Louise Bentsen, age 9, of Greenville, S.C., for her question:
WHEN WAS BOWLING FIRST INTRODUCED?
Bowling is enjoyed and practiced by more people in the United States and Canada than any other sport. It is also one of the world's oldest forms of recreation.
We know that bowling was first introduced thousands of years ago. Equipment for a game similar to today's bowling was discovered by archaeologists to have been used by children in Egypt about 5200 B.C.
Ancient Polynesians played a bowling like game that involved rolling small balls at round, flat disks about four inches in diameter. They rolled the balls 60 feet, the distance used in bowling today.
Modern bowling can be traced back to Germany in the Middle Ages. A game was played in which stones were rolled at nine wooden clubs called kegles. Today bowlers are sometimes called keglers.
In the early 1100s in England bowling seemed to become more popular than archery. So Parliament outlawed bowling for a time since archery had such a vital role in national defense.
A game called Dutch pins was played by the people in The Netherlands in the 1500s. Tall pins were arranged in a diamond and the first player to bowl down 31 pins, and no more than that number, won the game. A bowler could also win by knocking over the middle pin, called the kingpin, without toppling any others.
The Dutch brought their version of bowling with them to North America during the 1600s. Dutch residents of what is now New York City bowled in a section of Manhattan that is still called Bowling Green.
During the 1800s, bowling became increasingly popular in New England. For a time, however, it came to be considered a social evil when gambling on the sport became widespread.
In 1841 the Connecticut Legislature outlawed bowling at nine pins. Bowlers evaded the ban by adding a pin, and thus started the 10 pin game.
In 1895, the American Bowling Congress (ABC) was organized. It established standard playing rules and specifications for balls, pins and lanes. The organization conducted its first annual tournament in 1901.
Today the ABC has membership of more than 4.5 million who bowl in organized competition. The Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) has more than 3 million members and ranks as the world's largest sports organization for women.
During the early 1900s, most bowling establishments were small, dimly lit, smoke filled halls. But by the mid 1900s, the sport became an accepted form of family recreation and the halls became bright and large.
In 1951 an automatic pinspotting machine helped to speed up the game. Before that, pins had to be loaded and set by hand.
The World's largest bowling center today is in Tokyo. It has 504 lanes.