A Bug's Life

n 1897, he designed a gunpowder-powered baseball pitching machine for the Princeton baseball team's batting practice.[2] According to one source it caused several injuries, and may have been in part responsible for Hinton's dismissal from Princeton that year.[3] However, the machine was versatile, capable of variable speeds with an adjustable breech size, and firing curve balls by the use of two rubber coated steel fingers at the muzzle of the pitcher. [4] He successfully introduced the machine to the University of Minnesota where Hinton worked as an assistant professor until 1900, when he resigned to move to the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.