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After browsing through our extensive directory of billiards equipment vendors, we noticed the same strange phrase popping up -- thermoset resin. A few Google web searches and online dictionary consultations later, we discovered the secret of pool balls. "Thermoset" is an adjective used to describe synthetic substances that set permanently when heated. And resin, in addition to being the sticky stuff that comes out of trees, is a "solid or liquid synthetic organic polymer used as the basis of plastics, adhesives, varnishes, etc." As it turns out, billiard balls have played a vital role in the creation of polymers, or synthetic plastics. An interesting
tidbit from the Polymer Selection Database explains: One of the first developments of plastics was as a replacement to ivory billard balls, due to the dwindling supply of ivory. As far back as 1866, elephants were being slaughtered at an alarming rate to keep up with the demand for ivory billiard balls, billards having become America's favorite pastime. No more eight balls made from elephants. Ain't science grand?
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