Billiards Equipment History | Pool-Billiards History

Billiards games have been played for about two centuries until the cue stick was invented and two more centuries until the cue tip was created. First billiards balls were made of wood, and then from ivory and only at the end of the 19^th century the phenolic resin composition was developed. The original billiards tables were wooden, flat, and uncovered; it took quite sometime before the tables' rails and pockets had an important role in the play.

Cue Stick

Until the end of the 17^th century, billiards games used to be played with a wooden club called mace. In time, players learned that when a ball drives closer to the rail, it is easier to use the narrower back side of the club ("queue" in French) to rescue it. This discovery led to the invention of the cue stick (and for a while to the ban of women billiards players from the game). The leather cue tip was invented (or according to other claims was renovated) in the beginning of the 19^th century by Francois Mingaud during the time he spent in prison.

Billiards Balls

The first billiards balls were made of wood. Despite their light weight and low cost, they were rather quickly replaced with balls made of ivory. Again, not for long. By the middle of the 19^th century, a desperate cry came out from the billiards industry and offered a $10,000 award for chemists who will come up with an alternative composition. It was not so much the concern of animals' rights but the worry about the risk taken by elephant hunters.

Eventually, John Wesley Hyatt, came up with an acceptable solution – a composition of cloth, ivory dust, shellac and collodion - and at the same opportunity has found a simpler way to produce the celluloid. After a period of trials and errors, the most stable, uncrackable composition of the billiards balls was reached. It is still unclear whether John Wesley Hyatt did win the money award for liberating the elephants from their misery; however, his contribution to the billiards industry got him into the Billiards Congress of America Hall of Fame.

Billiards Tables

Earlier in billiards history, the tables were flat, wooden and uncovered. Instead of today's rails, there were flat walls, and though there were pockets, they were treated as obstacles rather than targets. First, the table cloth came to use; it was colored green to remind the outdoor forefather of the game. Later on, at the first half of the 19^th century, the slate replaced the wooden playing surface. In today's quality billiard tables the playing surface is made of thick slate covered with woolen cloth to provide speed to the roll of the balls.

The last evolution of billiards table regards to the development of the rubber cushions. Once filled with cotton or flax, since 1835, were made of cushions. The first owner of a billiard table with rubber cushions was Queen Victoria, who has received special pans to warm water to prevent situations whereby the efficiency of the cushions lowers when the rubber gets cold. Luckily, materials engineering has improved since Queen Victoria's days and today's billiards tables' rubber cushions can keep their bouncy nature without using hot water.

Last opportunity to see a rare collection of antique billiard tables!