It's the dream of every golfer, to find a way to make your drives go further and straighter

A major contributor to achieving that elusive goal is the dimpled pattern on the golf ball itself. It was an idea born of the restless mind and inventive genius of William Taylor co-founder of Taylor & Hobson, now known as Taylor Hobson Ltd.

It was in the 1900's that this inveterate tinkerer turned his attention to this unique challenge. Having already built a successful business enterprise in lens making and precision production and measurement machinery, Mr Taylor was advised by his doctor that he needed to find a relaxing hobby. Golf was suggested as the perfect solution. So he attacked the game with the same energy and inventiveness with which he approached business and scientific pursuits. He simply could not leave his analytical mind at home. 

    In the early part of the 20th century, golf balls were still smooth. But professionals had discovered that a damaged ball tended to go further than a new one. In fact it became standard practice to produce balls with all sorts of irregular and fancy patterns on them.

To William Taylor this appeared to be very haphazard. He set to work determining what surface formation achieved the maximum flight. Taking a proper scientific approach, he built a glass fronted test chamber in which smoke was blown over differently patterned ball surfaces. He then carefully studied the eddies and vortices which resulted.

His investigations revealed that existing patterns were not ideal. As a consequence, he developed a pattern consisting of regularly spaced indentations over the entire surface of the ball…an idea that was dubbed (at the suggestion of his wife) and became famous as the "dimple ball." Golf balls took on their current form when William Taylor registered a patent for a dimpled golf ball in 1905. The dimpled Haskell ball first hit the fairways later that year.

Of course, Mr Taylor couldn't stop at the design stage. He moved on to invent a special engraving machine for making the moulds from which these revolutionary golf balls could be made. And the rest, as they say, is history.

However, William Taylor did not stop there. Convinced that further refinements could be made, he designed a golf ball driving machine (Figure 1) whereby a club could swing around an inclined axis under the influence of a weight. This machine would provide him with a controlled experiment. Armed with a large number of golf balls, each bearing a different dimple configuration, Mr Taylor could often be found in a field near Narborough, England with his driving machine carefully measuring the distance of flight of each ball as it flew from the device. 

We have no doubt that if the metrology equipment we have today had been available in William Taylor’s time then he would have used them in his research. So today, as you marvel at your next 275 yard drive, remember the man who (at least in part) made it possible. His inquiring mind and inventive genius are part and parcel of this most challenging, frustrating and rewarding of games.

As we look forward, the small company founded by the genius William Taylor in 1886 has now become a leading global force in metrology design and innovation. William Taylor's maxim "....never make what others make. Devise something new they haven’t thought of...." remains the driving principle at Taylor Hobson today.

Taylor Hobson is a core partner in the CEMMNT organisation.

For more information on the services available through CEMMNT please contact us on 01509 635279 or email us at enquiry@cemmnt.co.uk