Show I 1 it THE PITCHING FIRMING GUN IT SENDS THE TH SPHERE OVER THE PLATE Us he batter releases Ro leaie the th ball ahen ile n S Il heady teady liy by an electrio Arr arrer nr ment ue ire bond the lynli toward himself 0 IID HD first game of baso base ball ever P played lay in which a a cannon non was used for a pitcher took place a few days dayn ago lt at princeton between the tiger inn and the ivy club teams this game was waa the first practical test teat to which professor blinton bad baa put his bla invention for many months professor blinton has been experimenting in n the cago cage on ills Invent invention imi the problem before him latterly has been the one of 0 rendering the gun perfectly safe ile he found at all times time the Vil necton boys boya eager to stand up and face the cannon even when w hen it sent the balls of incredible swiftness and he owes the form to which the artificial pitcher haa at fluent arrived very largely to the continued interest which the boys boya have taken in its construction for a long I 1 time line Po professor fessor blinton would not allow any one to stand in the direct line ot of alre hut but now the batteria bat teris safe eata for the ball goes true to its mart mark as the ali mechanism of the pitcher has arrived at that stage of completeness when if can be depended upon A great biffl cully at first was to find a catcher who Y was as willing to catch the balls thrown by this cannon as aa they came so swift at length however mr air stevenson assured n the professor that he could catch the balls and the event proved the truth of the assertion mr air stevenson took the balls easily both with and without the use of the tha electrical discharging plate which the tha batter steps on when ho he la Is ready tor for the lall ball to be delivered this plate la Is quite a feature in the use of the gun with the gun of course there la Is nonia non of the preliminary movement of the arm which glies an indication that tho the ball Is coming the ball starts suddenly wily out of the cannons mouth protessor Prot eLsor blinton tried many flims of signal to replace the pitchers arm but tile the best beat plan of 0 all he found was to dispense with signals altogether and let the batter baiter pull the trigger himself Is done by the discharging plate elm mentioned on which the batter stera na as he la is ready to receive tbt tb e ba baa having found that mr stevenson coufa catch the ball first of all without A batter and then with a batter at VIP plate mr air hinton saw BOW no reason why the gun should not be used in a game but he expressed bamsel very strongly that the gun is not signed designed de to take tho the place ot of a human pitcher it Is for practice to improve the batting of a team not to servo in the final contest as ai toi to which Is the best of two contending teams during the game lit in which the gun was tested professor blinton found that ono one of 6 the balls out of the halt half dozen used hid sN swollen ollen slightly and this mado madl the shooting a little less true than it Is when the balls balla all lit fit easily the defect in the gun Is not in fin the undue velocity it shoots steadily and gives all the varieties of curve but loading and setting tho the detonator take an unduly long time A repeating breech loading action for the shell and an automatic setting ot of tile the electrical batih would improve the interest of the spectacle the delay experienced perien ced however was nas chiefly due to the bill ball on une ne occasion striking the discharging plate and knocking out one of the connecting screws some minutes mere spent at intervals remedying d ing the consequences ot of this act acci ident dent the apparatus appi ratus looks like a cross between a cannon a rifle and an electric battery the tha cannon proper la Is about two feet long with a bore large enough for the insertion of 06 aai an or ordinary bane ball to the breech of the cannon Is attached a long tube connected at the end with nith an ordinary lifie stock the cartridge Is inset inserted ted in the rifle breech mid and the gag generated by exploding POIN powder der foicey air through tigh the rifle barrel thus forcing the ball ba 11 out of the cannon the force with which the ball Is thrown can be regulated perfectly by j wires to a disconnected plato plate in the batting box and when the batsman la is ready he presses press the plato plate with his feet thus breaking oft off the circuit and pulling the trigger vie tho ball is curved by means of the flugeim these are curved leather flanges screwed on to the nozzle of the gun when they ball Is forced out of the cannon the ball is 13 gh given en it a rotary motion by passing along the curved fingers and by changing the position of the fingers any conceivable cei cel vable curve may be thrown the curve to be abio can bashy be d dr by bv tho the batsman by observing ing the direction la in which the fingers are placed the apparatus tended to dh color the ball and the a to rip the cover so eo that the number of balls required in a nanc milne inning game would prove no small item of expense new base running rules had bad to be lecog 1 nihed tor for the game after the ball hal bad been placed in the cannon the runner was not allowed to steal and he be could only be advanced when the ball was hit or the catcher made an error |