Gutta Percha Golf Ball Marking Timeline

A Scholarly Chronicle with Primary Sources

The Gutta Percha Golf Ball

A Timeline of Marking & Manufacturing Methods, 1845–1900

From the hand-rolled smooth sphere of 1845 to the machine-engraved moulded ball of the 1880s, the gutta percha golf ball underwent a rapid and fascinating technical evolution. 

A Hand-Cranked Gutta Percha Ball Line-Scoring (Grooving) Machine, c. 1874–1890.
The pivoting lever arm presses the ball into a bed of parallel cutting discs; the ball is then rotated 90° and the operation repeated to produce the characteristic crosshatch "line-cut" mesh pattern. A machine of this type was described by its inventor in Golf magazine (22 January 1892): "the machine we brought out in 1874 has completely revolutionised the grooving of balls." An improved commercial version, made by Messrs. John Greig & Sons of Edinburgh, could mark thirty-six to forty dozen balls per hour (Golf Illustrated, 31 March 1893).

Stages of Ball Marking

1845

to mid-1850s

Stage I

The Smooth Hand-Rolled Ball

The Rev. Robert A. Paterson lays claim to the earliest known use of gutta percha as a golf ball in 1845. "Dr. Paterson has been able to show that he made golf balls out of sheet gutta-percha, before that date. And his principal supporter is Tom Morris, the veteran champion of golf, who remembers quite distinctly about the boy Paterson showing him a guttie in 1845...And in 1845 Robert secured some of the chippings, softened them in hot water, squeezed them together and rolled them into a ball — the first gutta-percha ball. The feather balls in use being white, Robert also painted his treasure." (Golf Illustrated 24 Jan 1902) 

The first gutta percha balls were formed entirely by hand. Heated gutta was softened in hot water, rolled on a flat board into a sphere, and left to cool. The surface was perfectly smooth. These early balls flew poorly when new — the smooth surface caused them to "duck" quickly — but performed better once scuffed and marked by play. This observation eventually drove the entire subsequent history of ball marking.

The Scotsman, 25 June 1901

— The oldest gutta-percha golf balls I have seen were formed as [much] like the feather ball as possible, with a slight groove like the seams of the skin of the feather ball, and were stamped with the name John Paterson.

James Forgan, Golf Illustrated, 27 December 1907 (eyewitness; apprentice to Robert Forgan from 1856–57)

Paterson's balls bore a shallow line mimicking the leather seam of the feathery. This is distinct from the later hand-hammering or line-cut methods — it was more aesthetic than aerodynamic.

early to mid-1850s

to late 1880s

Stage II

The Smooth Moulded Ball

Robert Paterson made moulds and sold them to dealers in the trade. By the mid-1850s, most ball-makers had adopted smooth iron or steel moulds rather than hand-rolling. The moulded ball was faster, rounder, and more consistent to make. From roughly 1860 until the late 1880s, smooth moulds were used to produce most golf balls made — the smooth ball then left the mould to receive its surface marking by one of the methods described below.

Next, perhaps, to the material of which Golf balls are made come the machines by which the gutta is moulded. On this to a large extent depends the ultimate character of the ball, for if the mould is faulty no superlative excellence in the raw material will condone this primary defect. The great majority of the moulds are known as plain moulds, that is to say, they have smooth internal surfaces, and when these are used in connection with a screw press... and a marking or scoring machine of their new design, and capable of marking balls at the rate of thirty-six dozen or forty dozen per hour, the output is very rapid indeed.

— Golf Illustrated, 31 March 1893 (describing the manufacturing practice of Messrs. John Greig & Sons, Edinburgh)

Screw press: Greig & Sons supplied screw presses with "any number of screws from one to six" for moulding operations — a detail that illuminates the scale of commercial ball production by the early 1890s.

mid-1850s

to late 1880s

Stage III

The Hand-Hammered (Hand-Nicked) Ball

James Forgan, brother of the famous club and ball maker Robert Forgan, and Alex Clark hand hammering gutta percha balls. The balls were placed on a cup-shaped rest and hammered with over 200 lines, usually in a matter of two or three minutes. The balls needed to cure for about six months. Large mould presses are in front. The assistant on the right, James Govan, rolls the naturally dark ball in his white paint filled palms. Govan became the professional at a Philadelphia area club. There, he met George Crump who hired him as the foreman of construction for Pine Valley Golf Club likely imparting significant design influence. He served as the first greenkeeper and professional there.

Once ball-makers understood that a marked surface improved flight, intentional hand-marking became standard. The ball, freshly released from its smooth mould, was held in a turned wooden cup and struck repeatedly with the chisel or claw end of a specially-made hammer. Robert Forgan of St Andrews is credited with systematising this practice. The pattern varied by maker. Willie Park's firsthand account provides a more elaborate description. The hand-hammered ball was the dominant product from the 1850s through the early 1870s, when the line-cutting machine began to supersede it.

About that time, so early in life, I was accounted a very expert hammerer of balls. Old golfers remember that after the gutties were moulded in smooth moulds, from which they emerged perfectly plain, they were hammered to give them such a rough surface as would help them in their flight. Sixpence a dozen was the hammering fee, and each ball was given from 240 to 280 blows, according to size, which occupied me about two and a half minutes. I remember that I invented a system by which I kept my right elbow fast to my side while the forearm worked like a lever, and thus I could always depend upon the hammer coming down to precisely the same spot each time, while my left hand worked the ball.

— Willie Park Jr., in Great Golfers in the Making, ed. Henry Leach (describing his youth in the 1860s–early 1870s)

Often I would find him sitting on his bench with a golf ball moulded, but not yet nicked, turning it about with his fingers in the cup designed for its holding, and hammering it with the broad chisel end of his hammer made for the purpose. This was in the days of hand-hammered balls, before the mode had been invented of having the marking engraved on the mould so as to turn them out what we then called "machine hammered."

— Horace Hutchinson, Fifty Years of Golf (1919), Chapter III — recalling Johnnie Allan at Northam, c. 1870–1875

Hand-hammered ball. The irregularity of the lines indicate that the grooves were made by manual hammering.

Johnnie Allan at Northam: Allan was appointed Professional and Club & Ball Maker at Royal North Devon in the spring of 1867 (Royal North Devon Golf Club records; George Gosset's letter to J.H. Taylor, September 1909), remaining until the late 1880s. Hutchinson was born in 1859 and elected Club Captain at age 16 in 1875 — placing his boyhood visits to Allan's Northam shop firmly in the period c. 1870–1875, while hand-hammering was still the prevailing technique at that provincial English club.

His hammering has become closer, possibly attributable to the spectacles, and reminds one more of "Kirk" than of "Forgan," but the process, with the ball in the wooden cup, turned slowly round between the broad forefinger and thumb, which seem to have taken the hue of the gutta, remains still the same.

— Victorian press account of Robert Forgan's St Andrews shop (reprinted in Lost Art Press Blog, sourced from original periodical)

1874

onwards

Stage IV 

The Machine Line-Cut Ball (Hand-Cranked Scoring Machine)

The hand-cranked ball-grooving (scoring) machine was a device in which a freshly moulded (I believe that the balls were scored shortly after removal from the mould, but I don't have written proof) smooth gutty was placed into a holding cup beneath a pivoting lever arm. The arm pressed the ball down onto a bank of parallel cutting discs — typically around eleven blades — scoring a set of parallel lines across one hemisphere. The ball was then rotated 90° and scored again, producing the characteristic crosshatch "line-cut" or "mesh" pattern. The operation that formerly required 240–280 individual hammer blows and two and a half minutes of skilled labour could now be performed mechanically, and by a boy.

An important primary source for the dating of this machine is a letter published in Golf magazine, 22 January 1892, in which the writer — claiming to be the machine's co-inventor — states the year explicitly:

There is one tool, however, which a friend and I brought out, which was really worthy of a patent, and that is the machine for grooving the balls. As you know, they were formerly cut by the hand, and the modus operandi was a very tedious and painful one. I am sure that the machine we brought out in 1874 has completely revolutionised the grooving of balls, and a man, or even a boy, can now cut a gross of balls more regular and more easily than a man could do with a hammer. We gave it to Davie Strath, and I believe it is now in the possession of Sayers, but we never thought of patenting it.

— Anonymous correspondent (co-inventor), Golf magazine, 22 January 1892. Primary source: the inventor's own words, fixing the date as 1874.

Provenance of the machine: Given first to Davie Strath (Open Championship runner-up 1876, died 1879), then passing to "Sayers" — almost certainly Ben Sayers of North Berwick. The machine illustrated in the photograph above is consistent with this lineage and period.

By 1893, an improved commercial version was in production. Messrs. John Greig & Sons of Edinburgh offered a scoring machine capable of an output many times greater than the original:

All former marking machines were comparatively slow pieces of mechanism — slow in their action, and consequently capable of overtaking only a limited number of balls in a given time... [Greig's new design is] capable of marking balls at the rate of thirty-six dozen or forty dozen per hour... Another advantage attached to the marking machine is that it marks, or impresses, the concentric lines on any size of ball put into it.

— Golf Illustrated, 31 March 1893

Transition period: Hutchinson's Fifty Years of Golf makes clear that in the early 1870s — during his boyhood visits to Johnnie Allan's Northam shop — Allan was still hand-hammering balls. The 1874 machine evidently took several years to reach provincial English club-makers. The line-cut ball and the hand-hammered ball coexisted through the 1870s and into the 1880s.

late 1870s

standard by 1880s

Stage V

The Patterned-Line Moulded Ball 

A smooth gutta percha ball, a line-patterned moulded gutta percha ball, and a feathery ball all made by modern makers. The Home Press was a press and a patterned mould in one used for the hobbyist or small pro shop in the 1880s and 1890s.

The final major innovation of the gutta percha era was the engraving of the ball's marking pattern directly into the interior surface of the mould itself. The ball emerged from the press already marked — no subsequent hand-hammering or machine scoring was required. This was what Hutchinson called being turned out "machine hammered." Hutchinson is explicit that during his early-1870s visits to Allan, this method had not yet been invented. It therefore emerged after approximately 1875. By the 1880s it was standard, and the Agrippa mould — in which a steel wedge generated three tons of pressure — became fashionable among the larger ball-making firms.

A gutta percha ball made from a mould containg a line pattrern

To overcome this want of speed gun-metal or hard brass moulds have been introduced, with the ball markings or series of concentric rings engraved inside, thus producing balls all ready marked, and rendering the use of a marking machine unnecessary. Certainly these engraved moulds have the advantage of allowing the composition of which the ball is made sufficient time to "set," which may add to the ball's durability.

— Golf Illustrated, 31 March 1893 (describing Messrs. John Greig & Sons' engraved mould line)

Most local club-makers sell their own make, either hand-hammered or machine-made. Hand-hammered balls have, within the last few years, given place to the machine-made. The labour involved in hammering with the hand is very great, and, moreover, the latter are believed by many players (the writer among the number) to retain their shape better.

— Golf Illustrated (undated excerpt from "Notes for the Amateur"), describing the state of ball-making in the late 1880s–early 1890s

A new pattern arrived in 1895 that "broke the mould," a bramble pattern made by Agrippa. This then led to a multitude of other fancy patterns that continued after the demise of the gutta percha ball and the rise of the wound or Haskell ball...but that's another story.

Taylor on Golf by JH Taylor, 1902

In the seventies, and in my own teens, I was laboriously, and with rigid economy, working my way to the possession of a variety of wooden clubs such as it would puzzle the modern golfer... This was in the days of hand-hammered balls, before the mode had been invented of having the marking engraved on the mould so as to turn them out what we then called "machine hammered."— Horace Hutchinson, Fifty Years of Golf (1919), Chapters III and VThis is consistent with the 1874 introduction of the scoring machine and the late-1870s introduction of engraved moulds — Hutchinson's memory is that both were novelties after his formative golfing years.

Consolidated Timeline

Dates	Method	Description	Primary Source
1845 – mid-1850s	Smooth Hand-Rolled	Heated gutta rolled by hand on a board; perfectly smooth surface; flew poorly when new	The Scotsman, 15 June 1901; James Forgan, Golf Illustrated, 27 Dec 1907
early 1850s – late 1880s	Smooth Moulded	Two-piece iron/steel moulds with smooth interiors; ball emerged perfectly round and unmarked, awaiting hand or machine marking	James P. Forgan (eyewitness, 1856–57); Golf Illustrated, 31 Mar 1893
mid-1850s – late 1880s	Hand-Hammered (Hand-Nicked)	Ball held in wooden cup; 240–280 blows with chisel-end hammer; 2.5 min per ball; 6d per dozen fee; Forgan, Allan, Park all described using this method	Willie Park in Leach, Great Golfers in the Making; Hutchinson, Fifty Years of Golf (1919); Forgan shop description, Victorian press
1874 – late 1880s	Machine Line-Cut (Hand-Cranked Scoring Machine)	Ball pressed onto bank of parallel cutting discs; rotated 90° and scored again; crosshatch mesh pattern; introduced 1874 per inventor's own testimony; improved Greig machine did 36–40 dozen/hour by 1893	Golf, 22 Jan 1892  Golf Illustrated, 31 Mar 1893
late 1870s – c.1900 to 1905	Patterned-Line Moulded ("Machine Hammered")	Mesh or concentric-ring pattern engraved directly inside gun-metal or brass mould; ball emerged already marked; Agrippa mould applied 3 tons of pressure; bramble variant used raised bumps	Hutchinson, Fifty Years of Golf (1919); Golf Illustrated, 31 Mar 1893; Victorian Forgan shop description

Primary Sources Cited:

1. Anonymous co-inventor, Golf magazine, 22 January 1892 — first-person account giving the 1874 date for the scoring machine.

2. Willie Park Jr., in Henry Leach, ed., Great Golfers in the Making — firsthand account of hand-hammering practice, rate, and technique.

3. Golf Illustrated, 31 March 1893 — description of John Greig & Sons, Edinburgh: plain moulds, screw presses, scoring machines (36–40 dozen/hour), and engraved moulds.

4. Horace Hutchinson, Fifty Years of Golf (London: Country Life / George Newnes, 1919) — eyewitness memoir, Chapters III and V, describing Johnnie Allan's Northam shop c. 1870–1875 and the transition from hand-hammered to mould-marked balls.

5. James Forgan, Golf Illustrated, 27 December 1907 — eyewitness (1856–57 brother/apprentice to Robert Forgan) describing the Paterson balls.

6. The Scotsman, 25 June 1901 — contemporary recollection of Paterson's original smooth ball and the discovery that hacking improved flight.

7. George Gosset letter to J. H. Taylor, September 1909 (Royal North Devon Golf Club records) — confirming Johnnie Allan's arrival at Northam in spring 1867.

8. Eugen Obach, Cantor Lectures on Gutta Percha (p. 21) — scientific source on gutta percha material properties.

9. Golf Illustrated (undated excerpt) — "Notes for the Amateur," confirming hand-hammered balls "within the last few years" had given place to machine-made.

10. Victorian press account of Robert Forgan's St Andrews shop — describing the hand-hammering technique with wooden cup and chisel hammer.

11. Golf Illustrated 24 Jan 1902. Golf and Golfers of the Old School. The Inventor of the Guttie. J Gordon McPherson