Ping Pong Fever

Who really invented the game of Ping Pong? Many wives'-tale versions have been told through the decades, usually involving lawn tennis players seeking sport on a rainy day or bored British soldiers away from home using champagne corks as balls, book piles as nets, and cigar box lids as bats.

    The true inventor has finally been uncovered by Steve Grant and published in his new book Ping Pong Fever: The Madness That Swept 1902 America. It was an ambitious 22-year-old Londoner who first filed a patent on table tennis, in 1885, a man who later became an inventor and leader in the British electric-power industry. He was James Devonshire (later “Sir” Devonshire) and his idea was taken up by sporting goods dealer Jaques & Son and eventually turned into Ping Pong with the addition of celluloid balls. The full story of the invention and early evolution of table tennis (including the origin of the name Ping Pong) is revealed for the first time in Ping Pong Fever.