Patents by Inventor Lynn L. Ray

Lynn L. Ray has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 4844527
    Abstract: A multipurpose ball collector, ball storage and ball dispenser uses a wheel driven rotating shaft and fixed projections to positively collect balls, a wire cage to store balls and a folding handle with a folding cage door to conveniently allow withdrawing of the balls during practice. The folding handles are pivoted and attach to each other during collection to provide structural integrity. For dispensing, the handles and attached to the cage to form a structure which lifts the cage to within easy reach for the practicing player. Collection arms can also be provided to assist in ball collection or carrying the cage to a storage location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1988
    Date of Patent: July 4, 1989
    Inventor: Lynn L. Ray
  • Patent number: 4494752
    Abstract: A device for stringing tennis rackets and the like, and for tightening sagging strings, which, in the preferred embodiment comprises three rows of rollers clamped around two adjacent strings inside the racket frame. Each row of rollers is attached to the end of a lever. The levers are rockingly linked together so that the strings can be gripped and released between the rollers as desired. The rollers are mechanically coupled to each other by way of a series of intermeshing spur gears. A crank, attached to the gears, drives the rollers and allows adjacent rollers to rotate in opposite directions. Thus, two strings in gripping engagement with the three rows of rollers are pulled in opposite directions as the crank is turned.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 1983
    Date of Patent: January 22, 1985
    Inventor: Lynn L. Ray
  • Patent number: 4383695
    Abstract: A ball picker dolly for retrieving tennis balls, or the like, comprised of a carriage having a shaft, a horizontal axle orthogonally attached to the lower end of said shaft and means mounted on said axle for motively supporting said carriage on a horizontal surface. Baskets or hoppers of varying configurations and sizes can be secured to the dolly by utilizing adjustable brackets. The various hoppers have gridded bottoms comprising a plurality of filiform members spaced apart to define slot openings dimensioned to admit tennis balls forcibly pushed therethrough. At least one elongated horizontal bracket has spatially disposed pairs of openings thereon and is slidably engageable on the shaft. Ancillary securing means comprise U-shaped prongs dimensioned to pass through spatially disposed openings in the bracket, mating with pairs of openings in either a horizontal or a vertical axis of the bracket.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 1981
    Date of Patent: May 17, 1983
    Inventor: Lynn L. Ray
  • Patent number: 4373721
    Abstract: A racket stringer tensioner is provided for use on a typical racket holding frame whereby the string being tensioned can be easily looped around and passed between the two separate portions of a split drum which compresses to pinch the string when it is tightened, tightening being accomplished by the force exerted by a weighted torque arm expressed to the split drum through a one-way mechanism which permits a ratcheting-type action to advance the string further in the string gripper if necessary, so that in the event the string is not advanced far enough in the split drum string gripper, a quick ratcheting action tightens the string while maintaining the weighted torque arm substantially in horizontal position, which is required to insure the accuracy of the weight setting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 1981
    Date of Patent: February 15, 1983
    Inventor: Lynn L. Ray
  • Patent number: 4049268
    Abstract: A hand tool used in the stringing of a tennis racket, for holding the tension of a string by attaching it to an adjacent string, which features a spacer held between two clamping members forming two parallel pinching jaws capable of pinching two adjacent strings in one clamping action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1976
    Date of Patent: September 20, 1977
    Inventor: Lynn L. Ray