First a little history about billiard balls.
According to the article on Wikipedia, the earliest balls were made of wood, and later clay (the latter remaining in use well into the 20th century).
Ivory was used for a period, but by the mid-1800s, elephants were being slaughtered for their ivory at an alarming rate, just to keep up with the demand for billiard balls. No more than eight balls could be made from a single elephant.
Inventors were challenged to come up with an alternative material that could be used to manufacture billiard balls.
In 1869 a composition material called cellulose nitrate was used for billiard balls. (US patent 50359, the first American patent for billiard balls).
By 1870 it was commercially branded celluloid, the first industrial plastic. The nature of celluloid made it volatile in production, occasionally exploding, which ultimately made this first plastic impractical.
Imagine that, Exploding Billiard Balls. Wow! You shoot in the 8 ball and it blows up.
Todays balls are cast from plastic materials that are strongly resistant to cracking and chipping. Currently saluc, under the brand names Aramith...
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