Who invented the round ball?

From the early rudimentary balls to the perfect ball today there is great merit of both professional and amateur "inventors."

Until now, people have not yet concluded which football or who invented the country. But the birth of the ball is an exciting long process.

Ball made from . animal heads, rags

Humans are naturally instinctive or kicking their feet into things found on the road, especially when it comes to a round shape. During ancient wars, soldiers celebrated victory by taking the enemy's leveling stone with their heads.

In the villages, people play a game of fighting and kicking a buffalo, cow and skull skull towards the land used for meeting other villages. Such games often lead to fierce scenes of village residents.

In Medieval Europe, people used to play with the heads of the executioners as fun, then animal heads and shreds.

The ancient Roman sculpture illustrates a "player" playing a ball - (Photo: Footballhistory.com)

Until the early 19th century, the first balls were made of a pig, cow bubble, inside a very primitive hair, feather or chopped wicks . born. When kicking the ball, it flies in a twisty trajectory and of course is not in line with the " player "'s will . This type of ball is also very fragile, of course.

Then some unknown "inventor" thought of a way to sew a skin around this bubble to make it more durable and brittle. Wealthy aristocrats use deer skin, and ordinary people use cheap cowhide. The ball gradually takes its right shape.

In 1836, American engineer Charles Goodyear invented a way of vulcanizing rubber. But it was not until 1855 that Goodyear made a soccer ball made of vulcanized rubber, but it was not a ball with an inflatable rubber gut like this.

Charles Goodyear's first vulcanized rubber ball was built in 1855 - (Photo: Soccerballworld.com).

Charles Goodyear Engineer (1800-1860) - (Photo: Wikipedia).

In 1862, Richard Lindon, a British tanner, was the first person to successfully create a rubber bow ball that could be pumped in with a valve that he thought of. He was also the first to successfully create a rugby ball.

But this is also a tragedy with this amateur inventor, because in the process of helping her husband to research and manufacture rubber ball gut, his wife had to blow hundreds of pig bubbles by mouth. This caused her infection, lung disease and later death.

However, the football law of 1836 did not have clear rules about the ball used for competition. Waiting until 1872, the British Football Association (FA) issued a regulation on balls that "must be spherical, diameter from 27 to 28 inches (68 cm-70cm)".

This size rule still applies today according to FIFA law. Regarding the weight of the ball, FA regulations in 1872 were at least 13 ounces (368g) and no more than 15 ounces (425g), FIFA revised 1937, bringing the weight up from 14 to 16 ounces ( 410-450g).

The first industrial balls

Ball used at World Cup 1930 - (Photo: Soccerballworld.com).

The first industrially produced balls were in the UK in the 1900s. It consisted of 18 strips of narrow (rectangular) cowhide that were stitched in to form only one sphere, inside with a rubber bubble. Vulcanizing can pump air in.

The best shade is made from the cow's skin and the cheap one uses the leather on the shoulder of the cow. How to sew leather bands parallel to each other, then improved by sewing interlaced to help the ball keep more round shape and better bearing.

When sewing, the worker must turn the ball upside down (reverse stitching), when finished, flipped the skin surface out, leaving a 15cm section between 2 strips of leather next to each other, no stitching. Then they stuffed a rubber bubble with an inflatable hose into it. After pumping the gas into the air and putting it in the mouth, it was like a long, very tight string.

This type of leather ball has the disadvantage of being very heavy when it is wet or rainy because the cow skin absorbs a lot of water. The players at that time were very nervous when they had to hit their heads, the ball was too heavy, causing a lot of head injury.

In addition, the quality of the ball depends on the type of leather used to make the ball and is very perishable.

In the late 1930s, although in the context of the outbreak of the Second World War, the manufacture of balls also had some technical progress. Manufacturers add a very durable fabric lining to fix the ball shape, which helps absorb shock better.

The ball has a texture of long strips of leather used at the 1958 World Cup - (Photo: Soccerballhistory.com).

The ball is coated with a synthetic paint on the skin surface so that the skin does not absorb water so it will not become too heavy when playing under the fog, rain. The inflatable valve is also improved to be more compact, no need to insert and tie the strips of skin twice as before.

However, the ball at this time has not been very durable, very much when the ball was broken in the middle of the match because it could not bear the strong force or fierce dispute between the players.

The most funny thing is when the player kicks the ball into the golf ball, the ball breaks and deflects so the flight path is very sudden, making the poor goalie look dumbfounded, staring blankly at the flat "shadow" falling into the net .

The original balls were only natural gray skin, then white due to tanning for a clean color. Then came the orange balls to play in the winter, the snowy field, so the players could easily observe the ball.

The one who made the ball is . the architect

New structural ball 32 Adidas Telstar zones used at World Cup 1970 - (Photo: Soccerballworld.com).

At the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Germany's famous sports equipment maker Adidas unveiled the Telstar ball with a very new structure, consisting of 32 pieces of leather combined: 12 pentagon shaped pieces and 20 hexagonal pieces. feeling.

This new structure - dubbed Buckminster , helps to balance the surface tension of the ball so the ball does not distort during the game.

Interestingly, the inventor of this 32-piece leather composite structure has nothing to do with football, that is the American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, he found this method of grafting in the process of thrifty research. materials in building buildings.

So far, this 32-piece structure is still considered to be the most optimal for making balls.

In the 1960s, balls made of synthetic materials appeared but were not popular with sports. The reason is that this type does not have good properties such as shadow made of real leather (such as bouncing, flight trajectory, glossy feel .).

But up to the present time, thanks to inventions in the field of synthetic materials, studying aerodynamics and information technology, footballs produced since the beginning of the 21st century have brought very new features and better than the balls of the last century.

The synthetic materials used to produce balls have been " copied" by the cell structure of real skin, and are superior because they do not need a water-resistant coating and are more durable.

In addition, with innovations in aerodynamics, computer-controlled production tools and data collection and analysis software help manufacturers design and manufacture these The ball is almost technically perfect.

Balls made of synthetic materials have gradually usurped the shadow of natural leather. This official 2018 World Cup ball is called by Adidas.

Adidas still retains some details about the structure of the ball, but said Telstar 18 is made of recycled materials, synthetic leather pieces are joined together with bad glue, the surface of the ball is 3-D floating pattern helps players control the ball better.

Inside the ball is an electromagnetic chip with short range communication NFC (near-field communication). In the short term, it does not know what its application in competition is, but for commercial Telstar 18 models that will be on the market, Adidas said customers can use smartphones with NFC functionality to communicate with the fruit. ball on the field.