Elephants win a break
QUESTION Did a shortage of ivory billiard balls lead to the development of plastic?
Yes, the first industrial plastic, Celluloid, was developed because of the shortage of billiard balls, though ironically it was hardly used as such.
Billiards was an after-dinner sport enjoyed by the upper classes in the 19th century. It was played on a 12 ft by 6 ft table with polished hardwood cues and balls made from top grade ivory.
Only the best ivory was acceptable. Lower-grade balls did not have the consistency of density, bounce, roll and kick required. Indeed, the top grade was designated billiard ball ivory.
With the emergence of snooker and pool, the popularity of cue sports grew among the middle and working classes. In the U.s., pool halls opened in every town and city, which resulted in elephants being slaughtered in large numbers for their tusks. On average, five billiard balls were made from each tusk.
In the U.s., Michael Phelan is considered to be the founding father of cue sports. An expert billiards player, he owned a chain of pool halls and manufactured equipment through his company Phelan & Collender.
In the 1860s, a shortage of ivory led to the firm offering a prize of $10,000 to anyone who could invent a substance that would rival ivory for billiard ball production. In response, in 1869 John Wesley Hyatt invented nitrocellulose, later patented as Celluloid, the first industrial plastic.
It was not a perfect solution. It was also known as pyroxylin, flash paper and gun cotton because it was highly flammable. Hyatt recalled two Celluloid billiard balls hitting each other would produce ‘a mild explosion like a percussion gun cap’.
He didn’t win the prize, yet Celluloid went on to have a variety of uses, first in the manufacture of imitation ivory goods such as combs, hand mirrors and knife handles, but most importantly in photography and film projection.
Unfortunately, its flammable nature proved hazardous. A 1936 issue of International Projectionist estimated one American projectionist died every 18 days from a fire caused by Celluloid. The mid-20th century saw a revolution in man-made plastics such as PVC, vinyl and nylon.
From the 1950s, snooker, pool and billiards balls have been manufactured from phenolic resin. Celluloid still has a sporting application — a form of it is used to make ping pong balls.
Charles Nuttall, Pilling, Lancs.
QUESTION Is it possible for a pedal bike to set off a speed camera?
IT Is highly unlikely that GATsO speed cameras will detect bicycles because they are too small to register.
It might work if they carried a large reflective surface, such as a tin tray. The professional mountain biker Rob Warner once set off a speed camera, but he had a petrol-powered fan attached to his back.
Hand-held laser guns are a different matter, but it should not be an issue.
speed limits are designed for motor vehicles. Rule 124 of the Highway Code sets limits for various vehicles, but bicycles are not included.
However, you could be charged for careless cycling. Local byelaws can impose limits on cyclists. For example, the 20 mph limit in Richmond Park in London applies to cyclists as well.
Les Morris, Wolverhampton, W. Mids.
MY LATe husband, Vic, was a keen cyclist. In his teens he and his friend Gerry cycled around Kent on his tandem. On one trip they were stopped by the police for exceeding the 40 mph limit.
No speed cameras in those days, just police vigilance. They were politely told to slow down, but quietly congratulated for their brilliant achievement!
Eve Berry, Chalgrove, Oxon.
I WAs a club cyclist in the 1950s. On a sunday run, descending on a main road between Chesham and Amersham,
Bucks, our group was overtaken and stopped by a police car.
We received a strong wigging on the grounds that we were breaking the 30 mph speed limit. Peter Ivor Newman,
Maidstone, Kent.
A FRIeNd and I were cycling leisurely through a vil l age when a bored policewoman stepped into the empty road with a hand-held speed camera and f l ashed us as we approached. As we cycled past, she shouted: ‘eight miles per hour!’
My cheeky friend shouted back: ‘I know, we saw you and slowed down!’
Philip Horton, Orpington, Kent.
QUESTION When was the last time Switzerland went to war?
IN THe Middle Ages, the swiss were renowned for their soldiery skill. so much so they became the ultimate mercenary army. Famed for their mass attack with pike and halberd, they proved crucial during t he Hundred Years’ War, Burgundian Wars and Italian Wars.
However, they did not move with the times and their mass ranks were vulnerable to gunpowder-based firearms such as the arquebus and cannon.
At the Battle of Marignano near Milan in september 1515, the last major engagement of the War of the League of Cambrai, the swiss Confederacy was thrashed by Francis I, the newly crowned King of France, supported by German mercenaries and their Venetian allies.
It was the last time the swiss as a nation entered a war.
However, the idea switzerland was politically neutral from this point is a fallacy. They continued as mercenaries, principally to the French, until the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
It wasn’t until May 1815, during the Congress of Vienna, that the european powers (Austria, Britain, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, spain and sweden) agreed switzerland should be neutral.
J. Evans, Wath upon Dearne, S. Yorks.
IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Scottish Daily Mail, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow G2 6DB; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence. Visit mailplus.co.uk to hear the Answers To Correspondents podcast