John Wesley Hyatt and his brother set up a lab in their shed to do just this, inspired in part by an advertisement in the New York Times that offered $10,000 to anyone who could invent a new material for billiard balls. Hyatt was also financially backed by a syndicate of investors led by Marshal Lefferts, a retired Civil War general. There were complaints about Hyatt’s exploding collodion-covered balls from saloon owners, one of whom reported that “every time the balls collided, every man in the room pulled a gun.” These days pool and snooker balls are made from a plastic called phenolic
...more
