The cue ball hits the shunt and rolls off down its own track. These oversized cue balls typically have a diameter of 2 ⅜ inches, a slight step up from the standard 2 ¼-inch object balls.Ī strip of metal called a ball shunt is installed at the ball separator interchange, just high enough to let the object balls pass underneath it. One early method for cue ball recognition was to simply use a slightly bigger cue ball that couldn’t pass a certain threshold. So let’s take a look at each method in turn. The design of the ball separator is a little different depending on what kind of cue ball recognition method the table uses. At the lowest end of the central trench is the ball separator, which sends the object balls down a track leading to the ball trap and diverts the cue ball down a different track toward a cubby at the head of the table. This consists of 6 sloped trenches connecting each of the six pockets to one central trench. Under the table’s playing surface is a maze of ball tracks. But it’s safe to assume – for our purposes, anyway – that the basic ball return design hasn’t changed too much since the early days. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find much information about the early design evolution of coin-operated tables. The first recorded patent for a coin-operated billiard table was issued in 1903, with a price per game of one penny. Design Basics of Coin-Operated Ball Return System Some methods are considered less than ideal because they can change the dynamic and physics of the game.
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The method used in a given table depends on the manufacturer and when it was made. They seem simple enough – you feed in your quarters or tokens to release the balls, and as you pocket each one, it returns to its windowed enclosure to await the next round.īut have you ever wondered why, whenever you scratch, the cue ball always goes straight to the head of the table instead of winding up trapped with the object balls? We certainly have, and that’s why we’ve found the answer to the question, “How does a pool table recognize the cue ball?”Ĭoin-operated pool tables recognize and separate the cue ball from the object balls using either magnets, optical sensors, or an oversized, undersized, or weighted cue ball. Most of us have played at least one game of pool on a big, boxy, coin-operated pool table in an arcade, restaurant, bowling alley, or bar.