Ten-pin bowling duckpin bowling (conceived in 1895), popular in the Northeast United States, as well as Canada's own sport of five-pin bowling, all three of which use smaller diameter, lighter weight bowling balls when compared to tenpin bowling, without the necessity for finger holes in them. The , lane is bordered along its length by semicylindrical channels called "gutters", which are designed to collect errant balls. The overall width of the lane including the channels is . The narrow lane prevents bowling a straight line at the angle required to consistently carry (knock down) all ten pins for a strike. Most skillful
Five-pin bowling react to a ball rolled or pin knocked down. When bowling on free fall pinsetters, the bowler would have to press a button to initiate a pick-up cycle to clear downed pins lying on the pin deck. If automatic scoring is in use, all automatic resets are actually initiated by the scoring computers. The lower operating and maintenance costs of the string pinsetter eventually led to the demise of free-fall pinsetters. When a bowling centre retires free-fall pinsetters, the old machines are usually bought by other free-fall equipped bowling centres and are disassembled for parts. Free fall pinsetters are still