The present invention is in the field of automatic tennis ball serving machines. Such machines are used for practice purposes. A single player, wishing to improve his game, can place a large number of balls in the feed bin of the machine and then, after flipping a switch which turns the machine on, retire a selected distance away from the machine and be served automatically with balls projected from the machine one after another, fast or slow, lobs, volleys or smashes, in different directions.
Many such machines are known in the prior art, for example as disclosed in Nielson and Church U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,349 issued Sept. 16, 1975; Torbet U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,037 issued May 3, 1977; and Sweeton U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,646 issued June 7, 1977. However, none of the prior art machines is completely satisfactory in all respects. They are either too large and too heavy if they perform well or else, if small and light, are of only very limited performance. It has become necessary to invent improved apparatus which will obviate these deficiencies of the said prior art apparatus. In particular, lighter, more portable and compact and less expensive apparatus, which will do the same things as well or better than the large and heavy type machines of the prior art, but with much less machine weight, much less machine cost, and considerably greater portability, are needed to fulfill the needs of the potential market. This invention meets those needs.