After two years of renovation, the National Museum of American History is reopening. This museum is truly like the nation's attic, with all kinds of artifacts. One exhibit featured on their website concerns billiard ball production:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=185
Associated with this article is a photo of a gentleman standing next to a "mountain of billiard balls" (low res copy below)
If you read this article from the New York Times from 1889, it refers to that photo:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9903E1D71130E633A25752C0A9649D94689FD7CF
Here are some fascinating facts from that article (I recommend you dowload the pdf and read the whole thing, though--fascinating!)
* They made 10,000-12,000 balls per year in the late 1800's
* That represents the ivory from 1,000 elephants per year (5 balls from each tusk)!
* The price of balls was 4 guineas/set in 1889 (don't ask me what a guinea is, I'll google later).
* "Decidedly billiards is more popular than ever it was. Every man who can afford it has a table in his town house, and his next move is to put one in his country house too" (I like that quote!)
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=185
Associated with this article is a photo of a gentleman standing next to a "mountain of billiard balls" (low res copy below)
If you read this article from the New York Times from 1889, it refers to that photo:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9903E1D71130E633A25752C0A9649D94689FD7CF
Here are some fascinating facts from that article (I recommend you dowload the pdf and read the whole thing, though--fascinating!)
* They made 10,000-12,000 balls per year in the late 1800's
* That represents the ivory from 1,000 elephants per year (5 balls from each tusk)!
* The price of balls was 4 guineas/set in 1889 (don't ask me what a guinea is, I'll google later).
* "Decidedly billiards is more popular than ever it was. Every man who can afford it has a table in his town house, and his next move is to put one in his country house too" (I like that quote!)
