Pinspotter

Initially, the pinspotter was a man who manually set the pins to their correct location, removing the knocked down pins, and returning balls to the players. Probably due to the nature of the work (low salary, part-time, manual labor, mostly evening work), many pinspotters were teenagers, and therefore pinboy (from the English boy - guy) became a different name for the position.

In 1936, Gottfried Schmidt invented the mechanical pinspotter together with the company AMF , which finally did away with the manual profession, although some bowling alleys did use human pinspotters.

in 1950, Morehead Patterson, vice president of food and tobacco equipment, acquired his patents for an automatic bowling device, first shown at the 1946 Buffalo Tournament in New York.

Pinspotters of the mid-1940s were the size of a middle room and served by three operators each. However, they did the main thing - by all the rules, they set and assembled pins, which in itself could already be considered a major technological achievement: the whole specificity of this side of the bowling is that after the first throw, only the fallen pins should be removed, the rest should remain standing exactly as they were placed after the strike.

In the same 1950, the first World Bowling Championship was held in the United States, at which pins were completely assigned to the new AMF machines. Already during the tournament it became clear that in the development and growth of bowling popularity, an important role will be played by automation of the routine process of installing pins on a track.

The first pinspotter was installed in Michigan a year later (in 1951). Soon 12 such pinspotters were installed in the city of Midwestern, after which in 1952 the car finally received official approval. By the end of 1952, industrial models of pinspotters went on sale, and their first owner was the Boulodrom club in Clemens, Michigan.

Many pinspotters are equipped with electronic scoring systems of varying complexity. Despite the fact that many pinspotters have a manual reset button for cases when the machine does not automatically turn on at the right time, there are other types that do not automatically monitor the state of the game - especially for bowling types such as candlepin and duckpin , which use fewer balls - and almost always turn on manually.

The most key pinspotter functions include:
1. Stopping the ball
2. Return the ball
3. Pins installation
4. Reinstalling pins

In various types of bowling, the design of the machine may vary depending on the size and model of the skittle and balls. A single set of elements for all pinspotters consists of:

• Pinspotter cushion - stops the ball and changes its direction towards the window of the lift.

• Rake - the main purpose is the shift of the fallen pins and pins remaining on the pindek. Also, the rake prevents the ball from entering the machine zone during the installation of pins or their reinstallation.

• Carpet - a wide belt on which knocked down pins fall and move to the lifting wheel (pin-wheel). A special board inside the carpet provides pin support, and directs the ball into the window of the ball’s lift.

• Pin-wheel - picks up the pins from the carpet and moves them to the distributor.

• A distributor delivers pins from a pin wheel to a hopper. The distributor works continuously and receives rotational movement from the engine of the rear unit.

• The ball lifter raises the ball from the carpet of the machine to a height sufficient to return the ball under the action of gravity. The lift is located between a pair of pinspotters (odd and even).

• Hopper and shuttle . In the bunker there are pins received from the distributor, until they are installed. The shuttle puts the pins on the table. In the bunker can be 2 sets of pins.

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  Carpet

AMF candlepin machine