Tennis Balls | Australian Tennis History

In this section we introduce the history of tennis ball manufacture in Australia and the invention of the first (or very early) tennis ball machines. Australian Tennis Balls began manufacture in the early 1900’s, with three companies becoming prominent. The competition was fierce with many balls being imported in both covered (lawn) and uncovered (asphalt) versions. This ad from the 1909 Davis Cup Program held in Australia is a very early example promoting Australian made balls. They were not considered high quality and imported balls remained popular.

Many of the Australian companies were already in rubber products manufacturing such as Barnet Glass and Ormiston which produced raincoats and other waterproof clothing. Dunlop was famous for the development of the automotive tyre. The big three makers Dunlop, Barnet Glass (1876) and Ormiston virtually created a cartel to own the Australian market and you can see some of their advertisements under that section while further pictures of finished products will be sourced for this section. The Swift Tennis Ball Company, Melbourne also carved out a share of the local market employing juniors including Lionel Brodie to assist with exhibitions and orders. Swift designed a one piece ball around 1936 and this led to some export success up to 1946.

In 1926, Spalding also began ball manufacturing, in Melbourne, a plugless and stitchless ball. Learn more from the Spalding section. Slazenger balls made in the UK were highly regarded, since they were sponsoring Wimbledon and were imported in large quantities. In 1934, Slazenger opened a factory in Sydney and commenced both tennis racquet and ball production. Ormiston began operations around 1938 and was commenced by two brothers who had previously held executive positions at Barnet Glass. Here is an interesting article from 1924 about Tennis Ball manufacture.

In the mid 1920’s Slazenger introduced a ‘Grooved Ball’ amazingly a box has survived see below.

Ball Making was a fast growing high volume business. The pictures above show the laborious job of branding each of the balls which included adding numbers or coloured spots so that players over many courts could identify matching pairs. These shots are circa 1945. Pictures Courtesy National Archives Australia Top ref NAA A1200, L3188 Bottom ref NAA A6180, 10/4/72/3 As the war effort caused a diversion of precious resources, people had to ration and do with whatever could be achieved. You can’t foresee this happening today. Recovering used tennis balls.

recover old tennis ball

Ball machines were on the agenda in 1927/28 and in Renee Lacoste’s ” Lacoste On Tennis” he mentions making one to improve his practice sessions, however we have found reference to one possibly created earlier by an Australian in the Gippsland Times July 1922.

Below we have an actual photo of one invented by an Australian, Percy Jepson in 1927, who we suspect also ran an engineering firm producing Fruit Packing machinery, hence his experience with the technology. The motorised ball machine was called the “Machine Gun” and subsequent testing by Pat O’Hara Wood at South Yarra indicated it was an idea of some merit. The unit was demonstrated in Myers retail store and invited tennis players to attend. Gerald Patterson demonstrated the unit to the visiting French team, Brugnon and Boussus and explained that Lacoste’s machine was hand operated and not comparable to the machine version invented by Jepson. Lacoste’s machine was also brought to Australia to be demonstrated. The Jepson did go offshore to the USA (Forest Hills) for evaluation in 1929 where Betty Nuthall and Vincent Richards tested it to positive reviews. We found that Jepson Fruit Packing went in to liquidation in 1931, so unfortunately this interesting model may not have survived. These articles from The Argus 1927 and All Tennis 1928.

SLAZENGER GROOVED BALL (25) EDIT

Swift Tennis Balls

Visiting French players in 1928, Brugnon and Boussus are in this shot with Patterson and the inventor Mr P Jepson (also below from the Argus)

The Jepson being tested at the then South Yarra Tennis Club

In November 1930, another Australian Inventor, Mr J.R. Black from Adelaide (East Torrens & Interstate Player) came up with an electric motor tennis ball machine which he patented and found agents for in overseas markets. These were being made by Newton McLaren Limited where Mr Black worked. It held 48 balls and could toss or drive balls at 1.5,3 & 6 second intervals. Apparently his inventiveness continued for this photo is labelled as his ball machine in 1963. Photo Courtesy National Archives of Australia ref. NAA A1200, L43279

In 1939, another Melbourne inventor created a ball machine which would deliver 50 balls as lobs, volleys or ground shots.

If ever there was a story about the egg coming before the
chicken,the the story of the tennis ball may well be the most relevant.

Throughout the early 1800’s Indoor or Real tennis used balls made from leather stuffed with cotton or central cores twined with cord. Naturally this made use in outdoor situations unimaginable.

However, in the 1830’s in the USA, Charles Goodyear spent considerable time researching techniques to stop rubber from reverting back to being soft and sticky. He discovered the way to vulcanise rubber to maintain its rigidity and over in the UK between the 1850’s to 1870’s further inventions lead to the production of bouncy, hollow rubber balls.

In 1874 the application of cloth surfaces to the rubber ball provided the ultimate solution to allow an outdoor version of lawn tennis to become possible. The other major event critical to outdoor tennis was the invention of the rotary lawn cutter which enabled finely cut grass courts to be prepared and line marked quite readily in gardens around the globe.

Both uncovered and covered balls were used according to different surfaces. On asphalt uncovered balls were used, while covered balls were best on grass. In Burnie, Tasmania a Victorian club team from Grace Park in 1901 played on wooden courts with uncovered balls, so strategy about balls and court surface selection for competition play was alive and well.

In 1902, Slazenger became the ball of preference at Wimbledon having succeeded F.H.Ayres after a 22 year association. Each ball featured a hand sewn cloth finish. The following years saw dramatic improvements to production techniques that led to more consistent finishes and uniformity. Packaging was changing also to help preserve ball pressures including sealed tins and some other surprising techniques such as wax coatings. The pictures of the 1906 Slazenger ball used at Wimbledon only have string around them as part of a display. Note the match the ball came from had one or both of the Doherty brothers playing.

While you might have thought that white tennis balls were the norm until the 1980’s, Slazenger in a 1906 catalogue were promoting a “tropical” lawn tennis ball in all red, blue/yellow, black, red/white, blue/white, yellow/white, red/yellow, red/blue, blue/yellow, red/black. In 1977 Slazenger tried to launch a green ball to increase visibility but it wasn’t until 1982 that the fluoro yellow ball began to be used as the colour of preference over white. Mind you there were many other experiments in colour and two colour balls. I recall a story that Ivan Lendl killed off two colour ball use in tournaments because he claimed players could tell which way the ball was spinning through the air giving an unfair advantage.

The 1930 balls above, are wrapped in their original wax paper.
These sold for 350 pounds on Ebay 2010.

Closely related to the subject of tennis balls is ball cleaning. Early games played on grass and other surfaces combined with the expense and availability of balls meant preserving them for play was essential. No doubt mud was a major problem and so there are a variety of ball cleaners that were developed. Since they no longer grace the modern day tennis setting most players will have never seen them before.

These shots were obtained from the internet a couple of years ago. I present them in the interest of education only and do not claim copyright or ownership.

Top: A single ball cleaner. A brand called Kleenball appears for sale from time to time.

Middle: Wall mounted 6 ball cleaner

A Club ball cleaner. Probably does 20-50 balls at a time. A hatch at the base opens to allow the clean balls to be removed.

Australian Tennis History

Category Archives: Tennis Balls

Australian Tennis Balls & Ball Machines

Development of Tennis Balls & Unusual Ball Cleaners