A featherie is an early Golf ball, it's beginning is unknown, but is believed to be around the 1300's or 1500's and was in use until as late as the 1850's. The ball itself was made from a small piece of leather, which was cut in three and softened in alum and water. The leather was then stitched back together, leaving a small hole, a large amount of feathers was then shoved into the ball until it was hard. The amount of fathers could fill a top hat. A good feathery could travel around 250 yards.
Wooden balls were used until the early 17th century, when the featherie ball was invented. A featherie is a handsewn cowhide bag stuffed with goose feathers and coated with paint. Due to its superior flight characteristics, the featherie remained the standard ball for more than two centuries. In 1848, the Rev. Dr. Robert Adams (or Robert Adam Paterson)[1] invented the gutta percha ball (or guttie). Because gutties were cheaper to produce and could be manufactured with textured surfaces to improve their aerodynamic qualities, they replaced feather balls completely within a few years. In the twentieth century, multi-layer balls were developed, first as wound balls consisting of a solid or liquid-filled core wound with a layer of rubber thread and a thin outer shell. This design allowed manufacturers to fine-tune the length, spin and "feel" characteristics of balls. Wound balls were especially valued for their soft feel. Today's golf balls have progressed into having cores of titanium compounds, hybrid materials, softer shells and a more pressurized core. They usually consist of a two-, three-, or four-layer design, consisting of various synthetic materials like surlyn or urethane blends. They are available in a great variety of playing characteristics to suit the needs of golfers of different proficiency. Look at ::::::::::::::::::::::: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_balls
The white, dimpled golf balls of today bear little resemblance to those of yesteryear. Before the arrival of rubber, golfers played with a "feathery ball", a fragile leather pouch filled with boiled goose feathers.
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Clubs and balls. The clubs of the sixteenth century (the earliest of which we have documentation,) were much longer than the current iteration with flatter, skinnier wooden heads, the shafts were made of wood such as ash. As technology improved and the mechanical revolution allowed for such, some clubs began having metal heads, but these were rare, as they had a tendency to cut the featherie ball (see next paragraph.) With the advent of the gutta percha ball metal heads for shorter shots began to evolve, with the longer clubs still having heads made of persimmon wood. Wooden shafts, made of hickory, began to disappear in the 1920's, and by 1935 were a rarity, steel shafts taking over. In the 1970's alternate shafts made of graphite appeared, and in the 1980's the 'woods' began to have metal heads. At the beginning of golf, there were two types of balls: wooden and featherie. The featherie, a ball made by stuffing boiled goose feathers into a leather covering was superior, but it was expensive (a skilled ball maker could only make two or three in a day,) and it split or was ruined by wet conditions easily. In the late 1840's balls made of gutta percha appeared. This rubbery substance was superior in that the balls could be made less expensively and were more durable. The Haskell ball, a thin cover surrounding a mass of rubber (similar to rubber bands,) surrounding a (usually) metal ball, appeared in 1902. Beginning in the 1970's the modern two-piece ball appeared, although it has greatly evolved using different materials for the interior and more resistant materials for the cover.
A featherie is an early Golf ball, it's beginning is unknown, but is believed to be around the 1300's or 1500's and was in use until as late as the 1850's. The ball itself was made from a small piece of leather, which was cut in three and softened in alum and water. The leather was then stitched back together, leaving a small hole, a large amount of feathers was then shoved into the ball until it was hard. The amount of fathers could fill a top hat. A good feathery could travel around 250 yards.
Well the golf ball can sometimes feel like it came from out space considering the odd things it does...at least when i sometimes play. But the first golf balls in the game of golf as we know it were first fashioned from wood as were the clubs in Scotland as far back as the 1500's. This progressed to a featherie type ball around 1618 made of goose feathers tightly packed into a sphere from a horse or cow hide when wet...so when this dried the ball became hard. Over the years the ball progressed.... >1848 - Guttie or Gutta percha ball: Made from rubber like sap of the gutter tree found in the tropics >1898 - Coburn Haskell ball: One piece ball with a rubber core >1905 - The dimples were applied to the golf ball: The hasken ball had dimples applied to them by William Taylor >1972 - The Two peice ball: Spalding first introduced the two piece ball ....and even today golf ball design is always changing and progressing!