Brownielocks and The 3 Bears
present
Cartoon Fun
and
Note: Pool table image source is from Easi8.com.
(I wasn't about to try to draw one! So I overlaid it.)
The cartoon is no
reflection on the sales policy of this company. I simply used their pool
table image for the cartoon.
The Ancient History
of
Billiards aka Pool
Pool or Billiards began in the Middle Ages. Originally, the game was played outdoors on lawns where large round balls of stones were rolled at a smaller target ball. Then the game was taken indoors on the floor where the balls were large and made of some kind of wood. The balls were knocked around with a big wooden club. Gradually they changed the target ball to a cone shape, with the object to knock the cone over with the balls. But to get to the cone, you the balls had to be driven through an obstacle course of hoops, arches and pegs. (Sounds a lot like croquet gone indoors?)
However, bending over and hitting this ball for a certain time was hard on your back. So the game got moved up on a table and pool table was created. Now, to keep the ball from rolling off the table they nailed on wooden bumpers all along the edges. Then came rubber strips or cushions which gave the ball more bounce and protected the table. After a while they just decided to cover the table with felt, making more precisioned shot. At first the felt was always green to represent the grass the game had started out on.
After a while, just hitting the ball at a cone got boring. So, to make the game more challenging they cut round holes into 2 ends of the table. But in order to not have the balls fall through and onto the floor (and get nicked etc.) the sewed pocket-like bags to the bottom of the holes to catch the balls. From then on the goal of the game wasn't to hit a cone (it was gone) but to hit the balls into the holes. As they wanted more challenged they cut more holes. Then it was 4 corners they made the holes in, and then the sides. Today we have six-pocket pool tables.
When they took the game from the floor to the table well that meant they also had to get rid of that big clunky club they were hitting the balls with. At first they tried turning these clubs around and using the narrower handle side. This was clumsy. Finally, a longer, slender stick made of wood was used. The French called it a cue, which meant "tail" and this is how we get the word cue stick today.
The balls also evolved with the game. When the game was on the lawn, the balls were stone. When indoors on the floor they were made of wood or a super-hard rubber (gutta-percha). Then when the game went to the table, the balls were made of brass and then ivory. But in the early 1970's ivory was outlawed (due to elephant massacres) and so the billiard balls today are made of a ivory-like synthetic substance.
Up until the 17th century only a few people played pool or billiards. Then around the end of the century King Louis XIV of France made the sport popular overnight due to indigestion. It seems the royal doctor prescribed mild exercise after a meal, so the king tried billiards to help relieve his digestive distress after meals. I'm not sure if it worked, but the king soon loved the game and became an avid player. So following the king, people soon began playing pool after dinner. And this spread throughout Europe.
The sport is called Billiards and it's also called Pool. Why?
At first
it was called Billiards from the French word billiart which means a "stick."
However, back then, as today, the game was often played with bets. And so all
the money was thrown into a pot. Once again we go back to a French word.
The French slang for this kind of betting is called a poule. This is why
the game today is also called Pool.
All sports have their bizarre moments and fans. In the 1790's a French prisoner asked if he could remain in jail longer. The reason is because it was the only place in town with a pool table.
Another more tragic incident happened 1865 when a player named Louis Fox of the United States was in a title match when suddenly a fly landed on the cue ball just as he was about to take his shot. Because of the distraction he missed his shot and lost the match. Fox then killed the fly and then later he killed himself.
Then we have Henry Lewis in 1992, who ran of knocking 46 balls into the pockets with his nose! Must have been a long nose eh? ;)
The purpose of this page was to provide the historical foundation for the
game of billiards aka pool. But like all sports, each one annually creates more
of it's own history. It's impossible for me to provide a total timeline over
thousands of years. But here is a site that does a good job of explaining
how pool or billiards, evolved in the United States.
Evolution of US Pool.
|
In pool, what is "a century?" |
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screen. |
Check out some other Sports Fun at our Main Entry Page.
Source: "When
Human Heads were Footballs"
By Don L. Wulffson
Aladdin Paperbacks
(Simon and Schuster) © 1998
