On this day in 1976 Raymond Brunson was granted the patent for Time-Shareable Automatic Bowling Computer. U.S. Patent No. 3,974,483.
This invention relates in general to binary number computing devices, and in particular, to an automatic scoring computer for use in the compilation of bowling scores from input information comprising the number of pins knocked down by consecutively rolled balls by any one bowler.
In scoring and compiling performance information in the game of bowling, there is a requirement to produce the following information for each bowler:
1.Total score per frame.
2. Total score per line.
3. Strike request signal per frame.
4. Spare request signal per frame.
5. Frame complete request signal per frame.
6. Line complete request signal per line.
The above information might be obtained from information inputs as to the number of pins knocked down by consecutively rolled balls, by a computing process which follows a program based on manual scoring procedures; that is, conventionally accepting ball score inputs along with inputs concerning strikes and spares rolled. This compilation might be made individually for each bowler by employing highly redundant computing channels, each assigned to a given bowler. This type of compilation would however, necessitate expensive repetition of computing circuits.
