Working Knowledge: Perpetual Reset Machine; January 2008; Scientific American Magazine; by Mark Fischetti; 2 Page(s)

A busy bowling alley might seem noisy, but behind the lanes the cacophony is significantly louder. As the heavy balls crash into the wooden pins, hefty motors, conveyor belts, pulleys and cams clatter behind each "pit," grabbing the wreckage from one collision while hoisting and arranging pins so they are ready for the next one.

For years pin boys stood at the lane ends, manually resetting pins and rolling the balls back to bowlers. Machines did not appear until 1946, when AMF Bowling, Inc., now in Richmond, Va., introduced the first "automated pinspotter." Brunswick Corporation in Lake Forest, Ill., later offered a competing "pinsetter," and the two companies still dominate the market today with technology that is strongly reminiscent of the original.