Hello,
According to Jeff Cooper of About.com, the early tennis ball was "a
wad of hair, wool, or cork wrapped in string and cloth or leather."
(1) It would have been invented by the people who most likely invented
tennis: French monks in the 11th or 12th century.
I have been unable to find the name of the individual who invented the
modern rubber tennis ball. However, at least part of the credit for
the spread of the invention must go to two men. One is Charles
Goodyear, whose vulcanization process allowed mass production of
rubber balls from the 1850s on. The other is Walter C. Wingfield, who
drew up rules for outdoor tennis ("lawn tennis") and marketed sets of
equipment. To use a baseball analogy, we don't know who was tennis's
Abner Doubleday (the mythical inventor of the game) but we do know who
was its Alexander Cartwright (who standardied and popularized the
sport).
I hope this answer meets your needs; if it does not, please request
clarification.
References:
(1) "The Origins and Early History of Tennis," Jeff Cooper, About.com
http://tennis.about.com/library/weekly/aa041101.htm
Related sites:
"Tennis' heritage was its pride and curse," Steve Wilstein, AP
http://espn.go.com/tennis/news/1999/1221/246330.html
"The Origins of Lawn Tennis," Tennis New Zealand Inc.
http://www.tennis.org.nz/origin.html
"History," Museum of Tennis
http://www.museumoftennis.com/history.html
"The History of Tennis," Planet Tennis
http://www.cliffrichardtennis.org/planet_tennis/history.htm
"History," Tennis Information Centre
http://www.tennisland.co.uk/history.htm
Search strategy:
tennis ball inventor
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=tennis+ball+inventor
rubber tennis ball history
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=+rubber+tennis+ball+history
popularized lawn tennis
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=popularized+lawn+tennis |
