Inventor M. Doherty of Boston filed a patent to the US Patents office on this day in 1859 for improvements he had made to the cricket bat.
He claimed to have invented a lighter bat that would hit the ball further, and that would not be dented or bruised by the ball, and would not sting or jar the hands whilst playing a shot.
The specific mechanics included:
“Constructing the blade of the bat of a wooden shell with a filling of cork, or other elastic material…
Constructing the handle of the bat of a wooden tube with a central strip of whalebone, or` other elastic material of similar character, running down into the blade…”
In 1859, the sport was incredibly popular in America, find out more about the history across the U.S. by going to the history section here – https://usacricket.org/history.
