Frank Cox
Another useless item I’ve just acquired from eBay is a little flyer giving warning of a patent infringement. It wasn’t surprising that I was the only bidder as it has barely any value other than the story behind it.
Everyone of a certain age remembers the big wooden trough hanging over the billiard table which provided illumination from three 100W light-bulbs (if you were lucky). Although they are now rapidly being replaced by modern LED units, there are still plenty of them about.
Well, not many people know that the original design for this shade was developed by Frank Cox, who set up as a billiard table manufacturer in Southampton in 1901, prior to which he had been employed by Burroughes & Watts. It was in 1925 that he took out a patent for a ‘Shadowless Shade’ which he developed with the assistance of a Southampton electrical engineer, Edward Fiford.
Being a provincial table maker operating on a very small scale, nothing much was heard of his invention until 1929 when Burroughes & Watts started to promote their own “Shadowless Billiard Shade” much to the annoyance of Frank Cox, who considered that his former employers were infringing his patent. This dispute was taken to the High Court, who agreed with Frank, and on 23rd March 1931 they issued an injunction against B&W stopping them from making, selling, or distributing these shades.
Although Frank immediately printed and circulated the pictured notice, he subsequently came to an agreement with Burroughes & Watts for them to continue production of the shade under licence. Also in the picture are a couple of name plates which mark this change. The upper example is an original from the late 1920s, and the one below from the 1930s, the latter now having a significant addition—the patent number signifying it to be Cox’s invention. A score for the little guy over the big corporation!
So, next time you’re at the club, and you see one of these old wooden trough lights, check if the nameplate is one of the rare ones; without the patent number. Not that such a discovery is likely to increase its value, or indeed make it saleable at all, but at least you’ll be able to tell the story.
Peter Ainsworth
Originally posted to the Cues n Views facebook page 23rd September 2020
Related table plate image
