Ivory billiard balls

[Andre Guirard]

Ivory billiard balls are no longer manufactured, but I have heard that
when they were, they were made only during the winter. Can anyone tell
me if this is true, and if so, why were they made only during the
winter? I assume it has something to do with temperature or humidity,
but what exactly is it?
--
===+=== Andre Guirard
/@ @\ ihnp4!mmm!cipher
/_____\
( @ @ ) My mission: to explore strange new words.
\ _ / To seek out and utilize new applications.
`-' To shovel snow that snow plows have shoved before.

[Robert Plamondon]

In article <10...@mmm.UUCP> cip...@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard) writes:
>
>Ivory billiard balls are no longer manufactured, but I have heard that
>when they were, they were made only during the winter. Can anyone tell
>me if this is true, and if so, why were they made only during the
>winter? I assume it has something to do with temperature or humidity,
>but what exactly is it?

I don't know the exact answer to your question, but...

When my grandfather was a child, around 1908, he had a job as the ball
warmer in a billiard parlor. He'd come in early in the morning, fire up the
furnace, and rub all the billiard balls around in his hands for about an hour
until they and the parlor were all at room temperature. (This was in Chicago,
by the way.)

If no one did this, there was a chance one or more of the balls would crack
from uneven heating.

This was in an era when central heating was brand-new, so no doubt billiard
balls were manufactured in unheated factories. Perhaps the low temperature
made the ivory easier to machine.
--

Robert Plamondon
UUCP: {turtlevax, cae780}!weitek!robert

"Genocide: Beyond War"