Table tennis is a game in which two or four players hit with small bats a lightweight ball back and forth across a hard table divided by a net. The is also known as ping-pong.
Table tennis began, though not under that name, as a parlor game in mid-19th century upper class English homes. The equipment used in those early days was mostly improvised and home-made. The ball was made of string or cork while a row of books, placed across the middle of the table, represented the net. The bat was cut out of a piece of thick cardboard or sometimes paddles made from cigar-box lids were used.
By the 1880s balls and bats were being manufactured for sale. Jaques of London, a family company that still manufactures sports and game equipment today marketed the game as "Gossima."
In 1901 Jaques of London patented the name Ping-Pong – from the sound of the ball on a table and on a bat of stretched parchment. At first "ping-pong" was used to describe the game played using the rather expensive Jaques's equipment, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis.
Jaques sold the rights to the "ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers in the United States.
James Gibb a British engineer who was a devotee of the game pioneered the use of a celluloid ball after discovering novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the US in 1901 and finding them to be ideal for table tennis.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the worldwide governing body for table tennis, was founded in 1926. The ITTF maintains an international ranking system in addition to organizing events like the World Table Tennis Championships.
The first world championships were held in 1927 and were won by a Hungarian, Dr. Jacobi.
During the 1936 World Table Tennis Championships, which took place in Prague, the Pole Alojzy Ehrlich and Romanian Paneth Farkas played a record-breaking one-point exchange. The exchange lasted two hours and 12 minutes and the ball crossed the net more than 12,000 times. After two hours, Farkas' arm began to freeze, and he lost the point.
In the 1950s the sponge or sandwich rubber bat was introduced to Britain by sports goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. Up until now, the material for bats had been a universal thin covering of pimpled rubber. The new bats changed the game dramatically, introducing greater spin and speed.
King George VI had a table tennis table installed at Buckingham Palace and, at the outbreak of World War II, provided his daughter (then the young Princess Elizabeth) with facilities for the game at Balmoral Castle.
Table Tennis was banned in the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1950, because it was thought to carry a serious risk of eye damage.
Chairman Mao declared that table tennis was the sport of the masses. However, he changed his mind during the cultural revolution.
Table tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988, with several event categories.
Ping Pang Qiu is the official name for the sport in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Ping Pong is the national sport of China.
Ping pong balls aren't really hollow. They're filled with pressurized gas.
The International Table Tennis Federation doesn't care what the table is made of as long the ball bounces 230mm when dropped from a height of 300mm.
Sources Europress Encyclopedia, Compton's Encyclopedia
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| Pixiebay |
HISTORY
Table tennis began, though not under that name, as a parlor game in mid-19th century upper class English homes. The equipment used in those early days was mostly improvised and home-made. The ball was made of string or cork while a row of books, placed across the middle of the table, represented the net. The bat was cut out of a piece of thick cardboard or sometimes paddles made from cigar-box lids were used.
By the 1880s balls and bats were being manufactured for sale. Jaques of London, a family company that still manufactures sports and game equipment today marketed the game as "Gossima."
In 1901 Jaques of London patented the name Ping-Pong – from the sound of the ball on a table and on a bat of stretched parchment. At first "ping-pong" was used to describe the game played using the rather expensive Jaques's equipment, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis.
Jaques sold the rights to the "ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers in the United States.
 |
| Parker Brothers Ping-Pong game |
James Gibb a British engineer who was a devotee of the game pioneered the use of a celluloid ball after discovering novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the US in 1901 and finding them to be ideal for table tennis.
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), the worldwide governing body for table tennis, was founded in 1926. The ITTF maintains an international ranking system in addition to organizing events like the World Table Tennis Championships.
The first world championships were held in 1927 and were won by a Hungarian, Dr. Jacobi.
During the 1936 World Table Tennis Championships, which took place in Prague, the Pole Alojzy Ehrlich and Romanian Paneth Farkas played a record-breaking one-point exchange. The exchange lasted two hours and 12 minutes and the ball crossed the net more than 12,000 times. After two hours, Farkas' arm began to freeze, and he lost the point.
In the 1950s the sponge or sandwich rubber bat was introduced to Britain by sports goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. Up until now, the material for bats had been a universal thin covering of pimpled rubber. The new bats changed the game dramatically, introducing greater spin and speed.
King George VI had a table tennis table installed at Buckingham Palace and, at the outbreak of World War II, provided his daughter (then the young Princess Elizabeth) with facilities for the game at Balmoral Castle.
Table Tennis was banned in the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1950, because it was thought to carry a serious risk of eye damage.
Chairman Mao declared that table tennis was the sport of the masses. However, he changed his mind during the cultural revolution.
Table tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988, with several event categories.
 |
| Summer Olympics Men's Team Table Tennis Final. Joel Solomon |
Ping Pang Qiu is the official name for the sport in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Ping Pong is the national sport of China.
Ping pong balls aren't really hollow. They're filled with pressurized gas.
 |
| Pixiebay |
The International Table Tennis Federation doesn't care what the table is made of as long the ball bounces 230mm when dropped from a height of 300mm.
Sources Europress Encyclopedia, Compton's Encyclopedia
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