A PRACTICAL PINWHEEL

The AMF Pinspotter used a carpet belt, known as the Magic Carpet, to retrieve balls and felled pins after a roll. The ball would be pushed off the belt to the ball return, while the pins would move into a pin elevator called the Pinwheel and onto a distributor that would drop them into cups for resetting. Before the Pinspotter, the job was done by pin boys who sat behind the lanes at the ready. After every roll, they would reset the pins for the spare or the next frame.