Scratch? How Does the Cue Ball Returns in a Coin-Op Pool Table?
If you have ever played pool on a coin-operated table, this question would sound familiar to you: how can the table know to return the cue ball after a scratch? What's in the coin-op pool tables, as opposed to classic pool tables, that cause it to tell the white cue ball from the numbered billiard balls?
If you have no idea what we are talking about, then here is a brief introduction:
Coin operated pool tables are pool tables operated by coins commonly in use in bars, restaurants, arcades, and recreation centers. Once a player scratch, i.e. causes the white cue ball to drop into the table pockets, the ball, for some hidden reason soon to be revealed, is brought back to the play.
The coin-op pool tables have an inner chutes system connected to the table pockets. Each time a ball drops into a pocket, a chute delivers it to a storage area and leaves it there until another player puts in a coin to begin the next game.
Since the cue ball cannot stay locked in the storage area throughout the entire game and players do tend to scratch often, the coin-op table manufacturers have to come up with a solution to this paradox. They had to develop a system that would keep the numbered object balls inside the storage area and have the cue ball return to the table.
What is the Big Secret?
In some coin-op pool tables, the cue ball is recognized by its reflection of light; in others, by its weight comparing to the object balls' weight. The most common solutions include enlargement of the cue ball or usage of a magnetic cue ball.
If according to the World Pool-Billiard Association a standard ball has to be about 2 1/4 inches in diameter, the cue ball used in this type of coin-op tables would be measured about 2 3/8 in diameter. This minor change in the cue ball's size allows it to be separated by the table's mechanism and to send it back to the bed of the table instead to the storage zone.
Inexperienced players would hardly feel the difference between playing with a regulation size cue ball and playing with an oversized ball. Nevertheless, players who are used to play pool with the standardized cue ball often claim the large cue ball makes the shot making more difficult and ruin their game. For them, coin-op tables that use magnetic cue ball return mechanism may be a more suitable solution.
In this type of coin-operated pool tables, a magnet is embedded in the core of the cue ball and triggers a sensor when it rolls down the return chute. This sensor causes a switch to move a gate and send the cue ball into a separate path that sends it back to the table.
The use of magnetic cue ball is less common than the use of larger cue balls, mainly due to economical reasons; while the price of an oversized cue ball ranges from $4 to $7, the cost of a magnetic cue ball begins at $10 up to $15.
Although complaints on the effect of the magnetic cue balls on the players' game are rarer, it is argued that the magnetic balls are missing the smoothness of the standard cue ball's roll. According to another claim, the magnetic substance causes the cue ball to be smashed when hits a hard place.
Either way, both the larger cue balls and the magnetic cue balls act as a decent solution to the coin-operated pool table cue ball paradox. Bear in mind that some people will blame anything from the phase of the moon to the aurora borealis for a missed shot. Therefore, you mustn't take too seriously players who claim that shifts in the Earth's magnetic field spoiled their aim.
