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thewayneThere's going to be a lot of unhappy bowlers! The traditional pin setting machines will be going away over time. Now the organization that supervises tournaments in the USA has approved string-driven pin resetting! Instead of the sweeping arm that knocks the pins into a hopper and the mechanism then aligns the pins and redeposits them on the lane, each pin has a cord attached to it. After the ball knocks the pins down, the mechanism reels the pins up into a cutout template that recenters the pins, lets them stabilize for a minute, then lowers them back down into position.
The good side: saves the bowling alley a TON of money! It's expected it could cut their electricity costs in half. One reports that they have a full-time mechanic on-hand to maintain the pin-setting equipment and they pay over $3,000 a month on parts!
The bad side: it changes both the physics of the game and also the acoustics! The change in physics because the pins are no longer independently-moving objects: their motion is somewhat constrained by the cords, and it's possible to knock down a pin without the ball or a pin coming into contact with it! A cord contact can take down a pin, leading to some interesting effects. The sound change is going to cause some disappointment from not getting the satisfying *CRASH* of all the pins going down in a strike.
The economics are very important for the sport to survive. In the '60s when bowling was pretty much at its peak, there were over 11,000 bowling alleys across the USA. Now there's only 3,000 or so.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/bowling-that-simple-game-of-our-youth-is-being-turned-upside-down-by-technology/ar-AA1kiRwK
The good side: saves the bowling alley a TON of money! It's expected it could cut their electricity costs in half. One reports that they have a full-time mechanic on-hand to maintain the pin-setting equipment and they pay over $3,000 a month on parts!
The bad side: it changes both the physics of the game and also the acoustics! The change in physics because the pins are no longer independently-moving objects: their motion is somewhat constrained by the cords, and it's possible to knock down a pin without the ball or a pin coming into contact with it! A cord contact can take down a pin, leading to some interesting effects. The sound change is going to cause some disappointment from not getting the satisfying *CRASH* of all the pins going down in a strike.
The economics are very important for the sport to survive. In the '60s when bowling was pretty much at its peak, there were over 11,000 bowling alleys across the USA. Now there's only 3,000 or so.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/bowling-that-simple-game-of-our-youth-is-being-turned-upside-down-by-technology/ar-AA1kiRwK
Well ...
Date: 2023-11-27 06:30 am (UTC)So, the next move: are people willing to pay more for a classic experience?
Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-11-27 11:06 pm (UTC)There's also the variable of if the bowling 'federation' will sanction tournaments at the older model bowling alleys. Could it splinter the league? I agree, it may require adjusting techniques, which is going to tick off a lot of serious players and pros. So did the change from wood lanes to synthetics.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-11-28 11:32 am (UTC)Take synthetic surfaces. Some I find tolerable, or nice to stand on as a work mat -- but I wouldn't want to run even a few steps on one. Others are unbearable underfoot. Wood is great; it can be firm or springy as desired, but it's not squishy like synthetics in a way that can throw off balance.