Evolution of Bowling Ball
Bowling as a sport is said to have originated around 5200 BC in ancient Egypt due to archaeologists’ discoveries of wall paintings displaying rocks and other spherical objects being thrown towards different objects. In the 1930s, an Egyptians child’s grave was discovered by British anthropologist, Sir Flinders. The grave contained bowling objects and confirmed that bowling or a sport similar to it existed at the time.
The version of bowling played today was invented only 100 years ago, with two main variations of the game, namely PinBowling and Lawn Bowling. PinBowling is popular in the United States, while Lawn Bowling remains popular in Canada, England, and Europe. Today in the United States alone, about sixty-five million people bowl each year.
Modern bowling has undergone various improvements over the past 30 years, including standardization of bowling balls, lanes, and pins to fit the sport’s official rules. Bowling balls specifically are made to perform well on a variety of surfaces and to complement a bowler’s style and strength. It has undergone the most improvement over the years; modern-day bowling balls are incredibly different from their predecessors, which didn’t even have finger holes. The discussion of the history of bowling would not be complete without an examination of the primary object, a bowling ball.
Bowling balls were initially constructed with a highly durable wood called Lignum Vitae. In the 1800s, most balls were made of this material until the early 1900s, when manufacturers introduced the rubber bowling ball, which remained the norm until the early 1970s.
The first rubber bowling ball tagged the Evertrue was produced in 1905. Afterward, Brunswick Corporation created the rubber Mineralite ball in 1914. Following this, hard rubber balls dominated the market until the 1970s, when Manufacturers developed plastic balls. Charles Hamilton invented a plastic ball tagged the “soaker.” He softened the outer covering of the bowling ball (cover stock), which increased the number of times the ball was able to curve during gameplay (hook). This resulted in the development of the hardness rule requiring a durometer.
The late twentieth century saw the invention of urethane balls. These balls allowed the bowlers to get more creative with their gameplay as they reacted differently on the lanes. By the late ’80s and early ’90s, manufacturers introduced the reactive resin balls, a modified urethane version. The resin balls were designed to provide more friction and influenced much modern-day bowling. They allowed bowlers to move farther left and hook the lane, this flexibility created the highest entry angles in bowlings history resulting in a scores improvement.
As time went on, manufacturers continued to make changes to the coverstocks and the core, the innermost part of the ball. The different shaped ball cores increased the amount of hook and the shape of the ball motion. By the 1990s, players had started hitting record-breaking highs and making perfect games. As a result, manufacturers started investing in research into developing varying cores and coverstocks.
The innovations boosted the number of hooks a bowler could produce. Ball designs have advanced to the point that even the same type of ball may have varied core designs for different ball weights, for example, one for 12-and 13-pound balls and another for 14 pound balls.
The bowling ball is continuously evolving, and the balls of today, like the balls of the past, are being enhanced to provide a better experience for bowlers.
