Some Table-tennis history facts found by Thiti

Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 09:55:10 +0000 (GMT)
From: Thiti
To: "L. Cranswick" [L.M.D.Cranswick@dl.ac.uk]


I used to think that this game was invented somewhere else... Can believe
it was first registered here, in the central of British empire!!.

T.

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          When and where was the game of ping-pong invented?

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The game of ping-pong, also known as table tennis, was a direct
offshoot of the English outdoor game of lawn tennis, itself derived
from traditional tennis, which is played on a hard court.

Improvised versions of table tennis were probably played in England
in the 1880s.  There is a rumor that the very first games were played
with cigar box lids for paddles, carved champagne corks for balls,
and a row of upended books for a divider in the center of the court.

The first commercial version of table tennis was a game
called "Gossima" which was registered in 1891 in England, although no
physical evidence remains that actual Gossima sets were ever
produced.  A similar game called "Gossima or Ping-Pong" is known from
just before 1900.  But it was not until 1902, with the publication of
a book called "Table Tennis and How to Play It" that the game became
widely known.

The history of ping-pong:
http://www.euronet.nl/users/kreische/histoing.htm

The difference between table tennis and ping-pong:
http://www.usatt.org/articles/history/historyintro.shtml