The Ball That Burned: A Seattle Saloon Mystery
In 1876, a patron at John Brendle’s beer saloon discovered that one of the billiard balls was made of highly flammable material, igniting instantly when pressed against his pipe.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
ILLUMINATING BILLIARD BALL.—Last Saturday evening a rather remarkable thing occurred at the beer saloon of John Brendle, near the corner of Oak and Second streets. During the evening several gentlemen were in the saloon playing billiards. One of the gentlemen was smoking a pipe, and having occasion to push the tobacco down in the bowl, picked up a billiard ball and pressed one side against the ignited weed. Scarcely had the supposed ivory come in contact with the fire than, to the utter astonishment of the gentleman, it took fire and blazed up. He threw the ball to the floor, and it rolled about the room burning fiercely for some moments before the fire was extinguished. The occurrence was as unexpected as it was remarkable, and has given rise to no end of conjecture and speculation as to what inflammable substance the ball was composed of.
While modern billiard balls are made of phenolic resin or polyester, 19th-century players often used ivory, which was expensive and prone to cracking. This incident highlights a time when 'oddities' in everyday objects were genuine news stories, reflecting a pre-industrial curiosity about materials that we now take for granted as standardized.
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