Art
This 1891 architectural blueprint shows a factory designed to manufacture billiard balls and tables for American homes and saloons. The Brunswick company was one of the nation's largest makers of leisure equipment, and this building represents the industrial scale needed to supply a rapidly growing market for indoor recreation.
Art · Full story
You stand in the drafting room as the architect's pen moves across the linen. The building rises five stories in clean industrial lines—windows punched in rows to flood the shop floor with daylight. Inside, machines will stamp, sand, and polish thousands of ivory and composition balls each week, feeding the nation's appetite for billiards.
Reflect
What role does recreation play in your daily life, and how do you think manufacturing shapes what's available to you?