The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-09-08
Who Invented Billiards?

Nobody quite knows who invented
BILLIARDS. one account says that the
game was first played in Italy and an
other that IL first saw the light in Spain
10 IS also affirmed that IL was first played
I'm England IN the Middle Ages. IL is a
historical fact that the Knights Tempiai
brought IT back with them 10 that coun-
try on their return from the Second
Crusade There is also good reason 10
believe that the game was played In the
monastcries OF France in the sixteenth
century.
It's origin was probably bowling a varla-
ton OF which was the old game OF
ground billiards" From that it began
to be played on a table, driving one
hail through an ivory arch and then 10
a raised point made also OF ivory This
was the game for many years, each OF
the two players having a ball, the third
bail not being introduced until just after
the middle OF the eighteenth century,
when what was known as the port and
ring" also disappeared.
In a Harleian manuscript in the Brit
ish Museum IS found the earliest histOr-
ical references 90 billiards. This is in
terCsting enough 10 give IN detail. In
the year iJa q commission was appoint
ed TO make an inventory OF the goods
and chattels Of Edward VI. and among
the items found at his palace at The
More. Rickmansworth,' was zone billet
bourde covered with CREME clothe." This
palace was corhscated by Henry VIII.
having originally belonged 10 Cardinal
Wolsev. and there H. little question buS
what ,hat great historical character
actually essayei the game himself.
though no record has come down as 20
VIE Their he was as good billiard player
"a Hl was statesman.
\ ' not many, Of the Old writ
-rs billiards, ~Facry Queeuc"
Spcnser being one OF them. Shakespeare
IN his Antony and Cleopatra makes
that amOrous queen, by an anachronism.
play the game and also appreciate its
fine points. Ben Jonson. Smollet Burton
and Locke all made reference TO billiards
In their works
The game was slowly developed. The
table was sometimes round sometimes
square, oblOng, oval and even octagonal.
Not until the beginning OF this century
did the billiard table appear somewhere
near its present form. Prior to 1910
neither india rubber cushions. the slate
bed. the tapering cue with its tip and
the rest had been invented
The third bah was introduced BIZ way
OF France in the middle Of the eighteenth
century, and the game was then known
as the carambole. From this has been
derived the word carom. BARLEY a Csrr
the proprietors OF a fashionable billiard
room in Bath England. over half a cen
fury ago, invented the now well-known
side stroke-striking the ball low with a
bevel-topped cue-carr devising billiard
chalk, which he gave the name OF the
"maelc twisting chalk" He packed IL
In pill-boxes and made fortune by SELL
ing IL 10 the fashionahles OF that dav az
half a crown (62 cents n box. The cork
Tip was invented by Capt. Mingaud a
Frenchman who was imprisoned early In
the present century, but through a special |
iisIei ga ton was allowed the use OF bill |
Hard ahle In his apartment that he might |
while away the monotony OF mis- prison |
lie. !, bile incarccratsd he studied out |
this Improvement. ard had the satisfac- |
TO- afterwards OF seeing II taken up al |
through England aud the Continent