CHALK.
Most on the market is good. Much is often unspeakably bad. All should be dry, and as free from grease as from grit. It now comes in various shapes—octagon, cylindrical and square. As the colored is labor-saving, few roomkeepers have use for the white. Just as few took to the colored when first brought to notice, nearly forty years ago, although it was made green in order not to show itself upon the cloth.
THE CUSHIONS.
Elasticity, accuracy and durability are their requisites. By elasticity is not meant excessive speed, for a cushion can be made so fast as utterly to baffle the good player without ultimately aiding the bad one who craves it. All other things equal, that cushion is best which is neither radical nor unexpected in its angles, and is least susceptible to ordinary atmospheric changes.
Until their covering begins to wear out in spots, cushions need no other attention than to be lightly brushed when the bed-cloth is cleansed, and every few weeks to have their bolts tightened by the merest turn or fraction. Should the bolts be overlooked too long, the cushion itself, by emitting a jingling sound, will give notice that a shrinkage in wood or metal calls for carpenter’s bit-and-brace.
The height of the top of the modern cushion-rail from the floor, if level, may be roundly expressed as thirty-four inches, and that of the cushion’s knife-like edge from the bed is one and seven-sixteenths inches. This is for the regulation American and French ball, which, at one-quarter of an inch above its centre, comes into contact with the cushion’s edge. Struck with force, a much larger ball would jump over the cushion, while a much smaller, jamming itself between table’s bed and cushion’s edge, would jump inwardly.
Cushions must be tuned to balls. Unless the former have a given height and pitch, there cannot be accurate reflection, and there may be inaccurate stroke. Height has already been discussed. Pitch is the inward slant of the cushion’s top surface as a guide to the cue in certain situations.
THE MAGIC BALLS.
With balkline the vogue, as much depends upon balls, cloth and cushions as upon the player himself.
Balls should be of well-seasoned ivory, and the only available guarantee as to that is the ability of manufacturers to carry a heavy stock.