User:Bermicourt/Billardspiel

Chapter Two

French and German designation, description and use of the appropriate and necessary implements.

A.) French terms.

1. The billard, or billiard table (Billardtafel), is a square tablet, five to six ells long, and generally half as wide, resting on six legs and surrounded by a protruding ledge, called a cushion (Bande), and covered with cloth. The cloth is usually of green or, rarely, another colour. At each corner and side in the centre of the board, a half-round is cut, under which a knitted bag is fastened, into which the balls fall.
2. Cues (queues) or cue sticks are rods tapered down from the top, and thus conical, which are truncated at the bottom of one side, and are used to propel the balls.
3. The mace (Maas or Masse), is a rod, at the bottom of which is attached a wooden block called the foot (Massenschuh), which has approximately the shape of a small inverted shovel. This implement is used by those who cannot strike with the cues, but others use it only when they cannot reach the ball with the cue, but do not want to hit the ball or use the so-called long tourne’ (Landkutsche) For some players, it also has to take the place of the rest (bock).
4. The Tourne’ (Landkutsche) is a very long cue, nearly the length of the billiard table. One makes use of it when the ball with which one is to play is so far away on the table that it cannot be reached either with an ordinary cue, with a mace, or even with the help of the rest.
5. The mace foot (Massenschuh) is the block of wood fixed to the bottom of the mace described at at No. 3.
6. The long mace (lange Masse) is a stick, as described at No. 3, but which is much longer than ordinary maces and almost as long as the billiard table itself. One needs this usually where one of the tourne’s described at no.4 would serve, but you are either not accustomed to playing with a tourne’, or hoping to gain more benefit from the use of this long mace when playing.
7. The rest (Maschine or Bock, also called a Krücke = "crook"), is a lightweight rod, at the end of which there is a small quadrangle into which recesses are cut in order to place the tip of the cue. This implement is used in cases where you cannot reach the ball with the cue, or if there is insufficient room or if it is inconvenient to use the cue in one’s hand.
8. The balls (Billen or Bälle) are the ivory spheres that one uses to play billiards. They differ in number, size, name, colour and name according to the different kind of game to which they are used:

I. For the game en deux (Partie blanche) [presumably two-player game] two balls are used, which are of one size and, usually, also the largest among all of them, one of which is marked with one, the other with two points. These are called the en deux or white balls.

II. For Quarambole, three balls are used, of which two are one size, and the third is slightly smaller. The two larger ones are commonly used as the en deux balls, whose designation has just been given; the third, slightly smaller, to distinguish itself from the others, is red in colour. The bigger of them are the balls, the third one is the Quarambole ball.

III. Cinq Quarambole (Spanish Partie) is played with five balls, of which two are of one size and the remaining three are slightly smaller. The en deux balls may be used as the two big ones, whose name we came across at no. I. Of the three smaller ones, one is red, one blue; the third yellow. The two big ones are called the cue balls (Spielbälle), the three smaller ones, the Cinq-Quarambole balls.

IV. Thirteen balls are required for à la Ronde, of which twelve are of one size, but the thirteenth is somewhat larger. For this an en deux ball can be used. These thirteen balls require no name. The former twelve are called the à la Ronde balls, the thirteenth slightly larger one, the current ball (Currentball), runner (Laufer) or cue ball (Spielball), for which one of the en deux balls described above at no. 1 may be used.

V. In à la Guerre, as many balls are needed as there are players. All the balls are of a single size and are numbered with as many numbers as there are players. They, too, have no special name, but each one always plays with the ball that he has drawn by lots.

VI. In à la Figaro (Pyramideln), the number of balls is arbitrary; but there must be at least twelve at any time, excluding the ball used to play. They are all, at least preferably, of the same size; except for the one with which one plays and for what, as in à la Ronde, an en deux ball is needed.

Also, as in à la Ronde, they must be labelled with just as many consecutive numbers as there are people playing. They have no special designation, but are named after the numbers painted on them, e. g. the one, the two, the three, etc .; but the one used to play is called, as in à la Ronde, the current ball or runner or cue ball.

B) German terms

1. Die Billardtafel or das Billard. See above A, no. 1.
2. Die Banden or die Leisten are the edges or ridges on the edge of the billiard table, also covered with cloth of the same colour.
3. Die Leisten or die Banden. See no. 2. Banden.
4. Die Masse or Maas. See above A, no.3.
5. Die Landkutsche or Tourne'. See above A, no. 4.
6. Der Massenschuh. See above A, no. 5.
7. Die lange Masse. See above A, no. 6.
8. Der Bock or die Maschine, also called...
9. Die Krücke. See above A, no. 7.
10. Die Bälle or Billen. See above A, no. 8.

Figaro

a) à la Figaro (Pyramide) Explanation and Description

1. This type of billiard game is called à la Figaro, or à la Pyramide. The former especially because Figaro is said to be the inventor of it; it is called à la Pyramide, however, because the balls used for it are set up in such a way that they form, as it were, a pyramid.
2. The number of players is arbitrary; because it can be played between 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or more people.
3. The number,
4. The size,
5. The name and
6. The designation of the balls to be used has already been explained comprehensively above in Chap. II. A. Ro. VI.

b) Those things, regarding the balls and such, that are especially to be noted.

1. The à la Figaro balls are set up and placed together in the top half of the billiard table in such a way that they form the shape of a pyramid, as already mentioned in a) Ro. 1. They are thus arranged in arithmetical progression, or as the player wishes, but always set so that the ball that is at the top of this pyramid is placed on the mark located in this area, and thus on the same spot as in the game of Cinq-Quarambole where the 2-point Quarambole ball is placed, but the remaining balls are placed behind it.
2. The order of play in the game is decided by dice before the game starts.
3. When the balls are still placed together; players are not allowed to use a tourne’.
4. Players are not allowed to examine at the balls before they strike them, and certainly not touch them, turn them or even remove them from their place.
5. The balls located in the salvo must not be played until there is no ball outside of it.
6. In addition, each player has the freedom to play on which ball he wants, and by which he hopes to gain the most benefit.
7. Each of the players either picks up the potted balls for himself or places them at a specific place.
8. Jumping the ball off the table (sprengen) is not allowed in this game, as will be recalled from Chap. VIII. at C. no. 9., but will be punished as per c) ß).
9. The one who makes the Partie [finishes the game?], be it correctly or incorrectly; begins again in the following one.
10. If one is à main and the balls are only in salvo; one plays down [the table] from the top.
11. If a ball is potted or jumped that is not meant to be so, or a even par dessein ball intended to be potted, is missed, or one of the two balls is jumped off the table, or the player, in potting an object ball, either pots his cue ball or jumps it off the table: he not only incurs the penalty set by the rules for faults, potting your own ball or jumping either ball off the table, but at the same time loses the ball, because it is replaced on the table, at the top by the cushion in the middle, i.e. at the place where the 4 spots (Zwecken) are located.
12. If a player is forced to play on a certain ball and not on another ball, and another ball stands in his way on the line to the ball to be hit; then he is allowed to move the ball to the side until he has completed his strike, and then to put it back in its previous place, but he is not allowed to take away for the time being the balls standing behind the ball, which prevent him from playing or at least hamper it.
13. If a player pots one or more balls with one shot, whether they are outside or inside the salvo area, but hits one of the object balls beforehand/in front of it; in the former case it is not considered a mistake; in the latter case, however, he is entitled to the balls potted as well as if he had played them.
14. If there is only one à la Figaro ball left on the table; then it is played alternately with this one and the cue ball, just as in à la Ronde, and thus as shown in this chapter at D b) No. 13.
15. A player, when playing a [spot?] shot, hits an object ball in front of the salvo, perhaps even in playing the shot, before striking the one in salvo; incurs the penalty agreed for a foul as if he had missed one of the object balls.
16. At the end of the game, each player totals the points on the balls he has potted and receives the difference from those who do not have as many points, but pays the difference to those who have more points than he has.

Terminology

• A main: (= 'in hand') which is found in all the games except for à la Ronde, means I am holding the ball with which I will play in my hand. This happens, if this ball [cue ball] has either been struck (gemacht) or jumped off the table (gesprengt) or the player himself or another player has potted the [cue] ball (sich verlaufen) or jumped the cue ball off the table (sich versprengt).
• Ball machen: pot the ball.
• Salvo: the ball is in salvo' - also called in the rest area (die Ruhe) or in the chamber (die Kammer) - which is only found in Quarambole, Cinq-Quarambole, à la Guerre and à la Figaro, means the ball is within the transverse chalk line on the lower half of the table. (Baumann)
• sich versprengen: to hit one's own ball [cue ball] into the pocket. Called a Verlaufer.
• sich versprengen: to hit one's own ball [cue ball] off the table. Called a Versprenger.
• sprengen: to jump [the ball] off the table, which is only allowed in en deux and à la Ronde.

Source

• Baumann, Anton (1795). Gründlicher Unterricht und Regeln des Billard-Spieles. Baumann, Vienna.