Skip to content

Inventor claims curling device a first

Bob Morrow of Merville has created a curling device which, he claims, will revolutionize the sport.
9740529_web1_curling-device
Bob Morrow’s Curling Measure

Bob Morrow of Merville has created a curling device which, he claims, will revolutionize the sport.

The device is designed to measure rocks that are sitting atop the button, thereby rendering the orthodox measuring arm useless.

Morrow’s measuring device slides under rocks that are touching, in the centre of the house.

It includes a telescoping arm and a machinist dial that provides a number.

“No one’s ever done this before,” Morrow said. “This has been the missing link.”

York Machine Shop in Campbell River is manufacturing his Curling Measure device.

The design includes a maple leaf.

“We want this thing made in Canada,” said Morrow, who is filing his invention for patent.

The idea started percolating last year after he watched a curling competition on TV. The thirds looked at the rocks, which were about an inch-and-a-half apart. They called in an umpire, who declared which one was the scoring stone.

“That’s ridiculous,” Morrow said. “He didn’t have to pick one, and he couldn’t measure it. There’s no such thing as a visual measure.”

So Morrow placed a couple of stones on his living room floor, looked at them for a few days, then a light went on and the idea for his device was born. It will measure rocks that are touching, up to five or six inches apart.

“That’s the hole that’s in curling. No one has ever been able to deliberate between two rocks touching each other. If you space the rocks, we’d probably max it out like five or six inches,” Morrow said.

“It’s (curling) been around 150 years and nobody’s ever picked up on it.”

The World Curling Federation has a ‘quadrant system’ that is logged into an iPad that automatically calculates the centre of the curling rock in relationship to the pin.