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October 8, 1925. "Patent Office. Original baseball patented 1883 by S.D. Castle." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Had the seamless ball been accepted, the game would never have progressed to where it is today. Those seams provide the hurlers with the ability to change the aerodynamics of the pitched ball.
This "base ball" was intended for the same mass consumer use as a golf ball -- durable enough to be used over and over without the stuffing flying out of it.
Interestingly, it looks like the stuffing is flying out of it.
Here's a link to Samuel D. Castle's original patent for this baseball. Castle did not "invent" the baseball, per se, but rather a seamless version of it. Castle, of Bridgeport Ct, held over a dozen patents, most relating to machinery for treating and stretching leather and furs. Curiously, his patent for the baseball does not consist of any leather. Instead, the lack of seams is achieved by repeated dipping in gutta percha (a natural latex) which builds up a durable leather-like surface.
What did they play baseball with before 1883?
Could this be the ball Roy Hobbs (aka Robert Redford) knocked the cover off for the Knights in the movie 'The Natural'?
Would love to see that ball appraised on Antiques Roadshow....
Holy cow!!! That looks like the baseball my buddies and I used way back in the fourth grade.
Pretty fancy penmanship ... like the Palmer Method on steroids.
The man in the photo is Karl Fenning. The following ran as a caption for a similar photo from the Harris & Ewing studio. Fenning, a Washington native, is buried in the Congressional Cemetery: his obituary (PDF).
The original baseball, patented in 1883 by Samuel D. Castle, was found in the patent office yesterday among those patents which are to be sold or laid aside. It is being exhibited by Assistant Commissioner of Patents Fenning.Washington Post, Oct 8, 1925
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