PART II.
PLATE XIII.
THE TABLE LAID OUT FOR THE SEVERAL GAMES.
The letters A, B, C, D, and E, on the diagram opposite, show the position of the spots on the billiard-table. In placing them a line is drawn down the centre of the bed, from and to the middle nails or sights in the head and lower cushions; another line is then drawn from the centre sights in the side cushions, across the table, and where the lines intersect the spots are placed.
The spot at A, being next the head of the table, is, in the American or four-ball game, the light red spot, and an imaginary line (G) across the table at this point is the string; the spot at B is the dark red spot; that at D is the white ball spot. The spot at C is the English spot, which is twelve and a half inches from the end or lower cushion, and is used in playing the English game, but in this country it is generally put about nine inches from the lower cushion.
The spot at D is used in two-ball pool, also, and is placed about five inches from the lower cushion.
E shows the pin-pool spots, that in the centre being numbered five; each of the others should be placed three inches from it, in position shown, and measuring from the centre of each spot.
F shows the position of the balls in playing fifteen-ball pool. The balls are placed in a triangular frame so as to insure exactness—the base of the triangle being parallel with the end or lower cushion of the table. The highest number, fifteen, should be placed on the deep red spot at B.
Figures 1 and 2 show the positions of the semicircles or playing points for the English and three-ball games.
In playing the English game, the semicircle is drawn from the white ball spot with a radius of ten and one-half to eleven and one-half inches. In England the spot is placed two feet four and one-half inches from the cushion on the English 6 × 12 table.
The semicircle for the three-ball game is drawn with a radius of six inches on the American table.