of course, be somewhat larger than the cavity so as to find support along the edge of the cavity. In the arrangement shown,

the plate is diamond-shaped, the long axis of the diamond being horizontal, and the plate being fastened in place by screws 4 passing through the plate and into the head near the two ends of the plate.

The plate is perforated in that part overlying or registering with the cavity. After experimenting with perforations of various sizes, numbers and distributions, I have found that the best results are obtained in a construction such as illustrated, where there is a central perforation about which are distributed a considerable number, say eight, of similar perforations; the perforations being in the neighborhood of one-eighth of an inch in diameter. I wish to make it clear, how- 5 ever, that I have not tried every possible way of perforating the plate and that, consequently, the particular arrangement which I have just described is simply the best one that I have been able to discover up to the present time.

I believe it to be advantageousto place in the i5 cavity a metal abutment which will follow along the edge thereof and engage with the resilient plate so that, as the plate flexes under the impact of the head against a golf ball, any two diametrically opposed point of support for the plate 10 always remain the same distance apart. In other words, if the only support for the plate were the wood, the wood might gradually become compressed around and near to the cavity and thus produce a change in the characteristics of the de- 15 vice due to an increase in the distance between diametrically opposed points of effective support for the plate. In the arrangement shown, the abutment is in the form of a dish-shaped metal element 6 which may conveniently be a section of 20 a spherical shell. The member 6 abuts against the bottom wall of the cavity in the head at the center of the convex face, and the rim or free edge of the said element extends into the plane of that part of the face of the club immediately 25 adjacent to the cavity and therefore is in intimate contact with the rear face of the plate 3.

In clubs of this general type there is usually found a screw 1 which, when the cavity forming part of my invention is cut, lies at the axis of the 30 cavity. This screw may be employed as a secondary abutment by so positioning it that the dishshaped. element 6 engages with the head of the screw instead of with the wood at the bottom of the cavity. 35

I have found that a golf ball can be driven from twenty to thirty yards farther with an ordinary club modified so as to embody my invention than was possible with the same club before the changes were made therein. 40

While I have illustrated and described with particularity only a single preferred form of my invention, I do not desire to be limited to the exact structural details thus illustrated and described; but intend to cover all forms and ar- 45 rangements which come within the definitions of my invention constituting the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A golf club head having in the driving face a cavity covering a comparatively large area, a 50 metal abutment engaged with the bottom of the cavity and presenting a free edge following the margin of the cavity and lying in the plane of that part of the face surrounding the cavity, and a resilient cover member for the cavity fixed to said face and resting against said edge of the abutment.

2. A golf club head having in the driving face a large circular cavity, a dish-shaped metal abutment arranged in said cavity with the bottom thereof in contact with the bottom wall of the cavity and the free edge following the margin of the cavity and lying in the plane of that part of the face surrounding the cavity, and a comparatively stiff ,presilient cover plate for said cavity overlying the latter and resting against said edge of the abutment.

3. A golf club head having in the driving face a large circular cavity, a dish-shaped metal abutment arranged in said cavity with the bottom thereof in contact with the bottom wall of the cavity and the free edge following themargin of the cavity and lying in the plane of that part of the face surrounding the cavity, and a comparatively stiff, resilient cover plate for said cavity overlying the latter and resting against said edge of the abutment, said cover plate being perforated in that portion registering with the cavity.

4. A golf club head having in the driving face a large circular cavity, a dish-shaped member arranged in said cavity and having the contour of a fragment of a sphere, said member abutting against the bottom wall of the cavity and having its free edge following the contour of the cavity and terminating in the plane of that part of the face surrounding the cavity, and a comparatively stilf plate of resilient metal fixed to said face and bearing against said edge of the dish-shaped memher.

5,. A golf clubhead having in the driving face a large circular cavity, a dish-shaped member arranged in said cavity and having the contour of a fragment of a sphere, said member abutting against the bottom Wall of the cavity and having its free edge following the contour of the cavity and terminating in the plane of that part of the face surrounding the cavity, a comparatively stiff plate of resilient metal fixed to said face and r 7 bearing against said edge of the dish-shaped member, and a metal plug extending into the head from the bottom of the cavity, the outer face of the plug being in engagement with and forming a backing for said dish-shaped member.

WILLIAM HENRY FARRINGTON.

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