Who Invented Table Tennis?

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The Real Inventor

I'm glad to see interest in this subject, yet clearly none of you have read my book Ping Pong Fever --- The Madness That Swept 1902 America (2012), where I put to rest all the myths about James Gibb and others, and disclosed for the first time the true inventor of table tennis. He was 23-year-old engineer James Devonshire of London in 1885 (later known as Sir Devonshire, a leader in the electric industry). Other inventors came up with other versions in the decade to follow, but Devonshire's was the first to be commercialized, by the Jaques sporting goods firm in 1891. It was another nine years before Mr. Gibb introduced the celluloid ball to the game in 1900 at his London club. With that, Jaques immediately jettisoned the rubber balls and cork balls and changed the name to Ping Pong (from Gossima), and the game became a huge success in 1901 and 1902.
 
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I'm glad to see interest in this subject, yet clearly none of you have read my book Ping Pong Fever --- The Madness That Swept 1902 America (2012), where I put to rest all the myths about James Gibb and others, and disclosed for the first time the true inventor of table tennis. He was 23-year-old engineer James Devonshire of London in 1885 (later known as Sir Devonshire, a leader in the electric industry). Other inventors came up with other versions in the decade to follow, but Devonshire's was the first to be commercialized, by the Jaques sporting goods firm in 1891. It was another nine years before Mr. Gibb introduced the celluloid ball to the game in 1900 at his London club. With that, Jaques immediately jettisoned the rubber balls and cork balls and changed the name to Ping Pong (from Gossima), and the game became a huge success in 1901 and 1902.

Where did you get this information from, its interesting me as ive always believed it was James Gibb

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Well, years of searching through newspaper and magazine archives and patent filings of those years helped me put the full story together. A key source was a 1901 newspaper interview of John Jaques III himself (the head of the Jaques sporting goods firm) in which he stated, "A lot of people are claiming to have invented the game, but it was a Mr. James Devonshire, an electrician, who invented it. Mr. Gibb also claims to have had a hand in it, but he was the first to think about changing the indiarubber ball to celluloid." The full background of the game's early evolution is in my book Ping Pong Fever, as well as the story of how Ping Pong got its name.
 
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ITTF Museum

Visit the ITTF Museum to see excellent exhibits of table tennis history, from the early days up to the present. If you can't make it to their beautiful chateau in southern Switzerland, then take a virtual tour on their website, where you can also see:
1) Hundreds of photos of early table tennis sets and other memorabilia;
2) Results and statistics for major tournaments and leading players since the 1920s;
3) Photos and accomplishments of all members of the ITTF Hall of Fame;
4) Ranking histories since the 1920s;
5) Table Tennis Collector, a 20-year archive of the quarterly publication examining the sport's history, where for example my own contributions have covered how the game first entered different parts of Asia in the early 1900s, the great revival of the sport in early 1920s U.K., and a summary of the first years of the ETTA magazine Table Tennis in the mid-1930s, among other subjects.
 
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Just wanted to say thanks to all those who acquired my book after learning about it in this thread. I hope you enjoy reading Ping Pong Fever --- The Madness That Swept 1902 America as much as I enjoyed the years of researching and writing it. And I hope we see more table tennis history threads in this Forum.
 
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Easy mate,just copy/paste:

The game originated in England during the 1880s, where it was played among the upper-class as an after-dinner parlour game.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][5][/SUP] It has been suggested that the game was first developed by British military officers in India or South Africa who brought it back with them.[SUP][6][/SUP] A row of books were stood up along the center of the table as a net, two more books served as rackets and were used to continuously hit a golf-ball from one end of the table to the other. Alternatively table tennis was played with paddles made of cigar box lids and balls made of champagne corks. The popularity of the game led game manufacturers to sell equipment commercially. Early rackets were often pieces of parchment stretched upon a frame, and the sound generated in play gave the game its first nicknames of "wiff-waff" and "ping-pong". A number of sources indicate that the game was first brought to the attention of Hamley's of Regent Street under the name "Gossima".[SUP][7][/SUP][SUP][8][/SUP] The name "ping-pong" was in wide use before British manufacturer J. Jaques & Son Ltd trademarked it in 1901. The name "ping-pong" then came to be used for the game played by the rather expensive Jaques's equipment, with other manufacturers calling it table tennis. A similar situation arose in the United States, where Jaques sold the rights to the "ping-pong" name to Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers then enforced their copyright on the term in the 1920s making the various associations change their names to "table tennis" instead of the more common, but copyrighted, term.[SUP][9][/SUP]
The next major innovation was by James W Gibb, a British enthusiast of table tennis, who discovered novelty celluloid balls on a trip to the US in 1901 and found them to be ideal for the game. This was followed by E.C. Goode who, in 1901, invented the modern version of the racket by fixing a sheet of pimpled, or stippled, rubber to the wooden blade. Table tennis was growing in popularity by 1901 to the extent that tournaments were being organized, books being written on the subject,[SUP][7][/SUP] and an unofficial world championship was held in 1902. During the early 1900s, the game was banned in Russia because the rulers at the time believed that playing the game had an adverse effect on players' eyesight.[SUP][10][/SUP]
In 1921, the Table Tennis Association was founded in Britain, and the International Table Tennis Federation followed in 1926.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP] London hosted the first official World Championships in 1926. In 1933, the United States Table Tennis Association, now called USA Table Tennis, was formed.[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP]
In the 1930s, Edgar Snow commented in Red Star Over China that the Communist forces in the Chinese Civil War had a "passion for the English game of table tennis" which he found "bizarre".[SUP][13][/SUP]
In the 1950s, rackets that used a rubber sheet combined with an underlying sponge layer changed the game dramatically,[SUP][4][/SUP] introducing greater spin and speed.[SUP][14][/SUP] These were introduced to Britain by sports goods manufacturer S.W. Hancock Ltd. The use of speed glue increased the spin and speed even further, resulting in changes to the equipment to "slow the game down". Table tennis was introduced as an Olympic sport at the Olympics in 1988.[SUP][15][/SUP]
After the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the International Table Tennis Federation instituted several rules changes aimed at making table tennis more viable as a televised spectator sport.[SUP][16][/SUP] First, the older 38 mm balls were officially replaced by 40 mm balls in 2000.[SUP][7][/SUP][SUP][17][/SUP] This increased the ball's air resistance and effectively slowed down the game. By that time, players had begun increasing the thickness of the fast sponge layer on their rackets, which made the game excessively fast and difficult to watch on television. Second, the ITTF changed from a 21-point to an 11-point scoring system in 2001.[SUP][7][/SUP] This was intended to make games more fast-paced and exciting. The ITTF also changed the rules on service to prevent a player from hiding the ball during service, in order to increase the average length of rallies and to reduce the server's advantage.
Variants of the sport have recently emerged. "Large-ball" table tennis uses a 44 mm ball, which slows down the game significantly. This has seen some acceptance by players who have a hard time with the extreme spins and speeds of the 40 mm game.
There is a move towards reviving the table tennis game that existed prior to the introduction of sponge rubber. "Hardbat" table tennis players reject the speed and spin of reversed sponge rubber, preferring the 1940–60s play style with no sponge and short-pimpled rubber. Defense is less difficult by decreasing the speed and eliminating any meaningful magnus effect of spin. Because hardbat killer shots are almost impossible to hit against a skilled player, hardbat matches focus on the strategic side of table tennis, requiring skillful maneuvering of the opponent before an attack can become successful.

XD

Keep trainin' by: wikipedia :D
 
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Sigh. Well, unfortunately, Wikipedia and other internet sources are riddled with errors on this subject. That was part of the reason for writing my book. It might be helpful to actually read a thread's postings before you copy/paste from random sources, new member Kenta. With your help, we can drive out the misinformation and get the real story out there!
 
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Wikipedia is made by all FeverAuthor,there's probably many people who got the knowledge to correct something in some Article that is not right.
I didnt read your book,but from that wikipedia page,i can say that a really old story that is hard to find which is the Real one.

http://www.ittf.com/media/History/Timeline_History.pdf

Most of things match with Wiki and ITTF table tennis history page,being writed in diferent ways,mostly they say the same,so i cant understand where's the misinformation.


GL with your book...new member

greetings
 
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