Who invented pool

In , the game of billiards was familiar enough to the public that Shakespeare mentioned it in his play "Antony and Cleopatra. In the original game when they first brought it indoors , the balls were shoved rather than struck with wooden sticks called maces. The cue stick was developed in the late s. When the ball lay near a rail, the mace was very inconvenient to use because of its large head. In such a case, the players would turn the mace around and use its handle to strike the ball.

The handle was called a "queue" meaning "tail" from which we get the word "cue. At some point, someone used chalk to increase friction between the billiard ball and the cue stick even before cues had tips and found significant improvement in their performance. Around the turn of the 18th century in Europe, the leather cue tip was developed, which allowed a player to apply side-spin, topspin, or even backspin to the ball.

They used to be called "banks" because they slightly resembled the banks of a river. Billiard players discovered that the balls could bounce off the rails and began deliberately aiming at them, and therefore the "bank shot" was born! This is where the billiard ball is hit toward the rail with the intention for it to rebound from one cushion as part of the shot—possibly even three, four or five rails and into the pocket.

Wood was the table bed of a billiard table until around , when slate became popular due to its durability for play and the fact that it won't warp over time like wood. In Goodyear discovered the process for vulcanization of rubber and by it was used to make billiard cushions.

As for the size of billiard tables, a two-to-one ratio of length to width became standard in the 18th century. Before then, there were no fixed table dimensions. By , the billiard table had essentially evolved into its current form.

The talent of a professional pool player is truly amazing! Visitors from England showed Americans how the use of spin can make the billiard ball behave differently depending on what type and amount of spin you put on the ball, which explains why it is called "English" in the United States but nowhere else. The British themselves refer to it as "side.

The word "pool" means a collective bet, or ante. Many non-billiard games, such as poker, involve a pool but it was pocket billiards that the name became attached to.

Another interesting fact is that the term "pool room" now means a place where pool is played, but in the 19th century a pool room was a betting parlor for horse racing. Pool tables were installed so patrons could pass time between races.

The two became connected in the public mind, but the unsavory connotation of "pool room" came from the betting that took place there, not from billiards. In Britain the dominant billiard game from about until the 's was "English Billiards," played with three balls and six pockets on a large rectangular table.

The British billiard tradition is carried on today primarily through the game of "Snooker", which is a complex and colorful game combining offensive and defensive aspects and played on the same equipment as English Billiards but with 22 balls instead of three. The British appetite for snooker is comparable only by the American passion for baseball; it is possible to see a snooker competition every day in Britain.

Now that we got the primary differences of a game of pools and billiards out of the way, we can focus on the history of pool. History often tells us about the people involved in certain inventions, events, and more.

When it comes to the history of pool, the game remains the same! You might read different information regarding when the game of pool was invented. For example, this article called The History of Pool Table says that pool tables were discovered in the fifteenth century and was played by kings in those times. Yet, in another article called The History of Snooker and Pool , they say that the earliest recorded playing of a recognizable form of billiards was in France in the s.

However, despite these discrepancies, both articles note that the game of pool that was originally played as an outdoor lawn game soon became an indoor game with wooden tables and green cloth to resemble the grass on which it had been previously played.

On that same article about the history of the game of pool and snooker , we get a brief history rundown on how the cue stick and table and what prompted the improvements we know today:.

Though there is no name directly linked to who invented the game of pool, King Louis XI of France — is known for having the first indoor billiard table. Talk about being a game for the nobles! We see how the history of the game of pool has still remains enjoyable to-date. The game of pool is most popular in the United States and Canada, played with a white cue ball and fifteen consecutively numbered colored balls. Games For Fun is proud to carry an array of pool tables available in our showroom and online.

If you are interested in pool tables after reading this article, reach out to us for more information! Our team can provide you with everything you need to know about the game of pool. If you would like a history lesson in addition, just be sure to refer back to this article! If you are not in the area and would prefer to have your questions answered via phone, give us a call at Phone: Rialto Ave.

My Account Cart Checkout Menu. The tables were formed with all the edges covered that prevent the ball from falling. The edges were called as banks and soon players started to hit shots called bank shots which will make the ball fall from the rails of the pool table. The shot is not actually aimed at making the ball fall while the intention is to hit the rail and return to the table and hit the balls into the pocket.

After the Industrial revolution, pool game became famous in England and across the world. Players started to increase various functions of the cue and started to put leather tip cues for hitting the ball perfectly and providing some extra technical shots.

The wooden tables were replaced by slate material because wood started warping soon and was not durable. When the game became popular, there were no size restrictions on the board and later in the 18th century the size of the board was fixed to ratio of length to width. In England, the game was called English Billiards and was one of the most famous and popular game at that time. This paved the way to discover Snooker in the later years which has the same concept as English Billiards but uses different balls and colors.

In America, the most popular was the four-ball billiards game. This was a slight extension of the English Billiards. It contains four balls- two white and two red and four-pocket table.