A Billiard Oracle
An Instrument that 'Answers' Any Billiard Question
As considerable interest appears to have been raised in billiard and general circles regarding the "Billiard Pointer," evidenced by some remarkable articles that have lately appeared in several of the leading newspapers, we have deemed that it might be useful to present this month an exact photographic representation of this instrument, by means of which Colonel Western is able to arrive at such closely-reasoned and accurate conclusions with regard to the behaviour of all classes of billiard balls under all sorts of conditions.
It will be observed that the pointer consists of five flat steel arms, which are moved on the pantograph principle and can be locked in any position by means of the wing nut at the top of No. 2 arm.
The small hole in No. 2 arm marks the position of the object ball and the arm itself indicates the direction taken by the object ball if a correct contact is made. No. 2 arm shows the direction of the cue ball previous to contact, and the small hole at the joint in this arm marks the position of the cue ball at the moment of its coming into contact with the object ball. The various aims and contacts are provided for by the scales on No. 1 and No. 3 arms, those on the former fixing the points of contact and aim, and those on latter the angles of divergence.
We should perhaps mention here that the slide on No. 2 arm, which shows the exact point to the one-sixty-fourth of an inch where the object ball has been, or should be, struck, does not stand out very clearly in the photograph, but it can be seen at the ½ division.
The cue half-ball angles and the angles at all divisions are, of course, shifting quantities according to the nature of the balls and cueing, but taking 35 degrees as an average, a cord stretched from the small hole in No. 2 arm marked P, to 35 on the scale on No. 3 arm, will always show the exact direction in which the cue ball will travel at whatever division it may be struck, when No. 2 arm is pointing to the starting position of the cue ball, and No. 1 arm is pointing in the direction to which the object ball should go, or when the slide on No. 1 arm is standing at the division at which it is desired to strike the object ball.
All the operations are purely mechanical and no calculation or knowledge of any sort is required.
There is one further point to which we must allude, of which most of the reviewers that have referred to this ingenious instrument have fought rather shy, probably because it is a subject regarding which so extremely little is known. All the marks below about 37 on No. 3 arm, which is the upright one on the right of the photograph, refer to the SCREW angles, and precisely as with the natural angles, and again without any calculations of any sort, the path that the cue ball will follow when struck with screw under any, and every, condition is pointed out. Enormous possibilities are here indicated. It will hardly be questioned that screw is very little used except at very close strokes because players do not know exactly what will happen, or exactly where they should strike the object ball to produce a desired result. Players have the power and the skill, but not the knowledge. With the knowledge which the "Pointer" supplies, the whole table is opened up, instead of play being confined to a few specially-known angles. We foresee great results when this is realized.
Finally, the authors claim, which as far as our experience goes is justified, that the "Pointer" will answer any question regarding how a stroke can be made or has been made, suggests to us that it is entitled to the cognomen of the "Billiard Oracle," with, we think, a greater pretence to that designation than the oracles of old, who might answer but were not always right, and we have consequently so styled it in our heading. It has at all events answered two hitherto unsolved problems, viz., the relative angles of the different natures of balls set forth in our last issue, and the correct positions of balls for true half-ball strokes, and, as far as we can see, it is quite capable of answering any other conundrums relating to the direction of balls that may be required.