Pool balls or billiard balls come in several different sizes depending on the type of game they are used in. There are Russian, American style, British style, Carom and Snooker billiards balls that vary in size with Russian billiard balls being the largest and Snooker balls the smallest of them all. The color, density and the pattern of these balls differ depending on the kind of game they are used in. Every player of these different types of billiards is aware of the different types of balls and their unique properties, such that an American billiard player will be very uncomfortable with the British style billiard balls and vice versa.
The American style billiard balls are the most common types of balls used all around the world. They are larger then the British billiard balls and smaller than the Carom balls. They have a diameter of 55mm, which makes them 1mm larger than the British billiard balls and 4mm smaller than the Carom balls. The billiard balls weigh about 5.5 to 6.0 oz. The billiard balls are numbered differently, each color corresponds to the number of the ball. For example, 1 is yellow and 15 is brown or burgundy. The billiard balls used in a professional tournament have a unique hue and color that makes them easier to be viewed by TV audiences.
In the 19th century billiard balls were made of ivory or wood. Wood did not give the required weight. Wood was cumbersome and heavy. Ivory was lightweight and smooth. However, asset of nine balls would require one elephant tusk. This became to expensive and raised concerns about the plight of elephants around the world. The first replacement for ivory was Celluloid, which is one of the first thermoplastics to ever have been made.
Nowadays, other materials are used to make billiard balls. These include, polyester phenolic resin and acrylic. Billiard balls made from these materials are more resistant to cracking and chipping.
Cleaning of billiard balls is important and needs to be done properly. Cleaning the balls makes prevents the pool table cloth from getting dirty. The pool cloth is more difficult to clean than the balls. Cleaning the table cloth often could also wear out the cloth and that is one of the main reasons for cleaning the billiard balls.
There are so many great brands and styles like Aramith billiard balls, Elephant balls, bumper pool balls, glow in the dark pool balls, ivory balls, clear pool balls and others!
If you are going to be doing this often, there are a number of accessories you need to get. You will need a micro fiber cloth as well as a pool ball cleaner. Pool ball cleaners paired with a micro fiber cloth will maintain the smoothness of the ball better than other materials used for cleaning. The normal dish washing soap is not allowed as it leaves soap residue on the ball. The residue left on the ball will get on to the table cloth and create a new problem of cleaning the pool table. If you are planning to buy a pool table this is one of the accessories you can add to your other accessories. There are many online stores that offer a lot of information on billiard balls.