The previous chapter documented how the ball changed shape and became smaller, so the discussion now turns to several structural changes in the ball. Unlike the largely rule-driven size and shape changes, the structural modifications resulted primarily from those in the private sector developing better, more consistent materials so balls retained their shape and inflation longer or enhanced players’ ability to grip the ball.
Inflating and Lacing Early Footballs
As mentioned, early footballs were inflated pig bladders tied off with string or by tying the bladder like one might tie a balloon. They tied the bladders similarly after encasing them in leather covers. However, by the 1800s, most people inflated balls by inserting a clay pipe stem, quill, or purpose-built nozzle into the bladder's stem and blowing it up the old-fashioned way, using lung power. Inflating the ball by mouth became more challenging when Richard Lindon invented the rubber bladder in 1862, which was stiffer and more difficult to inflate than a pig's bladder. Lindon solved that problem by developing a brass pump modeled after the medical syringes of the day. Inflators that used a rubber bulb, like a bicycle horn, saw use, and sporting goods companies sold both.


The ball used in the first Princeton-Rutgers game in 1869 deflated several times during the game, and whoever brought the ball forgot to bring their pump and nozzle. When play stopped to inflate the ball, players took turns blowing it up with lung power.
The situation exemplifies how early balls deflated easily and needed regular reinflation. Inflating a football today is simple, assuming you have a needle and pump, but things were not so when Walter Camp and Lorin F. Deland described the process of inflating a football in 1896:
The ball is a rubber bladder, inclosed within a sack of pigskin; by means of a pump, the bladder is inflated with air up to the limit where it completely fills the pigskin sack, and when the pressure reaches a high point, the mouth of the bladder is securely tied, the pigskin tightly laced, and the ball is ready for use. It is then practically as a hard as a block of wood, yet of almost no appreciable weight.
The inflation process was subject to variation in the amount of air pumped into the bladder, the air released while tying it off, and the tightness of the knot. One ball might be as tight as a drum, and the next easily indented with a hand squeeze. The variations also affected the speed of deflation, which affected how the ball bounced off the ground on a dropkick and the distance punters and kickers could boot the ball. At a time when punting and kicking were more critical elements of the game than today, the ball's inflation level impacted the outcome of many games, whether the competitors realized it or not.
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