Golf balls

Could people with experience or theoretical knowledge about the
preservation of golf balls advise on if and how their natural
"explosion" (with age) can be averted or controlled?

The casings crack, fall off in part and the insides spill out,
sometimes quite spectacularly. This happens most often--but not
only--with the Haskell balls, the most commonly used ones in the
later twentieth century I gather.

    **** Moderator's comments:

        Source: http://www.golfeurope.com/almanac/history/golf_ball.htm

       "In 1898, Coburn Haskell introduced the one-piece rubber
        cored ball which was universally adopted by 1901 after it
        proved so effective in the British and US Opens. These balls
        looked just like Gutties but gave the average golfer an
        extra 20 yards from the tee. These balls were constructed
        from a solid rubber core wrapped in rubber thread encased in
        a gutta percha sphere. Once W. Millison developed a thread
        winding machine, Haskell balls were mass-produced and
        therefore more affordable."

    Related info:

        "Manufacturers continued to experiment with golf ball design
        including Goodrich who introduced the pneumatic ball in 1906
        (the patent was held by T. Saunders and filed in 1901).
        Quite simply this was a Haskell ball with a compressed air
        core which unfortunately was prone to expansion with heat
        and therefore causing the ball to explode. Others tried
        mercury, cork and metal cores. "Manufacturers continued to
        experiment with golf ball design including Goodrich who
        introduced the pneumatic ball in 1906 (the patent was held
        by T. Saunders and filed in 1901). Quite simply this was a
        Haskell ball with a compressed air core which unfortunately
        was prone to expansion with heat and therefore causing the
        ball to explode. Others tried mercury, cork and metal cores.

Veronica Bullock
Significance International
+61 2  6291 6334
+61  466 574 479


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:41
                 Distributed: Wednesday, March 7, 2012
                       Message Id: cdl-25-41-016
                                  ***