"In the beginning the golf ball was made of wood, probably of beech, but the feather ball, or 'featherie' came into existence around 1618, marking the first ball improvement in golf. The feather ball was made in Scotland for more than 200 years until it was superseded by the gutta percha ball in 1848. It was expensive and easily damaged and the single element that dictated that the game was played in its earliest stages by the wealthier sections of the community who could afford the price of the golf balls. The task of crafting a featherie was not only arduous for the ball makers of the time, but very detrimental to their health. The ball maker's lungs were filled with feather dust and the constant pressure on the chest of forcing the boiled feathers into the small leather pouch with a special crutch-handled filling rod, took its toll. Even the most experienced ball maker could only manufacture four geather balls in a day, which accounted for their price of three to four shillings, a huge sum at the time and more even than the cost of a golf club."