The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1911-04-28
PUSHBALL.
The Six-Foot Ball Costs S300-The
Game First PLAYED in America.

| The biggest and most costly ball used in
game is the pushball, which is made six
feet in diameter and costs $500, though
even in that price there is said to be no
very great profit in it.
The outside covering Of pushball is
made OF cowhide leather that is i'm.
ported from England. This covering is
| composed of 20 strips which are sewed to.
gether by hand. Each of these strips is
between nine and 10 feet long. or half the
circumference of the ball The strips are
widest in the middle, tapering uniformly
to points at either end, at the poles of the
ball, where they are further secured bv
leather caps sewed on. To get the leather
needed for pushball it is necessary TO cut
up five or six hides, which makes the cost
of the cover high. 1t takes two men the
better part OF a week to sew this material
together.
The bladder for the ball is made of the
best rubber, which is cut into strips and
cemented together in such shape that it
will form globe fitting the leather cover.
ing when inflated. The leather covering
is practically indestructible. The very
best rubber bladder may give out in two
or three years. A new bladder costs $50
A large cylinder foot pump suitable for
initiating this mighty ball costs $40.
The game of pushball is of American
origin. The first pushball was made in
Newton, Mass, in 1894. This ball had
covering OF leather shaped on a wooden
form for the purpose
-Four big hides were required to supply
the leather material, which was cut TO
form SIX zones, which were put together
with betting hooks. The bladder was made
OF rubber cloth cut in sections and cement.
ed together. The materials for this bail
cost about SITS.
According to ''Pushball," which CON
talns a history of the game with the nlay-
ing rules, the first pushball game in New
York was played with canvas ball Nov.
- l902. At the last moment the mana
ger OF the athletic parks where the game
ball IN time, for the match but he was
not dismayed by that. Canvas was bought
and bale of hay, and there was pressed
INTO, service neighboring shoemaker to
do the sewing. The result was a ball that
may not have been a perfect sphere. but
it would do '''N'
But when it was fnished-it had been
made out in the field-it was too big to GET
through any door, and so it was left ont
over night the night before the match,
Niiett niSuI ~ In the morning
when this canvas covered, hay-stuffed
pushball was put in play it was found
that it had accumulated rain water. The
ball that should have weighed so pounds
or thereabouts soon came to weigh nearer
500, and it soon began to lose shape,
It was tremendously hard work pushing
this ball about on a muddy field and only
half a game was played, and though one
side had scored a goal, this first pnshbaIl
game, played on Manhattan Island was de-
clared a draw
In its earlier development the pushball
was made Of an alright rubber fabric.
put that ball was soon superseded by the
with rubber bladder.
The game of pushball is played be-
tween gridiron with a goal at each end. |
each team trying to push the bah through
the opposing teams goal. Commonly |
played on field, pushball may be PLAYED |