Ping pong, also known as table tennis, was originally named for the sound that a ball made when it hit the table. First popularized in nineteenth-century England, table tennis went by such names as "whif whaf" and "flim flam" before the name ping pong was officially copyrighted in 1901 by manufacturer J. Jaques and Sons Ltd.
First Balls
The balls used in the earliest table tennis games were usually made of string, twine, rubber or cork. However, rubber balls bounced too wildly and cork balls bounced too poorly. In 1900, James Gibb traveled to the United States, bringing home to England celluloid balls as souvenirs. Celluloid balls proved to bounce perfectly, and the popularity of the game exploded.
Modern Balls
According to the International Table Tennis Federation, regulation-size table tennis balls have a a diameter of 40 mm and weigh 2.7 g. The balls must be composed of celluloid or similar plastic material, and can be either white or orange in color.
Ball Size Considerations
Large ball table tennis is a variant of standard game that utilizes a spherical ball with a diameter of 44 mm, which significantly slows down the pace of the game. In 2000, the International Table Tennis Federation implemented the 40 mm ball to replace the 38 mm ball in standard table tennis in order to slow down the pace of the game.
Racquets
The earliest racquets used in table tennis were typically fashioned from empty cigar box lids and parchment paper. This was followed by wooden rackets covered in sheets of dimpled rubber. This improvement increased the speed of the game by allowing players to put spin on the ball. The Japanese introduced the foam-covered racquet in the early 1950s. As of 2010, the International Table Tennis Federation mandates that the width of a regulation table tennis racket be 85 percent natural wood, with specific limitations on the thickness of the rubberized coverings.
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