Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/661

BILLE BILLIARDS 641 to the government and the clergy, whom he assailed in several publications. On July 1, 1791, at one of the meetings of the "Friends of the Constitution," he proposed to change the French monarchy into a republic ; the same year he published his celebrated pamphlet Acephalocratie, and was appointed a member of the commune of Paris. In 1T92 he took his seat in the convention, where he voted not only for the death of the king, but for that of the queen and ministers. He was chosen pres- ident of the convention, and member of the committee of public safety, and in this capacity founded the still existing Bulletin des lois, and was the framer of the revolutionary govern- ment. In 1794 he took part in the overthrow of Robespierre, but was himself soon after ac- cused by his new allies (May 25, 1795), and to- gether with Collot-d'Herbois, Barrere, and Va- dier sentenced to transportation. For 20 years he lived at Cayenne, refusing to avail himself of the amnesty offered by Napoleon after the 18th Brumaire. In 1816, however, he escaped, and established himself at Port-au-Prince, where he barely made a living by the law. BILLE, si ecu Andersen, a Danish naval officer, born in Copenhagen, Dec. 5, 1797. He is the son of a distinguished admiral, served alter- nately under the Danish and French flags, and was on board the Bellone during the expedi- tion of that vessel to South America in 1840. In 1845 he made in the Danish corvette Gala- tea, a voyage round the world, an account of which he published at Copenhagen in 3 vols. (1849-'51). During the Schleswig-Holstein war he was employed in the blockade of the Elbe and Weser, and of the Holstein coast. In 1852 he was appointed minister of marine, council- lor, and rear admiral, and retired in 1854. BILLIARDS, a game played with ivory balls, propelled by a cue or tapering wooden wand in the hands of the player, upon an oblong level table. The billiard tables in common use in America are of three sizes : 6 ft. in width by 12 in length, 5 by 10, and 4 by 8. They con- sist of a heavy frame of wood (generally rosewood or walnut), which supports a bed of marble or slate. This bed is covered with a heavy and very fine green cloth, stretched tightly, so that the surface of the table presents not even the most trifling inequality. This sur- face should be about 32 inches above the floor ; and its horizontal position must be estab- lished with mathematical exactness. Around the bed the frame of the table rises in a rim about an inch and a half high; the in- side of this, toward the bed, is lined with elastic cushions composed of vulcanized rubber combined with other substances, horizontal on the top, and slanting upward and inward from the bottom in such a way as to present a thin edge to be struck by the ball when propelled against it. These cushions must be made with Cushion and Ball. the greatest care, as a very great part of the skill attainable in the game consists in the proper calculation of the angles of incidence and reflection of the balls, in striking and leav- ing the elastic sides. The cushions, as formerly constructed, were of heavy, hard cloth, or of simple india rubber in what is called the "raw" state. Both kinds were found ex- ceedingly defective ; the cloth was deficient in elasticity, making the angle of reflection more obtuse than it should have been ; while at- mospheric changes so affected the rubber as to make it on a cold day as hard and dead as wood, and on a warm day so soft that the ball sank into it, rebounding at a more acute angle than was expected. The combination cushions now in use were patented in 1857 by Michael Phelan, a celebrated American player. They are manufactured by combining with the raw rubber strips of other materials, and then vul- canizing the whole. Billiard tables are divided into three classes : they may have four " pock- ets," six, or none at all. A four-pocket table has at each corner an opening between the cushions, allowing a ball to pass through and fall into a bag or pocket of network hanging below. A six-pocket table, besides pockets at the corners, has one pocket in the middle of each side. In a table with no pockets, called a carom table, the cushions continue uninter- ruptedly around the whole perimeter. Upon Carom Table. the cloth of every table there are two black spots, situated as represented in the engravings given herewith, and used to mark the positions of the balls under certain circumstances to be hereafter explained. The balls should be of the finest ivory (the East Indian is the best), turned with the greatest care, and of uniform size. The cue is a staff or wand of hard wood, generally ash, varying in length from 6 ft. to 5 ft. 5 or 6 inches, and in weight from 7 to 24 oz. ; it tapers from the butt, which is about an inch thick, to the point, which is about half an inch in diameter. The tip is formed of two layers of leather : a hard piece of sole leather is glued to the wood; and glued to this is a One and Mace. piece of fine French leather, slightly convex, and somewhat rough on its exposed surface to prevent its slipping from the balls; chalk is applied to it at short intervals while playing, for the same purpose. The mace, a staff of