A Billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various specific ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient and resilience are very important to the finer points of gameplay.
The earliest balls were made of wood and then later clay (the latter remaining in use well into...
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A Billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various specific ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient and resilience are very important to the finer points of gameplay.
The earliest balls were made of wood and then later clay (the latter remaining in use well into the 20th century). Ivory was favored for several hundred years, dating back to at least the 16th century, but by the mid-1800s, elephants were being slaughtered for their ivory at an alarming rate, just to keep up with the demand for billiard balls. No more than eight balls could be made from a single elephant's tusks. The billiard industry realized that the supply of elephants (their primary source of ivory) was endangered, as well as dangerous to obtain. They challenged inventors to come up with an alternative material that could be...
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