One of the oldest of the so-called bagatelle games is Chinese Billiards, or Tivoli. The original game was played with cues on an inclined board four feet long, but a good fast table game can result by snapping the balls with the finger on a board which can be propped up on a bridge table.

The board indicated in Figure 5.15 is laid out on a piece of f-in. plywood 2 ft. wide by 3 ft. long; the left half of the diagram has been laid out the way the game was played prior to 1860. The right half illustrates a simpler design requiring less pegs but almost as many lines. The diagonal pencil lines should be lightly traced so that they can be washed off easily with & trisodium phosphate solution, Oakite, or even oxalic acid, for a shellac finish. The complicated appearing set of parallel lines is not difficult to draft once the master lines are drawn. These are diagonals AB and CD which extend from the upper corners to points 24 in. down on both sides. From here on parallel lines are laid off 1 in. apart as indicated. The holes in the center of the 50 and 20 scoring spaces should be of less diameter than the marble shooters, about 3/4-7/8 in. Before washing off the lines, mark the intersections where pegs or pins are to be inserted with an awl or small sharp nail. The pins are escutcheon pins of about No. 18 brass wire, although long brads or thin finishing nails will be equally satisfactory so long as they extend at least f in. or more.

Fig. 5.15. Tivoli.

The peg marked 10 is located halfway between the upper 50 and the top of the board. If a small metal half-bell from a broken toy or small alarm clock is available, it can be mounted between felt washers on a short length of dowel at this point, so that it will ring when struck by a marble. Less important is the refinement of a wire arch over the initial 50 depression, which in the original game had a small round bell attached to tinkle as the marble passed through, as was the case with the other scoring depressions.

All partitions at the base of the board are 1/2 in. thick and 5/8 in. wide, and are nailed in place from underneath. As indicated, the nine short partitions are 3 in. long, spaced 11/2 in. apart; the two starting or snapping partitions are 291/4 in. long, spaced at if in. Numbers are painted above the short partitions as indicated.

The outer frame is also of 1/2-in. stock, cut 1 in. wide and mitered at the comers. Before it is nailed to the edges of the board, the semi-circular backstop, consisting of a strip of 1/16-in. brass or thin veneer about 37 in. long, is bent into position and its ends marked in the sides of the frame, so that saw kerfs or chisel slots can be cut to insure a smooth fit. After the frame is in place, the central point of the curve is fastened by one or more small screws to top piece AC. For added rigidity triangular blocks may be glued into comers A and C.

Before play commences, the top end of the board is elevated 2 in. To make the board available for use on tables less than 3 ft. long, no elevating strip is permanently attached to the upper end; instead it is a simple matter to prop it up with a pair of books or small piles of magazines.

Rules

The game was originally played with two marbles per round or inning per player, one black (or dark) one and one white (or light). Any number of persons can play, either as single contestants or, if even numbered, as partners. The original rules read somewhat as follows:

1. The winning score may be fixed as low as 2,000, or at 10,000 or 30,000.

2. The dark ball (marble) counts ten times the number into which it falls. The white ball counts only those numbers into which it falls.

3. A ball which lodges against a pin and fails to fall the length of the board is not counted.

4. Should a ball make the complete circuit of the board from alley E to alley F, the player loses 10.

5. If the ball is not snapped with sufficient force to clear the starting alley, the player loses 10.

Obviously Rule No. 1 should be amended to reduce the total score considerably for non-mathematical youngsters. For others it may prove more interesting to add to the number of white or light-colored marbles allowed per inning.