The First Baseball Speed Gun

By Joseph Wallace

Cover of Baseball MagazineHow fast does a baseball travel after being thrown by a major-league pitcher? A remarkable article in the December, 1912, issue of Baseball Magazine showed that the first accurate measurements were made decades before the invention of the modern-day radar gun.

Titled “One Hundred and Twenty-two Feet a Second!”, the piece sought to measure the speed of the pitches thrown by future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, widely considered the hardest thrower of his era. To do so, the magazine’s editors turned to unlikely source: the Remington Arms Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Remington had recently designed an elegant electrical apparatus to measure the speed of the bullets fired from their rifles. Baseball Magazine realized that the same device could measure hurled baseballs just as well.

In the experiment, Johnson was enlisted to throw a baseball through a delicate wire mesh suspended in a wooden frame. After brushing through the mesh, the ball would strike a sturdy steel plate bolted to the wall beyond.

Attached to both the wires and the steel plate was the apparatus, which measured the two impacts and the time elapsed between them. Knowing the distance between the mesh and plate allowed the editors to determine the speed of Johnson’s throw.

Walter Johnson’s fastest measured traveled 122 feet per second – or, as we measure pitches today, 83 miles per hour. As the awestruck editors hastened to point out, this was far faster than the speedy Twentieth Century Limited railroad train traveling at a mile a minute…and fully half the speed of one of Remington’s deadly bullets.

Important addendum: As baseball fans know, most pitchers today can throw a baseball more than 90 miles per hour. The reason Johnson’s pitches were so much slower? It took him many tries before he finally guided the ball through the small mesh framework, by which time he was far more concerned with accuracy than speed!

This speed machine – and the Baseball Magazine article – play important roles in Diamond Ruby. During the section of the novel when Ruby is working on Coney Island (in a sideshow challenging men to “outthrow the girl pitcher”), it is Remington’s electrical apparatus that allows pitching speeds to be compared….and the real-life article that tells Ruby and her girls that such a device exists.

About the author: Joseph Wallace has been a writer of popular history for more than twenty years, covering subjects ranging from science and natural history (A Gathering of Wonders: Behind the Scenes at the American Museum of Natural History) to baseball (The Autobiography of Baseball). His first novel, Diamond Ruby, set in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and inspired by a photograph he found at the Baseball Hall of Fame Library, was published in May by Touchstone. He is currently at work on a sequel.

Diamond Ruby

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  • http://barbarasthinline.blogspot.com barbara

    Sounds like a very interesting story. And my dad is a baseball history addict, so I can pass it on to him if I’m lucky enough to win:)

  • http://www.blog.dugout24.de Coach

    only goes to show that control is more important than speed ;-)

  • http://febrilemuse-infectious-disease.blogspot.com Cindy–CM Doran

    Cool! We love baseball at this house.

  • http://brokenteepee.com Patty

    What an interesting topic for a book.
    thank you. My brother would love this

  • John B.

    With the enhanced performances of modern athletes and the advances made in equipment, we often forget it is the quality of the athlete that is really important. When you look at the conditions early athletes dealt with and how little time many could devote to training, their accomplishments are even more impressive.

  • Cathie

    This looks great!

  • Mary R

    Fascinating info, thanks for sharing. It will also be a nice change of topic for dinner tonight instead of just the snow, snow, snow in Chicago for the past few days. Especially since my husband is looking forward to attending opening day this year.

    Keep adding these diverse topics, it makes life interesting.

  • Heather

    cool!

  • elizabeth houston

    Sign me up for the drawing! I live with a baseball nut! :)

  • Nadine

    This weekend everyone is Wisconsin is obsessed with football; but I love baseball, too and was longtime fan of the Milwaukee Braves (until they moved south and changed their name). This novel sounds as if it would not only be a great read, but a terrific addition to my sports library, which includes my friend Joseph McBride’s “High and Inside: An A to Z Guide to the Language of Baseball,” wherein Walter Johnson is mentioned a good many times.

  • Beth

    I’m fascinated by this era in general and coincidentally have been doing some research recently into the history of baseball. Would very much like to read this book and be entered in the drawing! Thank you!

  • Shelli

    All of my husband’s family are huge sports buffs, this would make a great gift for them!

  • Mona Everett

    I love baseball history. I used to listen to games on the radio with my grandfather!

  • Terry

    Sounds like an interesting and fun read. Would love to win this one!

  • Jennifer Hunsicker

    I would love to read this book! My niece plays fast-pitch softball and both of my nephews play baseball. My oldest nephew is 17 and pitches 90 mph! Sounds like this will be a book to pass among family to read. Thanks for letting me know about this book and for the chance at a free copy!

  • Raymond

    Sounds good I would like to read it to my son, please enter me

  • Jack

    Played baseball since I could pick one up all the way through college, the Air Force and American Legion after that. Always thought I’d pitch for the Red Sox one day and strike out every Yankee player I’d face with my fastball and Koufax curve. My brothers played followed behind me and thought they’d do the same. What young Red Sox fan wouldn’t think the same.

    I would love to win this book.

  • Gayle J

    I love baseball and this book sounds very interesting. Thank you.