Caption

Billiards has its origin in northern Europe, probably in France, where it was played as an outdoor croquet-like lawn game in the 15th century. Due to weather conditions the game moved indoors, on a wooden table (twice as long as they are wide = Equirectangular!), which was dressed with a green carpet to ressemble grass and a slat (border) around the sides to prevent the balls going over the edge (border). The first recorded billiard table was ordered by Louis XI of France in 1470.

The balls were pushed instead of punched with a wooden stick. The cue was developed in the 17th century. When a ball was close to the edge (border), it became difficult to use the front of the stick (spoon type). Then they turned the stick around and used the backside (the cue, which means tail). The players found out that they could use the edges (border) to rebound a ball. I can not imagine playing that game without bank (border) shots. Can you?

More on Billiards @ the Wiki

Location

Europe / Germany

Lat: 48° 44' 28" N
Long: 9° 17' 56" E

Elevation: 782 ft

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.

Equipment

EOS 350/Sigma 8/Ptgui/PS/Pano2QTVR/Digital Voice Recorder/QTpro