François Mingaud
Captain François Mingaud (sometimes spelled Mingot, Mengaud or Minguad,[1] and often referred to simply as M. Mingaud; 4 January 1771 in Le Cailar, Nîmes, France – 23 December 1847, in Rotterdam, Netherlands[2][3]) was an infantry officer in the French army and a carom billiards player. He is credited as the inventor of the leather tip for a billiards cue, a "possibly not original idea" that he perfected while imprisoned in Bicêtre (now Bicêtre Hospital) for political outspokenness.[2][4] This revolutionized the game of billiards, allowing the cue ball to be finely manipulated by the application of spin.
In 1807 he was released from prison and began to demonstrate his invention and spin technique in Paris. Part of his showmanship involved feigning extreme horror as the cue ball recoiled towards him after striking the object ball, and then persuading the audience that the balls should be seized and condemned because they were "tormented by a devil".[2] Mingaud is also credited with the discovery that by raising the cue vertically he could perform what is now known as a massé shot.[4]
Mingaud was born in 1771 in Le Cailar near Nîmes in the Département of the Gard in France. He joined the army under Napoleon and served as a captain.
After his release from prison in Paris during 1807 he toured France and Europe demonstrating his 'trick shot' prowess.
In 1822 Mingaud settled on the Hoogstraat in Rotterdam and by 1835, when he was 64, he had remarried.
French archives show Mingaud was arrested in the Netherlands for "involvement in the conspiracy of Cadoudal," (referring to Georges Cadoudal) and labeled an "adventurer whose presence in society can only be dangerous."[5] He was imprisoned in Bicêtre, a men's prison in Paris which is now the site of Bicêtre Hospital.[5] (Many internet sources incorrectly report the Bastille as the site of Mingaud's imprisonment, but this is impossible. The Bastille was destroyed in 1789 during the French Revolution prior to Mingaud's incarceration.)
