404 
An Essay on the Game of Billiards. 
[Dec, 
when changed from that state; since the ball is advancing, while the impression 
from the table is successively communicated through its parts, its centre must be 
supposed to have passed beyond the perpendicular line, before it be totally disen- 
gaged from the action of the surface whereon it rolls, rather than to have occupied 
any retrograde position. From this view follows the same conclusion as before, 
and both seem to shew a preponderance in favour of acceleration. 
A stroke is said to be foul, when the cue is not parted from the ball played with, 
before both balls touch 10 . If the ball played at be hit in the middle, or near to it, 
the foul stroke is more obvious ; because the striking ball cannot be supposed other- 
wise to follow it with much motion : but, if only a small portion of it is opposed; 
because the striking ball is therefore less retarded, its motion afterwards is generally 
attributed to that circumstance only ; and the stroke called fair, though it be often 
really foul. For, suppose two balls A and P, (see fig. 24,) one inch asunder, if the 
cue moves in the direction £, c, farther than from d to e, after striking A, before it 
be detached ; it constitutes a foul stroke : but in the direction f, g, it maybe advanced 
as fat as from h to *, before the balls touch ; still it is much suspected, that the 
motion of the cue, is frequently not confined even within these limits : for in the 
lattei case, or where the ball is struck as k , /, so that it may hit less obliquely, making 
«i, ??, the interval before contact; there is so little caution used, that the cue is 
often driven twice the distance. 
Act, sometimes it is difficult to decide, and the best judge, the most unqualified, 
by being the player ; for, if foul, he will have felt an opposition to his cue, great- 
er than he has been accustomed to meet with from a single ball: but as no one’s 
opinion is asked where he is interested, the best criterion by which a judgment 
can be foimed, on the nature of ultimate effects, when the intermediate elude the 
senses, appears to be obtained by adverting to causes more remote; and therefore 
the distance between the balls, the fulness or obliquity, and the force of the stroke, 
with the manner in which it is made, whether short or otherwise, added to the ex- 
perience of the person in a similar situation, to whom the question is referred, 
uie, if not the only documents the case admits, the surest guides to direct his 
answer. 
he confines of a billiard -table ; but, until those who have discovered this impenetrable 
secret grow a little TllfirP PAimnnnin'i him _ ... L 1 l *1 ...1 1 Kuan 
mute; , uui, unui tnose who have discovered this impenetrate 
secret grow a little more communicative — ’tis probable, those who have not yet been 
so unfoi tunate, wil 1 be stubborn euough to attempt the solution through the medium 
of common sense : accordingly, presuming a ball, once stopped, can never of itself begin 
to move again, they may ascribe the hazard to the effect of the stroke, saying the ball 
stopped to appearance only, but was really at that time in motion nowever slow, either 
y gradually pressing upon the pile of the cloth, where it loses of its thickness as it 
turns round the edge ; or, suppose the centre of gravity not in the centre of the ball anti 
t w equilibrium just beginning to be destroyed, &e. It seems as if this law (like others 
o a ugher nature dignified for their uncertainty) was made for the sake of disputation 
O1 'io ’ 111 liarm ° ny W ‘ th itS P rinci P ,e > as it begins in error, it often ends in discord. 
But, as frequently there are no means of ascertaining this, which is allowed to be 
1 opti c riterion of that character, if a foul stroke were made to turn upon the dis- 
ance between the balls, before the stroke takes place, for instance, an inch or half an 
i i, it would prevent many disputes, and be the same to both parties. 
flaps it would he still better, to do away a foul stroke of this kind altogether 
^ " hi ll the halls touch ; for, supposing' a near situation be generally advantageous 
by ii** 8t ?h~ Whit! - h ' S Ve ‘ y nHICh doubted >koth players have an equal chance to profit 
tbo ’ ‘ e ° ther kilul of foul stroke is > When the cue touches the ball a second time in 
the same act of impulsion. 
