The true origins and "birth-place" of table tennis, one of the fastest and most dynamic sports ever, have never been properly explained or established.
Available data are scant and varied, and call for general consideration of the history of ball and similar games. The original homeland of ball games, according to different sources, is Asia, England, even North America with its Indians. There are, however, quite a few data showing that China, with its very developed culture, and ancient Egypt were also familiar with ball games. According to Ivor Montagu, cave inscriptions discovered in Yenan suggest that the precursor of table tennis was known in ancient China.
The beginnings of table tennis proper are to be traced to last quarter 19th century England. Major progress was made following the invention of the rubber ball filled with compressed air (Winfield 1847). Lawn tennis was played outdoors; when the weather was bad, they played indoors, on a table, with tennis rackets, and a board, row of books or tins serving at the net. The game was named Miniature Indoor Lawn Tennis Game, and initiated a major step towards present-day table tennis. Different variants of "miniature tennis" were played at the time throughout the United Kingdom and her colonies, and America, with nonstandard accessories and without any special rules.
"Table tennis" appeared in print for the first time in the catalogue of the firm game, played on a table with rubber balls and square rackets coated with cardboard or cloth in order to produce some rotations.
The major advance in the development of the game is to be credited to James Gibb (1853-1930), English engineer and excellent cross-country runner, who- while traveling in America in 1890- found a celluloid ball in a toy shop. It was a kind of toy ball with fine elasticity. He then brought several balls back, and replaced the cork balls. After some improvement on the ball, he started to manufacture and market celluloid balls. They marked a turning a turning point in the development of the ball, which in 1899-1904 began to spread rapidly throughout England.
J. Gibb gave table tennis the onomatopoeic name of "Ping-Pong", imitative of the sound of the ball when striking the table or the wooden bat, mainly used at the time. The game was played all over England, in summer and winter alike, in apartments, clubs and in hotels. They also played it extensively in cafes and restaurants, frequented by the privileged class- in tails and evening dresses!
Competitions were organized, and the first tournament was held at London's Royal Aquarium, present-day Central Palace in Westminster. In the early nineteen-hundreds England had a Ping-Pong Association at the Park hall,and, later on, a Table Tennis Association at the Royal Aquarium. Each played by its own rules, differing mainly in scoring and serving. In 1907-1908 Parker Brothers (USA.) bought the right to use the name "Ping-Pong" in the States for one million balls. The sellers kept inventing new names: thus, the game also used to be called Gossima in England, and Whiff-Whaff in America.
Initially table tennis was played with rackets of all forms made of different materials. First there were the so-called banjo-rackets (49.5 cm) coated with parchment and with large handles. There followed rackets made of cardboard, canvas, glass-paper, wood, rope or cork.
The Englishman E.C. Goode, who was supposed to compete at a major London tournament, dropped in at a pharmacy to buy some medication for his headache, and noted the rubber pad used by the pharmacist to give change to the customer. An excellent idea dawned upon him as he grasped the concept of how he could make use of the rubber studs to his advantage. He glued the rubber to his bat. This gave him longer contact with the ball, better control and a harder stroke. He practiced hard over the weekend, perfected the backhand drive, and won the coming tournament along with a number of others.
The first unofficial rules were drawn up in England as early as the late 19th century. However, they did not apply to all countries as there was no international table tennis body. At the time it took 30 points, not 21, to win a set. Until 1901 they served directly across the net.
English tourists and sportsmen spread the game to the Continent. In 1901, Vienna was the venue of the first international tournament, and won by Edward Shires of England. Following that event were several international tournaments. After a period of stagnation throughout Europe, the game was revived again, first of all in England in 1912, and made headway into countries where it had not been played before. The English Ping-Pong Association was founded and soon dissolved, and on the same day its officials founded the English Table Tennis Association, the first association of this kind in the world.