Anyone who refuses to leave prison simply because they are having too much fun playing billiards would be considered something more than just a diehard fan. Yet that is exactly what a Captain Mingaud did during the French Revolution. Granted, Mingaud was not only playing billiards, he was busy revolutionizing the game.
Though billiards had already been popular for more than 100 years at that time, Mingaud was the first person to round the end of a pool cue with a file and apply a leather tip to it. After prison, Mingaud promptly proved his invention"s superiority over its flat, club-like predecessor in exhibitions throughout France. What the captain had developed was essentially the cue in use today, but the game he generated interest in did not involve shooting balls into pockets.
Pocket billiards such as modern-day pool and snooker were around, but they were considered to be the ill-bred cousins of carom billiards, which used a pocketless table. The name pool was born during the 1840s when billiards was closely identified with gambling parlors, or "pool parlors" in the lexicon of the day. The name stuck, and with more than 40 million people playing in America alone last year, so has the game.
Despite its universal popularity and frequent airtime on ESPN with professionally organized tournaments, billiards has rarely enjoyed universal respect.
Before hitting America, billiards already had a spotty history thanks to the likes of hustlers such as Englishman Jack Carr. Carr, the first person to put chalk on his cue tip, made a fortune peddling his magic "twisting chalk" around France in the 1820s. The "magic" was actually in Carr"s wrist; he was the first player to apply spin to a billiards ball, and the term "English" is still used to denote this move.
In America, billiards had a questionable reputation because of its association with gambling. The 20-year rivalry of American pool masters Michael Phelan and Dudley Kavanagh in the late 19th century, however, attracted attention and respect as tournaments became standing-room-only tuxedo affairs. Ironically, the two also started a tradition of conflicting associations governing the game, which now makes all titles suspect, and the Olympics an impossible dream.
Fortunately, legitimacy and success are not invariably linked. When The Hustler, a 1961 movie starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason, glamorized the shady underworld of pool sharks, business boomed.
Coin-operated pool tables were born just in time to meet the rising demand. Initially found only in bars and bowling alleys, the new, smaller tables have taken center stage at packed pool halls from Boston to Beijing.
The Colorful History of Billiards 檯球的沿革
Anyone who refuses to leave prison simply because they are having too much fun playing billiards would be considered something more than just a diehard fan. Yet that is exactly what a Captain Mingaud did during the French Revolution. Granted, Mingaud was not only playing billiards, he was busy revolutionizing the game.
Though billiards had already been popular for more than 100 years at that time, Mingaud was the first person to round the end of a pool cue with a file and apply a leather tip to it. After prison, Mingaud promptly proved his invention"s superiority over its flat, club-like predecessor in exhibitions throughout France. What the captain had developed was essentially the cue in use today, but the game he generated interest in did not involve shooting balls into pockets.
Pocket billiards such as modern-day pool and snooker were around, but they were considered to be the ill-bred cousins of carom billiards, which used a pocketless table. The name pool was born during the 1840s when billiards was closely identified with gambling parlors, or "pool parlors" in the lexicon of the day. The name stuck, and with more than 40 million people playing in America alone last year, so has the game.
Despite its universal popularity and frequent airtime on ESPN with professionally organized tournaments, billiards has rarely enjoyed universal respect.
Before hitting America, billiards already had a spotty history thanks to the likes of hustlers such as Englishman Jack Carr. Carr, the first person to put chalk on his cue tip, made a fortune peddling his magic "twisting chalk" around France in the 1820s. The "magic" was actually in Carr"s wrist; he was the first player to apply spin to a billiards ball, and the term "English" is still used to denote this move.
In America, billiards had a questionable reputation because of its association with gambling. The 20-year rivalry of American pool masters Michael Phelan and Dudley Kavanagh in the late 19th century, however, attracted attention and respect as tournaments became standing-room-only tuxedo affairs. Ironically, the two also started a tradition of conflicting associations governing the game, which now makes all titles suspect, and the Olympics an impossible dream.
Fortunately, legitimacy and success are not invariably linked. When The Hustler, a 1961 movie starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason, glamorized the shady underworld of pool sharks, business boomed.
Coin-operated pool tables were born just in time to meet the rising demand. Initially found only in bars and bowling alleys, the new, smaller tables have taken center stage at packed pool halls from Boston to Beijing.