How many bowling pins were used in 1895?
In the United States, ten pins were already fairly standard by
1895, when the American Bowling Congress was founded.
Fifty years earlier, ninepins (with nine bowling pins arranged
in a diamond shape) was the game of choice. But in the 1840s,
several states approved a ban on ninepin bowling, in part because
of the gambling associated with the sport.
So proprietors added a tenth pin, rearranged the rack into its
current triangle shape, and the sport of tenpin bowling was
born.