The response was most recently updated on August 19, 2016. Has eight votes A puck is a vulcanized, hard rubber disk used in ice hockey that is one inch thick (25.4 mm), three inches wide (76.2 mm), and weighs between 5.5 and 6 oz (156–170 g). To avoid bouncing, it is frozen a few hours before the game. In 1873, George J. Meyers invented the first puck. Prior to this time, balls made of leather or cloth were used instead. The mold for the first pucks was cast from wood blocks obtained from an abandoned farmhouse near what is now Center City, Philadelphia. The first game using pucks as we know them today was played between the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Caps at Harvard University's Athletic Field on January 8, 1873. The game ended in a 2-2 tie. Over the years, the size of the puck has changed. In fact, over the course of its history, there have been more than 100 different designs. Today, pucks are manufactured by gluing layers of cotton or wool fabric together with resin compounds, then cutting them out with a computer-controlled laser. Pucks are painted both inside and out for identification purposes. They also contain metal rods placed at specific angles within the ball to improve traction when moving across the ice. There are two types of pucks used in hockey games: open pucks and closed pucks.