Why do We Always Shake Hands with Our Right Hand?
The custom of shaking hands with the right hand has come down to us from the time when everyone carried a sword or knife. In those days when one met a stranger it was customary, as an indication of friendly intention, to hold out the right hand to show that it did not hold a sword or knife ready for attack.
The Story in a Billiard Table[24]
The origin of billiards is lost in antiquity. Who invented the game and the early processes of its evolution remain mysteries.
The first known reference to the game with any traditional or historical accuracy occurs in Abbe McGeoghegan’s “History of Ireland.” Cathire More, a sub-king who ruled over Leinster, died A. D. 148. The Abbe, quoting from King Cathire’s will, says, “To Drimoth I bequeath fifty billiard balls of brass with the cues of the same material.”
As early as the fifteenth century we have much evidence of the universality of the game all over southern Europe. It was certainly known in France in the time of Louis IX, who died nine years before Columbus discovered America.
Shakespeare, in Anthony and Cleopatra (Act II, Scene 5), makes the latter say, “Let us to billiards.”
Cotton’s “Compleat Gamster” published in 1674, refers to billiards as “This most gentle, cleanly and ingenious game.” He states that it was first played in France, but later gives Spain as its birthplace.
That the game was well known in England, and in fact in all Europe, is revealed when Cotton says, “For the excellency of the recreation, it is much approved of and played by most nations of Europe, especially England, there being few towns of note therein which hath not a public billiard table; neither are they wanting in many noble and private families in the country.”
Billiards was brought to America by the Spaniards who settled St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. While we have no direct evidence, it is very safe to assume that the English gentlemen, so familiar with the game in the home land, who colonized Virginia in 1609, were not long in introducing it in Jamestown.
There is also every reason to believe that the French colonists in Maryland and Canada let no great time elapse before importing tables and equipment into those colonies.
In the days of Cromwell, billiards had been tabooed by the Puritan, not on moral grounds, but rather political. Billiards was the game of the aristocracy and the Puritan hated not only the aristocrat, but the style and color of his clothes, the cut of his hair, as well as the games he played.
Doubtless this attitude was carried to America by the New England colonists, and only when those colonies had been diluted by the injection of other social groups did Puritan prejudice die and billiards enter into their recreational life.
However, there is no doubt that by the latter part of the seventeenth century the game was universally played in the United States.
From that time to the present the tide of popularity for billiards as the premier indoor game has been steadily rising.
Unlike most things in the affairs of men, billiards has not developed at either end of society, thus working toward the opposite extreme; but it began at both ends and worked towards the middle.
In the early days we witness the strange spectacle of the game being indulged in by the wealthy and leisurely class on the one hand, and the idle and vicious on the other. It is easy to understand why. The first group was the logical extension of the old-world aristocracy. The second group lived in an age when the great middle class was struggling for a foothold in a new country. Men had very little time and disposition for play, and this, coupled with the remnants of Puritanic influence, left the game in the hands of those who lived by their wits rather than work.
From these two extremes, therefore, the game began to work toward the great middle classes. In process of time recreation became a necessity, until today it is considered a duty. Men learned to play and, casting about for a game worthy of them, naturally laid hold of billiards.
Toward this desired result the Y. M. C. A. and church clubs have contributed greatly. They have broken down much of the illogical prejudice against the games, and have shown the public-room keepers that billiards can flourish under good and healthful conditions.
As the game became more universally played, a better class of billiard-room keepers entered the commercial field, thus helping to eliminate the incompetent and vicious.
Today the game has practically thrown off the last vestige of disrepute. In those sporadic instances where such is not the case, it is due to two causes. First, the majority of people in the community have low ideals. Second, excessive license taxes forces certain room keepers to resort to disreputable means for keeping alive their business.
Nevertheless, billiards today throughout the land is ranked among the highest and cleanest forms of recreation. The exceptions mentioned prove the rule.
Through a long, hard, vigorous opposition the virtues of billiards have asserted themselves. Today the game stands vindicated and triumphant. It is entering thousands of homes, church clubs, industrial welfare, charitable, educational and all other institutions. There are more billiard players in the United States than there are baseball players; not mere spectators, but actual players.
One large company alone manufactures 500,000 cues every year, and we must remember that a billiard cue, unlike a baseball bat, can be repaired and lasts for many years. This fact is sufficient to convey an idea of the vast extent to which the game is played.
In the early part of the nineteenth century there were no manufacturers of billiard equipment in the United States.
In 1840 J. M. Brunswick, who operated a small furniture repair shop in Cincinnati, Ohio, conceived the idea of making a pigeonhole table. Success in this line led him to experiment in the manufacture of billiard tables, practically all of which were then imported. The business flourished. At first only the 6 x 12 English pocket tables were made—later the small French carom tables were built.
The two main objects of billiard construction are to create an accurate medium for play and then to keep the table permanently accurate by making it impervious to atmospheric or climatic conditions.
To accomplish this with wood has taken years of experience and experimentation.
Accuracy is obtained by the employment of specially-trained and long-experienced workmen. One large company now has hundreds of men who have been in its employ for twenty years and many who have served from twenty-five to forty years. These men know their business.
Permanent accuracy is obtained by close adherence to two principles. First, to give weight to the table. One model, 5 x 10 feet in size, weighs 2,000 pounds. Second, all wood parts are built up with veneer layers; never are they constructed of solid blocks of wood. A billiard table is the last word in the art of cabinet-making.
There are six principal parts to all tables.
The Legs.—Massive as these are, they are built up, not turned from solid blocks. In all legs there are at least three veneers, two on the outside and one on the inside. On the highest-grade tables five veneers are used. Six legs are placed on the best and larger tables and four on the smaller.
The Frame.—Like the legs, the four parts of the frame, which in every case is a perfect parallelogram, are built up and veneered on both sides. When the frame has been bolted to the legs, stretchers or braces are placed within. Two to four, depending on the size of the table, run lengthwise through the center, and two or three running equidistant, crosswise. The top of the stretcher is flush with the top of the frame, making a perfect level upon which the slate bed is to rest.
The Slate Bed.—Only the highest-grade Vermont slate is used, and on the best tables of standard size, 4 x 8 feet, 41⁄2 x 9 feet, and 5 x 10 feet, the slabs, of which there are three, are 11⁄2 inches thick. At the factory the slate is cut to size and smoothed top and bottom. The pocket holes are next sawed out. On the center slab two are cut, one in the exact middle of either end. On the two end slabs they are cut on the two outside corners.
The slabs, where they join, are then bored along the edges and brass dowels are inserted which engage sockets set in the opposite slab. This keeps all slabs level with each other. All around the outside edge they are bored for the insertion of the bolts to fasten the cushion rails to the slate. Screw holes, countersunk, are bored from the top down through the slabs, around the outer edges, through which the slate is screwed to the frame.
Supply Room at Muskegon
The many triangles will convey an idea of the vastness of the billiard industry.
When the slate bed is laid, the slabs, doweled as the leaves of an extension dining table, are fitted together and screwed to the frame. The table is then pushed under a huge grinding machine and the slate surface is made plane, as nearly perfect as human ingenuity can make it.
The Bed Cloth.—Only the finest grade of imported Belgium broadcloth is used on the best tables. It is colored green, which is restful for the eyes.
The bed cloth is first tacked to the frame beneath the slate at one corner. It is then stretched to its utmost to the opposite diagonal corner. When this is fastened the cloth is tacked around the remainder of the bed; being stretched as tightly as possible in every direction.
The table is now ready for the rails and cushions. Like all other wood parts, the rails are built up and veneered, rather than made of a single block of wood. When the rail has been formed, the ivory diamond-shaped squares and name plate are countersunk into the top. The squares are to enable the player to properly judge the angles of play.
The cushions are fastened to the inside of the rail by means of a specially prepared glue.
Only the best grade of rubber is used for good cushions. The rubber is molded in long strips in some form of isosceles triangle, depending on the style of the game to be played. A highly resilient structure is given the cushion for the pocket table, and one less so for the carom. The latter is preferred for more accurate angle play, position and nursing. Nursing, means to keep the three balls as close to one another as possible.
The base of the triangle is grooved for the twofold purpose of making the rubber adhere better to the rail, and to increase resiliency. In fastening the rubber, utmost care must be exercised to have it attached to the rail, so that when the latter is fastened to the bed there shall be uniform height all around the table; otherwise the ball when it strikes the cushion will be deflected from the true course or rebound.
On top of the rail next to the cushion edge a narrow ∟ is cut the entire length. The cushion forms the other side, making a square groove, thus ⊔.
The cushion is now ready to be covered with the cloth.
The latter, made of the same material as the bed cloth, is cut to fit. One edge is tucked into the groove just described, with the outside, or face, downward. A tight-fitting ferule is then forced into the groove, thus holding the cloth firmly between the cushion and the rail. The cloth is then drawn over the top of the ferule, hiding the latter from sight, and is drawn down over the rubber and fastened on the under side of the rail with steel tacks. Great care and much experience is necessary to successfully conduct this apparently simple operation; for it is quite easy to pull the cloth so tightly at different points as to bend out of shape the apex to the rubber triangle. On the other hand, not to pull it tight enough will leave the cloth loose, which is not only unsightly, but will impair the rubber and destroy the accuracy of the balls rebounding from it.
The completed rail is then covered with a finishing strip, known as the blind rail, which covers the unsightly bolt heads and adds to the artistic effect of the table. On the cheap grades there are no blind rails, the bolts being decorated with brass caps.
The final operation is the construction of pockets.
The pocket irons are semi-circular pieces of metal with flat flanges extending at right angles at both ends of the arc. Stout black leather is stitched around the round part of the iron, thus hiding the latter, and affording a good hold to which the leather, or worsted knitted, baskets are attached, and protection for billiard balls when striking.
The flanges are sunk flush into the top of the rail; thus the pocket iron spans the interstices between the rails. The half of the pocket net not attached to the irons is tacked to the edge of the frame, underneath the bed, and covered with red leather, to withstand wear and for decorative effect.
Four hooks are then fastened to the frame, underneath the table, near the corner legs. These are termed bridge hooks and are for the purpose of having the cue-bridge ready of access for the players when necessary.
The table is thus completed for playing use. There are ingenious devices, termed the “return gutters” and convertible rails, which are worthy of description.
In tables thus equipped, the base of the pocket is opened—a stiff leather, funnel-shaped contrivance being substituted for the woolen or open leather pocket. This funnel opening leads into a wooden canal or gutter, the main stem of which runs on an incline the length of the table underneath. From this center gutter debouches branch to each of the pockets. The gutters are lined with rubber, to render noiseless the balls as they roll from the pocket openings into and along the gutters, at the lowest point of which—the head of the table—they fall into the “receiver.” The latter is a specially designed box, felt lined, with sufficient capacity to contain the fifteen balls used in the pocket game.
The gutter return is a great convenience in collecting the balls to rack them for a new game.
Carom tables have no pockets.
Carom and pocket billiards are so different that either they must be played on separate tables, or else the rails are so constructed as to be interchangeable. The billiard expert is not satisfied unless the whole rail is changed. This is done by building the table without the regular rails, and by having a separate set of rails for each game, which are held in position by clamps and quickly interchanged. They conform to the general design and decoration of the table.
Another method is merely to change the cushions. The back of the rubber is reinforced by a wood strip, into which are placed metal sockets. Bolts or ratchets are inserted through the rail, and clamp the cushion to the wall of the rail. The convertible rails, however, because of their rigidity, are more desirable than the convertible cushions.
The cheapest and most unsatisfactory device is known as pocket plugs. On a permanently constructed pocket table, right-angled plugs of the rubber cushion are screwed to the corner pocket irons and straight sections are screwed to the side pocket irons. These, however, never perfectly fit at the cushion joints, consequently carom play at those points is out of the question.
A Modern High-Class Pocket Billiard Table
Cheap cues are made in one continuous piece; or a special piece for the “butt” and one for the shaft of the cue. The “butt” and body are dovetailed together.
In making a high-grade cue, a choice piece of imported wood, such as ebony, mahogany, or rosewood, is cut into blocks about three inches square and twenty inches long. One of these is then roughly turned down on a lathe until it is round and slightly tapers all the way from one end to the other. At the narrow end it is then sawed four ways toward the thicker end, a distance of seven inches. This is the “butt.” The next section of either domestic or imported hard wood is forty-four inches long. This, too, receives a rough rotundity and tapering on a lathe. At the thicker end, a sawing-out process creates an opening, so that the “butt” and shaft can dovetail to a depth of seven inches.
The cue is then sawed across into halves. On the base of the upper half a hard wood screw is inserted and at the top of the butt a threaded hole is bored. To strengthen the joint, the hollow screw-hole end is capped with an ivory ferule sunk flush with the surface. This is the jointed cue—a great convenience to the player who travels or carries his cue home when he plays at the club or public academy.
At the narrow end of the cue, the tapering ceases about three-quarters of an inch from the end and flanges out according to the kind of “tip” the player prefers. This end is capped with an ivory ferule and upon the top of the latter, the leather tip is glued.
Before this latter operation, the finished tapering, smoothing, varnishing and polishing is done by hand.
Sometimes a flat surface a few inches long is planed on the circumference of the cue, extending up from the butt end and a mother-of-pearl name plate is sunk into the handle.
Cues run in weight from fifteen to twenty-two ounces. This means the manufacture of cues according to weight, as well as taper, material, finish and quality of the tip. Each of these embrace a mass of detail too voluminous for recital here.
The Balls.—In the past, as far as we can historically trace, billiard balls were made of ivory. Until recently no superior substitute had been invented, but it is the consensus of opinion among expert billiardists that the newly manufactured synthetic ivory ball is equal, if not superior, in action and wearing quality, to real ivory.
Making Cues
Elephant-tusk ivory, the only kind used in billiard ball manufacturing, is growing scarcer every year, with a consequent increase in price.
In the ivory storage vaults of one large company, there is held from $150,000 to $300,000 worth of ivory, ranging from the tusk up to the finished product.
Ivory is of cellular, not fibrous, construction. Through the center of the tusk runs the great nerve of the tooth. The structural cells build up around the nerve. Surrounding the nerve, the cells are small and more compact. As the tusk grows in length on the living elephant it also expands; but the cells grow larger and less compact as the tusk expands in circumference. It is quite apparent, therefore, that the weight centers around the nerve. To have a perfectly balanced ball, one that will roll true in every direction, the ball must be so turned out of the tusk that the nerve center runs exactly through the middle of the ball.
The process is as follows: The tusk is sawed into blocks about 23⁄4 inches in size. These are of irregular cylindrical form, depending on the form of the tusk’s circumference. Only that portion of the tusk can be used, the diameter of which is greater than the intended diameter of the ball. The rest of the tusk is used for ornaments, piano keys, etc. At least six inches from the point of the tusk must be discarded because the circumference is too small. The hollow part at the base of the tusk must also be discarded. There are defects discovered only when the ball is being turned or the segments cut. For all of the discarded portions and the fragments and shavings from the segments when the ball is turned, the manufacturer receives less than one-fourth of the price per pound which he paid for the whole tusk.
A segment is placed in a lathe—with the nerve center resting on the lathe point. The ball is then either turned down from the outside or cut out with an ingeniously constructed curved cutter from the inside of the segment. In the latter operation the ball lies loose in the center of the segment, which must be sawed in half to release it. Ivory seasons only to a slight depth. The thin seasoning on the surface seems to act as a shell which keeps raw the substance underneath. For this reason, when a ball is turned out of the tusk and the raw ivory thus exposed, the ball is stored away in a room of even temperature for about a year, that it may properly season before being finished. The red ball is dyed after seasoning, and at the time of final turning called finishing.
Another peculiarity about ivory is the fact that, owing to the cellular construction, in seasoning the ball never contracts at the nerve ends, but always around the other circumference, termed the “belly.” Therefore, when the balls are turned, the circumference around the “belly” is made greater than around the nerve ends, to allow for the shrinkage in the former. Each manufacturer carefully guards the secret of his allowance, which is made according to his experience and knowledge of ivory seasoning variations.
After seasoning, the balls are smoothed with shagreen and polished.
Except for the cue ball, no ivory balls are used today on the pocket table. As a substitute, a great variety of composition balls are used. The composition is another trade secret. Having been carefully weighed in a perfectly dry state, the necessary amount of composition is placed in a telescoping steel cylinder, the two ends of which are perfect hemispheres and the diameter of which on the inside is the exact diameter of the proposed ball. The cylinder is then placed in a hydraulic press and under a pressure of 30,000 pounds to the square inch, the cylinder and its contents are telescoped until the mass inside is perfectly round.
The molded ball is then taken from the press and smoothed. The holes for the number tablets are bored and the tablets forced into position. The tablets are made to conform to the rotundity of the ball and set flush with the surface. The ball is then smoothed and polished.
The cue bridge handle is made in a manner similar to the cue, except that it is not jointed and the span is substituted for the tip. The span has four slots along the top, which maintains a contour to assist the player in striking the ball on either side, or top or bottom of the center facing the player, when the cue ball is too far away to make the bridge with his hand and fingers. The span is made of either hard wood or ivory.
The temperate and torrid zones of the world are ransacked in order to secure the wood, the minerals and the animal substances, all of which are necessary to provide the means of play. Those of us who play the game (none of us, not even Willis Hoppe, know all its possibilities) may well paraphrase Thomas Carlyle’s reference to books and say, “Blessings on Herodotus, or whoever it was who invented billiards.”