Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-10
WHO INVENTED BILLIARDS.
Brought First to England From Ell
rope and After the Second Crusade.


From Exchange.
Nobody quite knows who invented bill
lizards. One account says that the game
was first played in Italy and another thai
1t first saw the light in Spain. 1t is also
affirmed that 1t was first played in Eng
land in the middle ages. 1t is a historical
fact that the Knights Templar brought ii
back with them to that country on the.l
return from the second crusade. There
is also good reason to believe tina. the game
the sixteenth century.
Its origin was probably bowling, a varia-
ton of which was the old game of ground
Billiards" From that it began to be played
on table, driving one ball through an
ivory arch. and then to a raised point made
also OF Ivory. This was the game for many
years. each of the two players having a
ball. the third ball not being introduced
until just after the middle of the eighteenth
century. when what was known as the
port and ring" also disappeared.
In Harle.an manuscript in the British
Museum is found the earliest historical
reference to Billiards. This Is interesting
commission was appointed to make an
inventory of the goods and chattels of Ed
ward W. and among the items found at his
palace at THE More, R.ckmansworth," was
zone billet bourde covered with creme
clothe." This palace was confiscated by
Henry Will having originally belonged TO
Cardinal Wolsey and there is little ques-
ton but what that great historical char
acter actually essayed the game himself,
though no record has come down as to
whether he was as good a billiard player as
he was a statesman.
few but not many of the old writer's
refer to billiards. "Faery Queene' Spenser
being one of them. Shakespeare in his
Antony and Cleopatra makes that amor
Gus 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 the,r
works.
The game was slowly deyeIoped 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 ball was introduced by 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 & Carr, the pro-
prietors of a Fashionable billiard room in
Bath. Eng, over half a century ago, invent
ed the now well-known side stroke-strik-
ing the ball low with bevel-toppad cue
Carr devising billiard chalk which he gave
the name of the magic twisting chalk"
He packed it in pill boxes and made a for
tune by selling 1t to the fashionabes of
that day at half a crown (62 cents) a box.
The cork tip was invented by Capt. Min
gaud, a Frenchman, who was imprisoned
early in the present century, but through
a special dispensation was allowed the use
of a billiard table in his apartment that he
might while away the monotony of his
prison life. While incarcerated he studied
out this Improvement, and had the satisfac-
ton afterward of seeing 1t taken up all
through England and the continent.