ping pong
Table tennis has been called ... Whiff Whaff Gossima Ping Pong The official name is table tennis. The name Ping Pong is now a USA trademark.
The game was first played in the UK by upper class Victorians with cigar box lids for bats and a champagne cork for a ball. As it became popular it was known as Gossima, wiff-waff and ping-pong.
It's thought that a game resembling table tennis was in existence in England as early as 1884 and various names were used during the history of table tennis with Gossima, Whiff-Whaff and Ping Pong all either patented or trademarked. See this article www.allabouttabletennis.com/history-of-table-tennis.html
According to open-site.org: "Table tennis was invented in England during the 19th century. It is unknown who invented the game but most likely it was adopted from the game of royal tennis ... In 1891, Charles Barter came up with the idea of a hollow cored ball ... He obtained a patent for the game and called it 'Ping-Pong' after the noise the ball made when struck with the paddle."
In the early days of the sport (around 1890-1900) various names were used for this new game. Different manufacturers used different names and Indoor Tennis, Gossima, Whiff-Whaff and Ping Pong were all early examples of patented or trademarked names. But as the sport developed and manufacturers began to enforce their patents and trademarks, a new name was required, so in 1926 the international sport of Table Tennis was born. So although most people use the names ping pong and table tennis interchangeably, Ping Pong is actually a registered trademark in the USA and a brand of equipment used to play the sport of table tennis. However, particularly in the USA, the name ping pong has continued to be used. This is probably because ping pong was promoted extensively in the early 1900s by the equipment manufacturers who owned the trademark, and therefore it became ingrained in peoples minds - just as any other product which is widely advertised and promoted.
"Who invented ping pong?Ping pong was a collective invention that emerged from the British upper classes of the late 19th century. Books of that era, such as Arnold Parker's 1902 primer Ping-Pong, the Game and How to Play It, indicate that ping pong existed as early as 1881. Table tennis and Gossima (likely related to the lightness of gossamer) were the first titles given to the game, and the first playing materials used in ping pong history were invariably books, cigar box lids, and champagne corks, suggesting a rainy day diversion for lawn tennis players or bored colonial soldiers.The term ping pong was trademarked in 1901 by J. Jaques & Son Ltd., right around the time that celluloid balls were introduced by James Gibb. Modern style ping pong rackets followed in 1903, when E.C. Goode stuck sheets of pimpled rubber to a wooden blade."http://www.homefurnish.com/gameroomgym/games/historyofpingpong.aspx
The origin of table tennis has never been exactly pinpointed, even though it's a relatively young sport, younger than lawn tennis and not much older than basketball.The earliest known form of the sport, called indoor tennis, was played in the early 1880s by British army officers in India and South Africa, using lids from cigar boxes as paddles and rounded corks from wine bottles as balls, with a row of books set up across the middle of a table to form the net.Other versions developed in England during the 1890s, known variously as "whiff whaff" and "gossima," and Parker Brothers began manufacturing an indoor tennis kit that included a portable net that could be set up on a table, a small ball covered with netting, and miniature paddles.James Gibb, an Englishman who visited the United States in 1900, brought some hollow celluloid balls home and began playing indoor tennis with friends, using the new balls. Gibb apparently came up with the name "ping pong," representing the sounds of the ball hitting the paddle and then the table.However, an English manufacturer of sporting goods, John Jacques, registered "Ping Pong" as a trade name in 1901 and sold American rights to Parker Brothers, who came out with a new kit under that name.Another Englishman, E. C. Goode, in 1902 covered his wooden ping pong paddle with pebbled rubber, which allowed him to put spin on the ball. A Ping Pong Association was founded in England that year, but it lasted less than three years, mainly because Parker Brothers' control of the name made equipment rather expensive.
The origin of table tennis has never been exactly pinpointed, even though it's a relatively young sport, younger than lawn tennis and not much older than basketball.The earliest known form of the sport, called indoor tennis, was played in the early 1880s by British army officers in India and South Africa, using lids from cigar boxes as paddles and rounded corks from wine bottles as balls, with a row of books set up across the middle of a table to form the net.Other versions developed in England during the 1890s, known variously as "whiff whaff" and "gossima," and Parker Brothers began manufacturing an indoor tennis kit that included a portable net that could be set up on a table, a small ball covered with netting, and miniature paddles.James Gibb, an Englishman who visited the United States in 1900, brought some hollow celluloid balls home and began playing indoor tennis with friends, using the new balls. Gibb apparently came up with the name "ping pong," representing the sounds of the ball hitting the paddle and then the table.However, an English manufacturer of sporting goods, John Jacques, registered "Ping Pong" as a trade name in 1901 and sold American rights to Parker Brothers, who came out with a new kit under that name.Another Englishman, E. C. Goode, in 1902 covered his wooden ping pong paddle with pebbled rubber, which allowed him to put spin on the ball. A Ping Pong Association was founded in England that year, but it lasted less than three years, mainly because Parker Brothers' control of the name made equipment rather expensive.
The origin of table tennis has never been exactly pinpointed, even though it's a relatively young sport, younger than lawn tennis and not much older than basketball.The earliest known form of the sport, called indoor tennis, was played in the early 1880s by British army officers in India and South Africa, using lids from cigar boxes as paddles and rounded corks from wine bottles as balls, with a row of books set up across the middle of a table to form the net.Other versions developed in England during the 1890s, known variously as "whiff whaff" and "gossima," and Parker Brothers began manufacturing an indoor tennis kit that included a portable net that could be set up on a table, a small ball covered with netting, and miniature paddles.James Gibb, an Englishman who visited the United States in 1900, brought some hollow celluloid balls home and began playing indoor tennis with friends, using the new balls. Gibb apparently came up with the name "ping pong," representing the sounds of the ball hitting the paddle and then the table.However, an English manufacturer of sporting goods, John Jacques, registered "Ping Pong" as a trade name in 1901 and sold American rights to Parker Brothers, who came out with a new kit under that name.Another Englishman, E. C. Goode, in 1902 covered his wooden ping pong paddle with pebbled rubber, which allowed him to put spin on the ball. A Ping Pong Association was founded in England that year, but it lasted less than three years, mainly because Parker Brothers' control of the name made equipment rather expensive.
The game of table tennis has its roots in lawn tennis. When lawn tennis became very popular in the 1870s & 1880s, game makers tried to emulate its success by developing indoor versions of the game. So there were card games, board & dice games, rackets & balloon games and even tiddledy winks tennis games. But the first use of the name Table Tennis occurred on a board and dice game by J.H.Singer of New York around 1884 and it's also known that a game of Table Tennis was offered in the 1887 game catalogue of George S. Parker, founder of the famed Parker Brothers in America. But the first action game of tennis on a table was in 1890, so it was David Foster of England who is the founder/inventor of table tennis in 1890.
Table tennis has its origins in England as an after dinner amusement for upper class Victorians in the 1880s. Mimicking the game of tennis in an indoor environment, everyday objects were originally enlisted to act as the equipment. A line of books would be the net, a rounded top of a Champagne cork or knot of string as the ball, and a cigar box lid as the paddle. The popularity of the game led game manufacturers to sell the equipment commercially. Early paddles were often pieces of parchment stretched upon a frame, and the sound generated in play gave the game its first nicknames of "whiff whaff" and "Ping pong". A number of sources indicate that the game was first brought to the attention of Hamley