Jim Palandri, age 9, of Eugene, Oregon, for his question:
Who invented Ping pong?
People started playing this merry game about 87 years ago. It started in England. But Americans heard about it and soon they also had fun batting those bouncy little balls. It seems that everybody who heard about it wanted to play the jolly game. People were soon playing it in almost every country in the world. About 48 years ago, the ping pong players of the world organized meetings and tournaments. In 1971, one of those bouncy tournaments helped to bring a little more friendly peace into the world.
The British people love to play tennis outdoors on their green grassy lawns. But the weather there tends to be rainy and the green grassy lawns get too soggy. In the 1880s, when your great grandparents were in school, the British people solved their soggy tennis problems. They invented a mini game of tennis that they could play indoors, rain or no rain. We don't know who thought of it. But in the year 1884, a London catalog listed the items needed to play what they called the miniature game of lawn ¬tennis.
In no time at all, people were calling the bouncy game table tennis. And my, how they loved it. English families and American families bought the tables and little nets, the bats and light little balls and really had fun. In 1891, James Gibbs of America introduced players to bouncier balls made of celluloid plastic. The next year, Charles Barter of England invented balls made of cork, special clamps to hold the net on the table and oblong shaped rackets made of fine wood.
All this time, everybody called it table tennis. Then in 1900, a British firm renamed it ping pong and registered the new name. The next year the name and the rights were sold to Parker Brothers, an American firm. These two firms set strict rules for playing ping pong. However, many players thought these rules were too strict. Around 1920, players from many countries planned to make the merry game more friendly. They decided to change the name ping pong back to table tennis. And in 1926 they organized the ITTF the International Table Tennis Federation.
For 30 years or so, the ITTF held world tournaments every year. People from many countries competed for championships. Since 1957, these contests have been held once every two years. ks a rule, not many people paid such attention to these international games. But this year something rather wonderful happened. The great countries of America and China had not been speaking to each other for a long time. But their table tennis teams met at the world table tennis contest. Later the American team was invited to play in China. This turned out to be one of the happiest news items of the year.
We don't know who actually invented the marvelous game of ping pong, alias table tennis. But people around the world soon adopted it from the English, who played it first, almost 90 years ago. In the 1920s, it was a very popular family game, then many families forgot about it. Now the grand game has made a bit of world history and let's hope that it becomes popular once again.