Billiard table ivory balls from warping. The first use of electric heating was for an 18.2 balkline tournament held in December 1927 between Welker Cochran and Jacob Schaefer, Jr. The New York Times announced it with fanfare: "For the first time in the history of world's championship balkline billiards a heated table will be used..." A pool table, or pocket billiards table, has six – one at each corner of the table () and one at the midpoint of each of the longer sides ( or ). Pool tables come in different sizes, typically referred to as , , , or tables.
Billiard table In all cases, the table is rectangular with a ratio (e.g. ). There are only two sizes approved for tournament play by the International Olympic Committee-recognized sport governing body of pool, the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), and its various regional and national affiliates; under the world standardised rules of pool, these are the and models. For a table, the playing surface (the dimensions between the noses of the cushions) measures by with a (3.2 mm) margin of error for either dimension. For an , the playing surface measures by , with the same inch variance allowed. In the UK as