Billiards on Shipboard

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 April 1910, Page 4

Billiards on Shipboard

Tt is related that a certain European sovereign, being much gratified by the progress made by a class in his naval school, presented tho institution with a handsome billiard table, which he caused to be installed on board one of tho training ships. Ho had forgotten that billiards can be played only on a level, and that ships refuse to remain level. It was not until half a century later that it became possible to play the game at sea. Devices rccontly invented to this end are described in La Nature (Paris) as follows, by Sauvaire Jourdan. Says this writer:— "The idea, of billiards on shiplnard, which was considered a good joke in 18(50, hns become .realisable in 1909. A London house has devised and built a billiard table that nay bo used at sea. Of course it is so as to be unaffected by the rolling and pitching of the vessel and to remain under all circumstances perfectly level DESCRIPTION OF THE TABLE. "The table proper, placed in a fixed frame, is so arranged that it may move in all directions relatively to this frame, but it is not suspended so lightly that tJio least contact Will move it, not the pressure of the player's hand when used to support his cue. Only the oscillations of the ship itself are able to produce this effect. Even in this last case, it moves quietly and regularly as if afloat in a closed receptacle.

"The table having tho regulation cushions and covered with the traditional green felt, is fixed car two transverse supports, each of which has at its centre-pivot by means of which they rest on a legthwise support. This latter supports am axle that traverses the table crosswise. This axle cr.cilliates by its extremities on tw opieees attached to the hull of the ship. "In fact, tho whole svsken is suspended en the Carda.n plan m> that it keeps horizontal no matter how complicated the pitching and rolling movements of the ship. "A system of counterweights and springs counter-balances the effects of the inertia. Finally, the pivots en which the different pieces of the apparatus turn have ball-beairhigs, so as to eliminate friction as much as possible. I "Such is this ingenious device, , which_ is, however, somewhat too ' complicated to be used for a simple game."