It also acts to reduce deflection (sometimes called 'squirt'), which may be defined as displacement of the cue ball's path away from the parallel line formed by the cue stick's direction of travel. The specialization makes the cue significantly stiffer, which aids in handling the larger and heavier billiard balls as compared with pool cues. Such cues tend to be shorter and lighter overall, with a shorter ferrule, a thicker butt and joint, a wooden joint pin (in high-end examples) and collarless wood-to-wood joint (for a one-piece cue 'feel'), a fast, conical taper, and a smaller tip diameter as compared with pool cues. CuesĬarom billiard cues have specialized refinements making them different from the typical pool cue with which many people are more familiar. The first viable substitute was celluloid billiard balls, invented by John Wesley Hyatt in 1868, but the material was volatile and highly inflammable, sometimes exploding during manufacture. It was in part spurred on by a New York billiard table manufacturer who announced a prize of $10,000 for a substitute material. The search for a substitute for ivory use was not for environmental concerns but based on economic motivation and fear of danger for elephant hunters. The dominant material from 1627 until the early- to mid-20th century was ivory. Both types of ball sets are permitted in tournament play.īilliard balls have been made from many different materials throughout the history of the game, including clay, wood, ivory, plastics (including celluloid, Bakelite, crystalate, and phenolic resin, polyester and acrylic) and even steel. In some sets of balls, however, the second cue ball is solid yellow.

The three standard balls in most carom billiards games consist of a completely white cue ball, a second cue ball with typically a red or black dot on it (to aid in differentiation between the two cue balls), and a third, red ball. While UMB, the International Olympic Committee-recognized world carom billiards authority, technically permits balls as small as 61 mm (2.4 in), no major manufacturer produces such balls any longer, and the de facto standard is 61.5 mm (2.42 in). They are significantly larger and heavier than their pocket billiards counterparts, ranging between 205 and 220 grams (7.2 and 7.8 oz) with a typical weight of 210 g (7.5 oz). Modern billiard balls are made from highly resilient plastics with a typical diameter of 61.5 millimetres (2.42 in). However, as in green eyeshades, the color also serves a useful function: Humans have a higher light sensitivity to green than to any other color, so green cloth permits play for longer periods of time without eye strain. The green color of cloth was originally chosen to emulate the look of grass, and has been so colored since the 16th century. Most cloth made for carom billiards tables is a type of baize that is dyed green, and is made from 100% worsted wool, which provides a very fast surface allowing the balls to travel with little resistance across the table bed. The predecessor company of the most famous maker of billiard cloth, Iwan Simonis, was formed in 1453. There are many other carom billiards games, predominantly intermediary or offshoot games combining elements of those already listed, such as the champion's game, an intermediary game between straight rail and balkline, as well as games which are hybrids of carom billiards and pocket billiards, such as American four-ball billiards, and cowboy pool.Įnglish billiards played on a snooker table was originally called the winning and losing carambole game, folding in the names of three predecessor games, the winning game, the losing game and the carambole game (an early form of straight rail), that combined to form it.Ĭloth has been used to cover billiards tables since the 15th century. Some of the more prevalent today and historically are (chronologically by apparent date of development): straight rail, cushion caroms, balkline, three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards. There is a large array of carom billiards disciplines. The invention as well as the exact date of origin of carom billiards is somewhat obscure but is thought to be traceable to 18th-century France. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score points or 'counts' by caroming one's own cue ball off both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball(s) on a single shot. Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards or simply carambole (and in some cases used as a synonym for the game of straight rail from which many carom games derive), is the overarching title of a family of billiards games generally played on cloth-covered, 1.5-by-3.0-metre (5 by 10 ft) pocketless tables, which often feature heated slate beds.

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