Spalding 'Kro-Flite' Golf Ball
Spalding 'Kro-Flite' Golf Ball
18631
Red Spalding 'Kro-Flite' Mesh Pattern Golf Ball.
A 1920's Spalding rubber core golf ball in good condition and with original red paint finish. The ball has a square mesh pattern and is called 'Kro-Flite'. The Kro - Flite was first manufactured in the 1920's and eventually became one of Spalding's most popular brands. The ball is marked 'Spalding' on one pole and 'Kro-Flite' on the other and this is most probably a winter ball.
The ball is approximately 1 9/16 inch in diameter (4 cm).
A. G. Spalding & Bros. was founded in 1876 by Albert Spalding, a baseball player and manager. They were known for their baseballs before branching out into the golf business in 1890's in the States, and Britain shortly thereafter. In Britain Spalding's main business seemed to be golf balls more than clubs. In 1898 they signed a contract with Harry Vardon. The British Open Champion was to endorse their gutta percha ball called the 'Vardon Flyer'.
The rubber core ball (the ancestor of the modern ball) began its life in the late 1890's. The first mass produced rubber core ball was by Coburn Haskell of Cleveland, Ohio. The first core balls were hand wound with elastic thread with a Gutta-percha cover, moulded with the raised square mesh pattern of their predecessor. The slight irregularities in the early wound balls made them quite lively, it was not until the invention of the automatic winding machine by John Gammeter (an engineer at Goodrich) and the change of pattern from mesh to bramble that the balls became more consistent and predictable. In later years, the 1920's, the design went back to a mesh pattern with lattice design as the ball described above.
Circa 1920's
Rubber
United Kingdom
Good
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.A. G. Spalding & Bros. was founded in 1876 by Albert Spalding, a baseball player and manager. They were known for their baseballs before branching out into the golf business in 1890's in the States, and Britain shortly thereafter. In Britain Spalding's main business seemed to be golf balls more than clubs. In 1898 they signed a contract with Harry Vardon. The British Open Champion was to endorse their gutta percha ball called the 'Vardon Flyer'.The rubber core ball (the ancestor of the modern ball) began its life in the late 1890's. The first mass produced rubber core ball was by Coburn Haskell of Cleveland, Ohio. The first core balls were hand wound with elastic thread with a Gutta-percha cover, moulded with the raised square mesh pattern of their predecessor. The slight irregularities in the early wound balls made them quite lively, it was not until the invention of the automatic winding machine by John Gammeter (an engineer at Goodrich) and the change of pattern from mesh to bramble that the balls became more consistent and predictable. In later years, the 1920's, the design went back to a mesh pattern with lattice design as the ball described above.){kind=link}