AGATE:
noun. A type of fibrous quarts called
chalcedony;
used to make marbles highly desired by players, as in
bulls-eye agate. 2. A name adopted by early American
marble manufacturers to describe any and all classes,
types and styles of marbles, including; ceramic, as in the
trademarked Dyke’s American Agates, registered to
Samuel C. Dyke; also, glass toy marbles as in
Akro Agates registered to
The Akro Agate Company.
See photo
AGATE, IMITATION:
See Imitation Agate.
See photo
AGATE, INDIAN:
noun. A brown, opaque marble, a term used in
Kentucky. (CASSIDY)
AGATE, SNOT:
noun. An agate with a veined and clouded interior;
considered very superior, a term used in Nebraska. (CASSIDY)
AGEING:
pronoun. Variant of Edging, a term used in
Oklahoma. (CASSIDY)
AGGIE:
noun. Also aggy, aggety; a player’s term for a
marble; can be of any class, type or style, though
originally derived from the word agate (see,)
as in a natural stone marble.
AGATE, AGGIE, BULL’S-EYE:
noun. A name for a marble, a specific type of
marble made from agate, a naturally occurring stone called
chalcedony, a type of quartz, with bands of different
colors layered through the body of the stone. When ground
into spheres the marble appears to have a bull’s-eye
design at one pole. Primarily used as shooter marbles,
ranging in size from 11/16” to 7/8”; these were among the
most coveted of all toy marbles. Historically produced in
the Iber-Oberstein area of Germany, the oldest of these
highly collectable marbles have a diagnostic mark
consisting of tiny facets covering the sphere,
representing spots where the marble touched the grinding
stone, showing it is a hand-made marble. Those produced in
later years might also be dyed to enhance the color and
with the invention of modern lapidary equipment the
marbles are free of facets. These prized marbles were
still sold in the USA in the 1970s, but are unavailable
from any source today. See photo
AGGIE, CAT’S EYE:
noun phrase. An agate marble that gives the
appearance of having the likeness of a cat's eye in it; a
term used in Ohio around 1900. (HARDER)
AKRO AGATE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. (1911-1951) A marble company located
in Akron, Ohio, formed in 1911 to sell glass marbles made
by The M.F, Christensen & Son Company and sold
through direct advertising in popular boys magazines. In
1915 the company opened their own marble factory in
Clarksburg, West Virginia, but company’s office and owners
remained in Akron. It was Akron’s last marble company,
closing its doors in 1951.
AKRON DAILY NEWS, THE:
proper name. A newspaper owned by Walter Wellman,
doing business in Akron, Ohio in the early 1880s. It had a
reform oriented editorial page and was Republican press.
However, in 1882 it endorsed a local Democratic candidate
for Congress (who won) earning the paper the title of a
Mugwamp Press. In 1883 Wellman was offered a lucrative
job at a prestigious Chicago newspaper and turned his
newspaper over to Samuel Dyke,
his protégé in the field of journalism. Wellman has just
incorporated a small company called
the
Akron Toy Company and when he left town he turn
this over to Sam Dyke as well. In 1884, Dyke used the
newspaper’s presses in a novel way; printing small
lithographs of Grover Cleveland, Democratic Candidate for
President and pasting them onto a miniature replica of a
whiskey jug; the product called a “Little Brown Jug”; it
sold as a campaign novelty and was a huge success. Dyke
turned those profits into a new venture to mass-produce
clay marbles.
AKRON, OHIO:
noun. The industrial center of marble manufacturing
in the United States from its beginnings in1884 to 1951;
location of 32 marble factories or their corporate
headquarters; the place where the first toy marble was
mass-produced in the USA; this also being the first
mass-produced toy - a clay marble. Was a huge center of
ceramic manufacturing in the 19th and early 20th
centuries; achieving in the year 1900, the title of
largest producer of ceramic good in the world. Also the
location of non-profit,
The American Toy Marble Museum,
since1990, now located at Lock 3 Park in Downtown
Akron, former site of
The American Marble & Toy
Manufacturing Company.
AKRON INSULATOR & MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A company founded by Samuel C. Dyke (see)
in Akron, Ohio in1893; manufacturers of ceramic and glass
toy marbles; also made electrical insulators.
AKRON MARBLE & NOVELTY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. This was one of a number of
marbleworks started by Samuel C. Dyke upon his leaving as
Superintendent of
The American Marble & Toy
Manufacturing Company in 1892. This was a partnership
with P.D. Hall, Jr. one of Akron’s most prosperous
merchants. The office of this company, Sam’s office, was
at Hall’s Corners, the heart of Akron’s business
district, a very prestigious address in 1890s Akron. This
company evolved into The Akron Stone Marble Company with
its marbleworks located in nearby Boston, Ohio.
AKRON ROLLER(S):
noun. A marble; a term coined by collectors to
identify stoneware marbles glazed in multiple colors and
in abstract patterns, appearing in some cases like random
stripes of different colors; as if inspired by the
artist/painter Jackson Pollock; the result of a simple
coloring process, patented by A.L. Dyke in 1890. The
process involved pouring a thin layer of glaze in a pan or
sheet of metal and then rolling a stoneware marble through
the glaze; moving the marble onto other sheets with
different colored glazes. These were made by
The
American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company until
1904. See photo.
AKRON STONE MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. (1892-1898) Located in Boston, Ohio,
seven miles north of Akron on the Ohio & Erie Canal.
Owned by Samuel C. Dyke, in partnership with P.D. Hall of
Akron, converted an old grist mill on the Cuyahoga River
to grind stone “there convenient and in abundance,” into
marbles. A copy of the old German marble mills, this was
America’s only marble mill. These marbles appear similar
in appearance to limestone marbles from Germany (also
see,) but these marbles were manufactured from a blue-gray
shale found in throughout the Cuyahoga River Valley and
are therefore easy to identify. See
photo.
AKRON TOY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. (1884-1888) Founded by newspapermen
Walter Wellman and Samuel C. Dyke of the
Akron Daily
News and others;
Incorporated August 1, 1883, capital stock $10,000;
intended to
produce toy banks (the type unknown,) began by
manufactured “Little Brown Jugs”as a campaign novelty for
the 1884 US Presidential election and the first toy
marbles turned out in the United States.
AKRON WHITE SAND & STONE COMPANY:
proper name. When deposits of excellent quality
sand for glass making was discovered just outside of
Akron, in the early 1890s, this glass sand manufacturing
company was founded; the company pioneered the development
of sandstone crushing machinery; after a fire and
litigation,
J.H. Leighton was appointed receiver by the
bank; Leighton turned the company around and made it
profitable, much to the delight of the bankers; produced
fine glass sands for Ohio and Midwest glass factories.
Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, one of America’s finest
castles, now stands upon this site. Another site where
sandstone was quarried for this company, in nearby Copely,
Ohio, continued producing fine sand for the 3M Company’s
sandpaper until the 1980s.
ALABASTER:
noun. A stone used to make marbles; highly
desirable by players. The agates manufactured by
The
California Agate Company were made from Mexican
Alabaster.
ALABASTER(S):
noun. A players’ term for a ‘real’ marble, one made
of marble, also called Marble Marbles; and what were
called real taws, of pink marble, with dark red veins,
‘blood allies’, were preferred to all others.” (Francis.)
ALBRIGHT COMPANY, J.E., THE:
proper name. A toy marble company located in
Ravenna, Ohio, 12 miles east of Akron; made clay marbles;
the last ceramic toy marble factory in the United States.
The company stopped manufacturing clay marbles in 1942 at
the beginning of World War Two, turning its production
capacities over to the war effort. You can easily identify
the clay marbles made by this company because they are
almost perfectly spherical. Most clay marbles made by
other marble companies used S.C. Dyke’s patented technique
and these are not perfectly spherical.
The J.E. Albright Company
also distributed marbles made by
The Christensen Agate Company in the 1920s.
See photo
ALBRIGHT & LIGHTCAP COMPANY, THE:
proper name. In the late 1980s
John E. Albright &
John J. Lightcap bought out their bosses, the
Mishler
Brothers, and took over the Limaville Marble Works
in Limaville, Ohio. Soon thereafter the marbleworks burnt
to the ground; their near location to the railroad tracks
likely allow a spark from a passing freight train to
ignite the roof. Fully insured the partners moved their
marbleworks to a new location in Ravenna, Ohio. Later
Albright bought out Lightcap and changed it’s name to
The J.E. Albright Company.
ALLIES:
noun. A player’s term for a common marble, most
often found in the historic record and rarely if ever used
today.
ALLEY, ALLY, ALAY: noun. 1. The area marked off to play
marbles in. 2. A favorite marble used as a taw or shooter.
3. A marble made of alabaster. Origin uncertain; perhaps a
diminutive of alabaster; qualified etymology accepted by
Webster's New International Dictionary (2nd ed.) and the
American College Dictionary (New York, 1947); may have had
origin in the game of bowling (see 1 above). Standard
marble term 1720-1848. (HARDER)
ALLEY AGATE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass marble company founded by
Lawrence Alley in Paden City, West Virginia in 1929;
also operated in Sistersville, Pennsboro and St. Marys all
of West Virginia. In 1949 Mr. Alley sold his St. Marys
marbleworks to the partnership of Sellers Peltier and
Berry Pink who changed the name of the company to
Marble King. Alley’s marbles are commonly called
West Virginia Swirls. (MARBLE ALAN.)
ALLEY, BOB: noun. A
marble; “made from Saxony stone as a rule; the bob alley
was also called a “Tom-troller,” and was used to “bob”
with, being larger than the other alleys, which were
usually employed as “snappers” or “shooters.”
(Steele.)
ALLEY, BLOOD
(bloody-olley, bloody-alley):
noun. A highly valued marble made of red painted
alabaster or clay, or painted with red streaks or circles.
(HARDER)
ALLEY, BLOOD:
noun. A stone marble;
a
players’ term for a ‘real’ marble, one made of marble,
actually alabaster, also called Marble Marbles;
“and what were called real taws, of pink marble, with dark
red veins, ‘blood allies’, were preferred to all others.”
(Francis.)
Also see Alabaster or
Marble Marbles.
ALLEY(S,) CROTON:
noun. A players’ name for an unglazed porcelain
marble “handsomely marbled with blue;” a type referred to
in the historical record as a Jasper. (ROBERTS)
Also, the term “croton” refers to a plant with variegated
(different colors) leaves. Jaspers are a variegated
white-bodied stoneware with different colored lines of
blue, green and rarely pink, running through the body of
the marble. (Roberts)
ALLEY, LAWRENCE:
noun. proper name.
Owner operator of at least three marbleworks in West
Virginia during the 1930s and 40s;
The Alley Agate
Company.
ALLEY TAW
(tor, taw): noun.
(tautological compound). The offensive marble, or the
marble used as a shooter. (HARDER)
ALLEY, WHITE
(white-al): noun. A
marble made of white alabaster or of clay painted white.
(1848) see alley for several quotations. (HARDER) See
photo
ALOX MANUFACTURING COMPANY, THE:
noun. proper name. A toy manufacturing company
located in Saint Louis, Missouri; made glass marbles for a
short time after WWII.
AMERICAN AGATE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. Believed founded by Samuel C. & Acteaon
L. Dyke (older brother of Samuel) in Akron Ohio at some
time after Sam invented his method of mass-producing
marbles in 1884 and before the incorporation of
The
S.C. Dyke & Company in 1888; Sam and his brother A.L.
were at times partners and at times fierce competitors.
It’s reasonable to suppose that Sam and A.L. were partners
in the formation of this company, believed to be at the
site of Lock 3 in Akron, later, in 1891, the site of
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company; then
Sam and A.L. parted ways and Sam started another
marbleworks further north on Main St.
AMERICAN CORNELIAN MARBLE:
noun. A named
manufactured by The M.
F. Christensen & Son Company from 1905 to 1917 in
Akron, Ohio; one of the most highly prized marbles in the
hobby. It is a hand-gathered, machine-made marble
using the rare oxblood color of glass. Also called
an immie or imitation agate in the historic
record; cornelian is an antiquated spelling of the
more modern usage carnelian. Collectors call this
marble a brick, because it has the color of a paving
brick. See Brick
AMERICAN MAJOLICA MABLES:
noun. A term seen in the historic record, found
mainly in retail and wholesale catalogs, like Sears
and Butler Bros around 1900, to describe a ceramic
marble with a variety of different colored shellac or
glazed designs. This was a patented toy marble made by
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company, US
Patent Number 439,031. They were later also manufactured
by other Akron, O. ceramic marble works and also
manufactured in Germany and imported to the United States
after World War One.
AMERICAN MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
noun. proper name. A company formed in 1899 by
parties from Navarre and Coshocton, O. to manufacture
hand-made, glass marbles using J. H. Leighton’s patented
tools and technique. See Navarre.
AMERICAN GLASS MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
noun. proper name. A glass marble company founded
by
James Harvey Leighton in Steubenville, O. in the late
1890s’ formed as a partnership with a group of Pittsburgh
businessmen; manufacturers of hand-made glass marbles.
AMERICAN MARBLE & TOY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, THE:
proper name. (1891-1904) This Akron, Ohio company
was the largest toy company in the United States during
the 19th century;
Incorporated July 1891, with $100,000 capital stock;
employed 350 hands, mostly women and children to make
marbles and toys. The company’s founder and first
Superintendent was Samuel C. Dyke. They made almost all
classes, types and styles of ceramic marbles, also
hand-made glass marbles from cane and hand-made,
hand-gathered glass marbles. The company burnt to the
ground in 1904. Today the site is a city park, Lock 3
Park, and is the home of The American Toy Marble Museum.
AMERICAN TOY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, THE:
proper name. This Salem, Massachusetts company
manufactured the game Marble Muggins, a popular
turn of the 20th century toy that used marbles.
The object was to shoot marbles at a colorful cardboard
prop featuring a character with a great big smile, mugging
as if challenging the player.
AMERICAN ONYX MARBLE:
noun. A trademarked name given to a specific type
of hand-made glass marble, the first glass marbles made in
the United States; manufactured using a patented technique
invented by J.H. Leighton in Akron, Ohio Also see
Onyx. See photo
ANNEAL (annealing oven):
noun. A glassmakers term for a specialized oven and
process used to slowly cool a hand-made glass marble to
room temperature over a 24 hour period. This gives the
glass marble strength and keeps it from easily cracking,
or breaking.
ANTE (antie):
noun. As used in the games of marbles, where each
game starts with players placing into a ring an equal
number of marbles, or marbles judge to be of equal value
(five commies might equal a crockie,
5 crockies might equal a
glassie, etc.) as an entrance fee to be
included in the game when playing
For Keeps.
ANNY:
noun. A choice marble; term used in Connecticut.
Evidently a phonetic variant of Alley. (CASSIDY)
ANTE UP:
interjection. A player’s term; call to place your
marbles (your ante) in the ring.
ANYS (ennies):
interjection. A call which if said before an
opponent said vents
entitles the player to any (whence the name) of
a number of advantages; he may “tee up the objective,
remove an obstruction in the surface of the ground, fill
in a depression, exercise roundance, etc.,” term
used in Oklahoma. (CASSIDY)
ANYTHING(S):
interjection.
A player’s term, which if called out first, allows the
players to take liberal advantage of all the rules of a
marbles game (the opposite of nothing(s).
ARABIAN TWO-HANDED FLICK:
noun. A player’s term describing a marble shooting
style seen in North Africa, Middle East, India and now
elsewhere in the world; described by Daniel C. Beard in
his work, The Outdoor Handy Book (1882) “The
Arabian Way of Shooting.. . little Arabs have a curious
manner of shooting. They place their taw in the hollow
between the middle and the forefinger of the left hand,
the hand being flat on the ground with the fingers closed.
The forefinger of the right hand is then pressed firmly on
the end joint of the middle finger, which pushes the
middle finger suddenly aside, and the forefinger slips out
with sufficient force to propel the shooter very
accurately.” (see photo)
2. A variant of this shooting style used in South America
and elsewhere; the hands held perpendicular to the ground;
the shooter held, as if teed up, between the middle and
forefinger of the left hand, with the other fingers of the
hand otherwise closed. The middle finger of the right hand
is held back in a trigger position by the thumb. The two
hands come together so the marble is now balanced on the
right and left sides by both forefingers and resting
lightly on the middle finger of the left hand. At the
proper moment the shooter is flicked towards its target by
the middle finger of the right hand. (See
photo.) A 25 mm (one
inch) shooter marble, or
boulder, is most commonly used for both these
shooting styles.
ARCHES:
noun. A marble game; also the apparatus used in the
game; same as Roley Boley and Bridgeboard;
also the carved out tunnel-like holes, of various sizes,
in the apparatus called a marble rake, or simply
rake. (Steele.)
ASIAN SLING:
noun. A players’ term; describing a shooting style
used in many marbles games played in Asia and elsewhere.
The player must plant their right thumb on the ground; a
25 mm (one inch) marble is then placed in front of the
middle finger of the right hand; the thumb and forefinger
of the left hand draw the marble back, bending the middle
finger to its maximum point. At the correct moment the
player releases the marble and is projected forward
towards its target. (See photo.)
AT A CLACK:
phrase. Together; referring to the marbles (usually
“two at a clack,” sometimes three, rarely four) placed at
one time in a pink.
(CASSIDY)
AUGER, MARBLE
:
noun. A term used in the glass marble industry for
a marble-forming machine; consisting of twin, helically
grooved cylinders, which turns a gob, or charge of molten
glass into a sphere. Invented by Martin Frederick
Christensen of Akron, Ohio, around 1910; the design of
which was stolen and patented in 1915 by his trusted
bookkeeper Horace C. Hill, to form
The Akro Agate Company.
Hill was later arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to
prison for the theft. In 1929, the federal courts
recognized that M.F. Christensen invented the marble
auger in the case of The
Peltier Glass Company v. The Akro Agate
Company and voided the Hill’s patent claims. (See
photo of a 1940s era
marble auger donated to The American Toy Marble
Museum by Johns Manville Corporation.)
AVENTURINE:
noun. A beautiful type of glass that has tiny
sparkling grains in its body; it is the result of
manipulating the furnace environment while melting a batch
of formula into glass. Most often see in shades of greens,
but also in black, rarely reds.
Back to Index
BABYING, BABYING-IN:
noun. A player’s term; “Babying is shooting with
little force, so as not to knock the ducks far or
to cause your taw to fly far. Babying is not of
much use in large rings, but is often resorted to in small
ringers and in such games as
Follerings. There is no rule that can make you
stop babying, so the other players always try ridicule.
This never succeeded to any extent, though it eases the
minds of the unsuccessful player when another boy is
skinning the ring by babying. (Beard,
The Outdoor Handy Book.)
Also see Laying-in and Sneaking; variously
called, Baby-fingers, Baby-up,
BABY-FINGERS:
interjection. A call to give oneself an advantage (baby-up)
and deny it to opponents; a term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY)
BACK-KILL: verb. To
strike a defensive marble with a taw that is rebounding,
as heard in Kentucky. (HARDER.)
BACK-KILLING
(back-killin'): noun.
Act of striking a defensive marble with a taw that is
rebounding. Back-killin'(s) the cry that gives legality to
the accidental strike. Vence ye back-killin'(s) The cry
that revokes the accidental strike, if said before the
call that legalizes the strike. (HARDER.)
BACK-LICK: verb.
Variation of back-kill, 1888 Eggleston in Century
Magazine. Their cries of `rounses,' `taw,' `dubs,'
`back licks,' might often be heard." Backlicks; no
back-licks. (HARDER.)
BACK SLAPS:
noun. A marble game played between railroad tracks;
the marbles are thrown against a rail so as to bounce back
(whence the name) and hit other marbles lying on the
ground; a term used in Wisconsin. Also see cross tracks.
(CASSIDY)
BACKSPIN:
noun. A players’ term describing a highly desirable
action on a shooter marble. Also called English. An
advanced player can control the amount of backspin deemed
necessary by moving the shooter up higher on their thumb
knuckle. Also see Cunny Thumb or Scrumpy
Knuckles, shots that give topspin, a less
desired spin, rarely used by advanced players.
BACK TO TAW: adverb
phrase. In certain situations a player must return to
the point from which he rolled or shot his marble, a term
used around1899. (HARDER.)
BAGATELLE: noun. A
marbles game and game board; the fore-runner of the
pin-ball game; popular around the turn of the 20th
century;
BAG, MARBLES:
noun. A cloth or leather bag, usually with a double
drawstring to hold a player’s marbles; sometimes imprinted
with a company logo or advertisement.
BAG HOLDER:
noun. A player’s term used in the game of Pyramids;
at the beginning of each game the players choose a bag
holder. (OTIS)
BAIT: noun. See
Ante.
BAITS:
noun. The marbles which a player puts in the game
as his ante. (ZUGER)
BALDY:
noun. A ball bearing used as a marble; the term used in
London, England. (CASSIDY.)
BALLOT BOX MARBLES:
noun. Describes a number of white and black marbles
popularly used for voting at board meeting, social clubs
and professional society meetings. A white marble
signifies yea, a positive or affirmative vote. A black
marbles signified nay, a negative vote. A box with a hole
in the top, called a ballot box, was passed to each member
who would vote on an issue by placing either a white or
black marble into the box. These marbles were commonly
made of hand-made glass, but also of ceramic; later in the
1930s and forward, machine-made glass marbles were used.
BAMBOOZER:
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
BANDED OPAQUE MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term, the name given to a specific type of
hand-made, glass marbles made from canes;
manufactured in Lauscha, Germany between the late 1890s
and 1936. These types were also made in Akron, Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company in
1892 and 1893 by the Creighton Bros. These marbles
have two cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily
identifying that it was made from a glass cane; have an
opaque base, usually of white glass but sometimes of a
pastel color. They have thin stripes of colored glass upon
its surface, running from pole to pole and the stripes are
irregularly spaced and appear as if brush on the marble’s
surface. Some of these marbles are out-of-round. (See
photo)
BANDED TRANSLUCENT MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between the late 1890s and 1936. These types
were also made in Akron, Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company
in 1892 and 1893 by the
Creighton Bros. These marbles have two cut-off marks,
one at each pole, easily identifying that it was made from
a glass cane; its base glass is translucent, or partly
transparent, comes in a wide variety of colors and has
thin stripes of colored glass upon its surface, running
from pole to pole. (See photo)
BANDED TRANSPARENT MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between the late 1890s and 1936. These types
were also made in Akron, Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company
in 1892 and 1893 by the
Creighton Bros. These marbles have two cut-off marks,
one at each pole, easily identifying that it was made from
a glass cane; its base glass is transparent, comes in a
wide variety of colors and has thin stripes of colored
glass upon its surface, running from pole to pole. (See
photo)
BANKER:
noun. The player who values the marbles in a game
of chance.
(HARDER.)
BENNINGTONS:
noun. A collectors’ term for a type of glazed
stoneware marbles; in common colors of brown and blue,
and another ‘fancy’ type that have a mixture of both blue
and brown glaze on a white background that appear to be
applied with a sponge. In the early years of the hobby
many collectors were under mistaken impression these were
manufactured in Rockingham potteries in Bennington,
Vermont because they used the same colors on their
products; thus the name. These marbles were made in huge
numbers in both Germany and in Akron, Ohio. Identifiable
features on these marbles are small round imperfections in
the glaze, called eyes. In the manufacture of
glazed stoneware marbles, when they come out of the
kiln they are stuck together by the glaze and must be
broken apart. This leaves a diagnostic mark in she shape
of a small circle of discolored glaze at the points where
the marbles touched each other. These were commonly called
crockies, or crockery marbles in the
historic record.
BARBERTON GLASS NOVELTY & SPECIALTY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass marbleworks located Barberton,
Ohio, near Akron; operating from 1906 to 1908; owned and
operated by
J.H. Leighton; manufacturers of
‘hand-made, hand-gathered’ glass marbles; all showing a
melted pontil, an identifiable feature of Leighton’s
marbles, the same types of marbles made at all of
Leighton’s numerous Akron area glass marbleworks. (
http://www.akronmarbles.com/barberton_glass_novelty.htm
)
BARIO:
noun. A toy marble made from barium; hence the
name. (HARDER.)
BEAD:
noun. A cheap marble; a term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
BEARD, DANIEL C.:
proper noun. (1850-1941) Known as ‘Uncle Dan’ to
millions of Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts; was a founding
father of The Boy Scouts of America and it’s first
Commissioner. He was a prolific author and illustrator.
Illustrated a number of books for Mark Twain including
Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, Tom Sawyer
Abroad and American Claimant; wrote a large
number of books and articles for boys on outdoors
activities, woodcrafts and sports, including
The Outdoor Handy Book
originally published in 1882 and in continuous publication
to the present. This is the definitive work on playing
marbles in the United States and still among the best in
publication today. Beard spent his formative years in
Painesville, Ohio, near Akron and the rest of his
childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio where he played a lot of
marbles. “When we played marbles we played in a bull ring,
shooting with our knuckles on the ground on the line
forming the circle. The marbles in the center were called
ducks. We did not bowl them out but “lofted” on them in a
most skillful manner. The taw marble with which we shot
described a slight curve through the air, skillfully and
forcefully striking the duck.” (Hardly A Man Is Now
Alive, The Autobiography of Dan Beard, Doubleday, Inc.
New York, 1939, p 92.) Photo.
BELL:
verb. To pick up the marbles and run, not with
intention of keeping them. Perhaps from "to pick up
everything and run when the school bell rings." (HARDER)
See grabs.
BELL A MIRVIE:
noun. phrase. “To “bell a mirvie” is to run away
with it, but is hardly understood as denoting actual
theft.” (PATTEN) See grabs.
BERRY PINK:
proper name. Known as the "Marble King", Mr. Berry
Pink was involved with selling and marketing toy marbles
from the 1930's to 1960s. He started a marble company St.
Mary’s, West Virginia in the 1950s named “Marble King”
and later relocated in Paden City, West Virginia where it
is still in business. The company specializes in
manufacturing marbles for the board game industry and the
only manufacturer in the USA still making Cats-Eye
marbles.
BIF(F):
verb. To hit or strike a marble with the taw, a
term used in New England. (HARDER.)
BIG RING:
noun. A large marble ring, usually over ten feet in
diameter. (ZUGER.)
BIG RING:
noun. A marble game using a ring from 6 to 8 feet
in diameter with 13 to 17 agates at the exact center in
the form of a cross. Players lag for first play,
knuckle down tight and shoot from outside the ring
attempting to knock agates out, thus winning them. Upon
knocking out an agate, the shooter remains in the ring or
pays to get out. If a shooter is knocked out of the ring,
its owner is out of the game; the game as played in
Massachusetts and Wisconsin. (CASSIDY)
Also,
Big Ring is one of the games that evolved into the game
called Ringer.
In the
above sentence, “Upon knocking out an agate, the
shooter remains in the ring or pays to get out” is
believed to be a variation of the poison shooter rule.
A player knocking a target marble out of the ring, and the
shooter remains in the ring gets to shoots again. However,
if the player fails to knock a target marble out of the
ring and their shooter comes to rest inside the ring, it
becomes poison, must stay in the ring and it
becomes a target for the opponents. If a poison shooter is
knocked from the ring, its owner in some versions of the
game is killed or out of the game. Of particular
interest in the above description is the unique rule or
opportunity for the owner of the poison shooter to
pay to get out. In certain cases, it might be to
the advantage of the player with a poison shooter,
depending upon the skill level of the opposition, to give
each of other players a marble for the right to remove his
poison shooter from the ring, instead of risking his
shooter being knocked out of the ring and the player being
killed and tossed out of the game.
BIRDCAGE MARBLE(s):
noun. A players’ term for a type of Cats-eye marble
where the interior colored vanes do not meet in the
center, and looking as the clear interior is caged by
vertical lines running just under the surface of the
marble. Tern as used in Orange County, CA.
BLACK BEAUTIES:
noun. Shooters usually made of obsidian or black
agate. Heavy, extremely rare and prized. (FERRETTI.) See
Snowflake Obsidian.
BLIZZARD:
noun. A term for a specific type of hand-made glass
marble made in Germany, called Snowflake marbles in
the US historic record, Glimmers in the German
historic record and Micas by collectors; a
transparent marble containing such large amount of mica
flakes it almost prevents one from seeing through the
transparent glass; the mica sometimes swirls inside the
clear glass in a twisting pattern giving the impressions
of heavy snowfall and high winds, thus the name
blizzard.
BLOCKING:
verb. A British players’ term noting a foul,
an infraction of the rules of marbles, by interfering with
a marble or tolley while still in motion.
BLOOD ALLEY:
noun. A stone marble;
a
players’ term for a ‘real’ marble, one made of marble,
actually alabaster, also called Marble Marbles;
“and what were called real taws, of pink marble, with dark
red veins, ‘blood allies’, were preferred to all others.”
(Francis.)
BOB:
verb. To toss a Tom-troller (a marble larger
than an alley) as in the game of Bob-on-the-line.
(Steele.)
BOBBER:
noun. A large marble; also called a Tom-troller in
some localities. (Steele.)
BOBBER:
noun. One who bobs, see bobbing. (Steele.)
BOBBING, Bobbed:
verb. “defined as a “plumb shot” with “no
dribbling. That is the bobber must strike the
marble aimed at before it reaches the ground. (Steele.)
BOB-ON-THE-LINE:
noun. A marbles game; “in placing the marbles they
were arranged on a line, and at a distance of about ten
feet the player “bobbed” at them with his “bobber”
or “Tom-troller,” as it was called in some
localities. (Steele.)
BOGARD & SON COMPANY, THE C.E.
proper name. A glass toy marble factory located in
Cairo, West Virginia. Founded in 1971 upon the purchase of
The Heaton Agate Company; manufactured West
Virginia swirls, cats eyes, game board marbles and
industrial marbles.
removed upon industry mergers in 1987 to Reno, Ohio
becoming JABO, Inc.;
BOGARD, CLAYTON E.:
proper name. Founder of the
C.E. Bogard Company
of Cairo, West Virginia in 1971.
BOGARD, JACK:
proper name. Son of Clayton Bogard, took over the
operations of his father’s company in 1983 and changed the
name to The Bogard Company. In 1987 removed to
Reno, Ohio in 1987 to form Jabo, Inc.
BOMB, BOMBSIES:
noun.
A
type of shot made by a player; shooting into the air,
above the ring surface so the shooter marble falls down,
hopefully, on the targeted marble. Similar to, but not as
skillful a shot as lofting; Ferretti describes it
as “a rather unsophisticated arching, dropping shot.”
BOOGIE SHOT:
noun. This occurs when a player drops a marble,
picks it up instantly, and shoots from where it fell.
(Sackett.)
BOOLS:
noun. A marble game in Manitoba; the same games as
Knuckley; “Played in Scotland 76 years ago” (as written in
1959, putting the date at 1883.) (HARDER.) Also; lag at
the bools. (CASSIDY.)
BOOVER:
noun. See bowl. (HARDER.)
BORGFELDT & COMPANY, THE GEORGE:
A New York City distributor of toy marbles; operated
around the turn of the 20th century;
represented The M.F. Christensen & Son Company, and
others; also imported and distributed German toy marbles.
BOSS:
noun. A large playing marble, of either stone or
iron. (HARDER)
BOSS OUT:
noun. A game of marbles in which two boys
alternately shoot at their taws, usually called bounces in
this game. Probably from buss, to kiss, i.e., the marble
that is kissed, or touched, is out of play. Also known as
boss and span: the boss, or taw, is pitched or
tossed out and the other boss has to span the distance in
order to hit the first one.
(HARDER.)
See Games, Boss Out.
BOSTON:
noun. A marble game played with a large ring; a
player keeps the marbles shot out of the ring; a term used
in Oklahoma. Also, as used in Washington State and
Missouri, the player’s hand is not obliged to hug the
ground. (CASSIDY)
BOSTON, PLUMP:
noun. A type of Boston in which the marbles are
plumped ; the term used in Washington. (CASSIDY.)
BOULDER:
noun. A large toy marble being upwards of one inch
(25 mm) in diameter, to large to hold and shoot in the
traditional American style, but used in many different
types of games that require no shooting skills, instead
being tossed, bowled or pitched towards a target; as used
in the games of Droppies and Chasies; see Games. It
seems every neighborhood had their own name for this size
of marble; Bamboozer, Bumbo, Caboulder, Crackers,
Crushers, Globolla, Jumbo, Knocker, Lob Taw, Scaboulder,
Sinker, Smashers to name just a few. In countries where
children hold and shoot their marbles in the cunny-thumb,
sling or flicking styles, 25 mm (one inch)
marbles are called shooters. In the United States
and Western Europe, a marble this size is too large to
hold and shoot in the traditional style and marbles this
large are not called or used as shooters. The bags of
marbles sold today at all major retail outlets in the
United States contain a 25 mm marble, are foreign-made,
and cannot be used as shooters in most traditional games
played in the United States.
BOULES, FRENCH:
noun. A French marbles game similar to Bowls
that uses 3’ ceramic marbles, glazed and painted in
fanciful patterns.
BOUNCE:
noun. A marble game, usually played with large
marbles, (1898), "There were large stone marbles called
`bounces' but these were rarely played with. The glass
monstrosity was unknown then." (HARDER.)
BOUNCE:
noun. (Origin unknown.) Partridge derives the word
from bonce, schoolboy's slang for head; possibly related
to bounce). 1. A large marble. 2. A game played with large
marbles, 1862-; but it existed earlier, as noted by John
P. Stilwell, who writes of the game as played in the
1840's. Also as boncer. (Sackett.)
BOUNCE:
noun. A marbles game; “Having
provided yourselves with marbles, called bonces, let
the one agreeing to commence the game, roll his marble a short distance.
His adversary then
shoots at it, and so on in rotation until one or
other wins it, by
striking the marble the number of times agreed upon.”
(Appleton.)
BOUNCE EYE:
noun. A marble game where players drop a boulder
from eye level onto a group of marbles in the center of a
small ring; the object, trying to knock the most marbles
out the ring Also called Eye Drops, Bounce About,
Droppsies, Droppers and Droppings. See Games, Bounce
Eye.
BOUNCE ABOUT:
noun. A marble game, see Bounce Eye.
BOWL(S):
noun. Originally a Scottish game played with
bowls, or large marbles. A popular British game played
in the 19th century. Also, a game, a form of
lawn bowling, that uses a 4” ceramic marble called a
Bowl, or carpet bowl and a 2 1/16” ceramic marble
called a Jack. This game is activity played by Canadian
clubs, for more information visit,
http://www.bowlscanada.com/main.htm. Antique Bowls are
highly collectable. Also verb. To roll a marble
towards a target, as used in lagging.
BOWLDER:
noun. (rare or obscure, probably influenced by both
bowl, "game," and boulder or bowlder, "a large rock"; the
term may have been mistaken for an Indian game of the same
name). A special marble, usually large, used to roll
towards the beginning line in order to determine the order
of shooting. (HARDER)
BOWLER: noun. A players term referring to one who plays
the game of Bowls. See bowl
BOWLER, CRYSTAL: noun.
A bowler made of crystal or similar material; a term used
in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
BOWLING:
verb. A players term describing type of shot made
by, tossing, rolling, or pitching a shooter towards a
target, as in “bowling for the lag . . .” normally
used in games that require little or no skill to play.
BOWLS:
noun. A large ceramic marble, and game, similar to
lawn bowling, as described in Beards,
The
Outdoor Handy Book, “At the beginning of
this century [1800] marbles were sometimes called “bowls,”
and all came from Nuremberg [Germany] . . .”
BREAKAGES:
noun. A British player’s term, is name for the
rules governing how players deal with the occurrence of a
broken marble or tolley.
BRICK: noun. A
marble collectors’ term for the American Cornelian
Marble manufactured by The M. F. Christensen & Son
Company from 1905 to 1917 in Akron, Ohio; one of the
most highly prized marbles in the hobby. It is a
hand-gathered, machine-made marble using the rare
oxblood color of glass. Also called an immie or
imitation agate in the historic record.
BRICK, GREEN: noun.
An American Cornelian Marble that has a certain
amount of green glass within the body of the marble. This
green is not a separate color added during the
manufacturing process to make the marble; it is the result
of the reduction process (denying oxygen to the furnace)
not being totally completed while melting the glass batch.
If the oxygen reduction process was not used, the formula
for the batch would produce a green glass, not a reddish
color. This marble is more desirable to collectors that a
regular cornelian. (See photo)
BRICK, CRYSTAL: noun.
An American Cornelian Marble; this marble was not a
production item, was never offered for sale and is
rightfully called whimsey; a playful use of extra
molten glass being present at the end of the workday and
a glassworker, Harry Heinzelman, made these for personal
use. It is a combination of cornelian and clear glass.
These marbles are extremely rare, extremely desirable and
among the most expensive machine-made marbles in
existence. (See photo)
BRICK, BLACK: noun.
An American Cornelian Marble; due to a partially
incomplete reduction process (see Green Brick) what
appears to be black glass is actually a very dark green
glass. This marble is more desirable to collectors that a
regular cornelian; but not as rare or expensive as a
Green Brick. (See photo)
BRIDGE: noun. A
players’ term; an apparatus made out of wood with a handle
attached having nine or ten different sized arches;
used in the game called Bridgeboard, or Roley
Boley; similar to a marbles rake. (Steele.)
BRIDGEBOARD:
noun. A marble game, also spelled ‘Bridge Board,’
where the object is to shoot your agate through small
arches cut into a board. Unlike the game ‘Nine Bridge,’
where the board stands up on it’s own, a bridgeboard is
held in place by one chosen by the contestants, who they
trust not to move the board and keep it steady. In 1876 a
patent was filed called a Toy Marble Rake, which was used
in the game of Bridgeboard. USPO #
180,226. Some times
called a marble board. Variations called, Arches,
Archboard. See Marbles Rake.
BRITISH MARBLES BOARD OF CONTROL:
proper name. Headquartered at The Greyhound Pub,
in Tinsley Green, Sussex, England; ably and beneficently
governed by Sam Fox for many years, this organization is
responsible for keeping the ancient tradition of
Marbles Day alive in the United Kingdom. The games
played under their authority involve mostly adults through
various clubs and pubs. These offices are also put to good
use encouraging marbles; also though contacts and travel
with others internationally.
BROWN, FRANK J.: proper
name. Founder of The Standard Toy Marble Company
in Akron, Ohio in 1893; a manufacturer of ceramic marbles;
Brown got his start in the marble business as Sam Dyke’s
protégé and used a license to manufacture clay marbles
obtained from Dyke. He also obtained a license to use
Matthew Lang’s injection molding process to make porcelain
marbles. Brown’s company made all types and styles of
ceramic toy marbles. During the 1890s Brown was elected to
the Akron City Council where he served with such
distinction the Council gave him an overcoat (which at the
time was a big deal, since there wasn’t any real pay
involved for his service.) When the City of Akron
purchased the local water company, Brown offered to
provide ceramic marbles to use in the proposed filtration
unit. This experiment was a success so Brown offered his
marbles to other water companies. Producing marbles for
industrial purposes was at that time a novel idea and
proved to be the future of marble-making.
BROWN MARBLE:
noun. phrase. A clay marble. ADS Also, A baked clay
marble, “ten for a penny,” term used in New York.
CASSIDY.)
BROWNIE:
noun. A clay marble.
Akron Daily
Beacon, July 25, 1888 THE FIRST MARBLES MADE IN AMERICA .
. . “these made by Mr. Dyke yesterday was the first
"brownies" or "commas" so far as known ever turned out for
the trade in this country . . .” Also,
Akron Beacon Journal, April 2, 1936, “The 'commies' were
sometimes also called “brownies” and some people used to
say that was for dad,” [Obituary of Frank J. Brown owner
of The Standard Toy Marble Company reported by
Brown's daughter, Mrs. Helen Dewey.
BUBBLES:
noun. Small pockets of air, usually spherical in
shape, captured inside glass marbles, usually a flaw from
a manufacturing point of view; often seen in figure
marbles; in some cases gives a certain fascination to
a clear glass marble.
BUCK:
verb. To bounce a marble against a wall in an
attempt to hit other marbles placed in a line below it;
term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
BULK:
verb. To shoot a marble from the starting line;
term used in 1899. (HARDER.)
BULL:
noun. A large ring in the shape of a circle for
playing marbles also called a bull ring.
BULLET MOLD MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term used to describe a
hand-made glass marble manufactured using a two-part,
clamshell type of mold. These marbles have two
distinguishing and identifiable features; a slight ridge
around the equator of the marble and a cut-mark showing
where the excess glass was removed. These marbles are
typically large, up to 3”, and made of clear glass; were
used on the ends of furniture legs and were held in place
by metal cast in the shape of an eagle’s claw. Smaller
marbles, roughly 5/8” in diameter, were also made using
this process and can sometimes be found in Codd-Bottles.
(See photo)
BULLET MOLD PONTIL:
noun. A collectors’ term used to describe a
cut-mark on a Bullet-Mold Marble.
BULLOCK:
noun. “A “bullock” is a cheat, and “to bullock” is
to cheat at the game.” (PATTEN)
BULL RING:
noun. A marble game for any number of players using
any number of marbles desired; the shooter tries to clear
the ring, keeping the marbles they knock out; if a player
hits another player’s [shooter] marble, he collects one
[target marble] from him – in this respect the game
differs from keeps; the game as played in Ohio.
(CASSIDY) This author is suggesting a variation upon the
poison shooter rule in the game of keeps,
which states, if an opponents shooter is knocked from the
ring, all the opponents winnings are turned over to the
player knocking out the shooter. But in this version of
the game, the player with an offending poison shooter
being knocked out gets off easy with only losing one
marble. And, in some of the more ruthless games of
keeps, a player could lose his prized shooter, if it
became poison and was knocked from the ring. Also,
one in a series of similar games that evolved in 1923 into
the game called Ringer, (see
Games,
Bull Ring.) Also a
term used to describe the circle drawn on the ground in
which the game is played.
BULLSEYE:
noun. A marble game; “shooting at a hole in the
ground or at the marked center of a designated area. Those
who play it say it is a skill game, those more honest
admit there’s a large element of “luck.” (FERRETTI)
BULLSEYE MARBLE, BULLSEYE AGATE:
noun. The name of a marble, usually a natural agate
marble and sometimes also China marbles with painted
rings. On Chinas, the hand-painted bullseye was a popular
design feature and three types of bullseyes are common;
A.) a single solid dot or ‘eye, B.) a single band or ring,
3.) thin, concentric rings. This is a desirable design for
a shooter marble as the player can easily see the
direction of spin. Also the name used for natural agate
marbles where the stripes appear as circles of different
colors ending in a single dot in the center. Bullseye
agate were among the most popular of all shooters marbles
during the later years of the 19th and first 75
years of the 20th centuries in the United
States. Made mainly in Germany, but also Japan and also by
The
California Agate Company during the 1920’s. These are
not made today. See Agate.
BUMBO:
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
BUNGUMS:
noun. A marble game; where players to roll or shoot
their marbles into a series of holes in the ground; in
some neighborhoods the loser was forced to let the others
players take shots at his knuckles. A variation of the
game Knucks.
BUN-HOLE:
noun.
“A diminutive form of the game of golf, but played with
marbles.”
(PATTEN) An old American marbles game dating to the 1850s.
It is similar to the game of Bungums and to the modern
game of marbles golf. Variations of the game are
Rabbit-Hole, Bunny Hole, Bunny in the Hole, Showy-Hole
(sounds like Shuwy Hawle.) The “Bun” in Bun-Hole is
likely an abbreviation of Bunny, as in Rabbit.
BUNKER:
verb. To win at marbles in Missouri. Also, noun.
A complete loss. (HARDER)
BURN:
verb. To disrupt a game by illegal interference.
(HARDER)
BURNED AGATE:
noun. A glazed stoneware marble made in Germany; “In
New York I seldom see this rich brown mottled marble,
whose glossy surface is marked by three rough dots. The
"crockery" never had the splashes of white that
distinguished the "burned agate" of New York, nor the
green of the "moss agate" of the same place. Both of the
latter were unknown to the Western boys twenty-five years
ago.” [1855] (BEARD) See Photo.
BURNINGS:
noun. Probably from game of dice. The act of
breathing or blowing on a marble in order to obtain
certain advantages. Also – interjection. Call of -
Fen burnings, or no burnings - the counter cry to
burnings. (HARDER )
BURNS:
interjection. A call by a player which allows him
to roll his marble again after his shooter has hit some
object that deflects from the desired direction. (HARDER)
Also: Shouted by a player when his marbles hits a stone.
It entitles him to shoot again. (ZUGER)
BURYING:
verb. As used in play of marble games, to press
into the earth a poison shooter, by stepping on it,
giving it some protection from it being knocked out of the
ring by their opponent. “Is the term applied to the act of
placing your taw in a good spot and then forcing it into
the ground with the heel of your shoe. Burying is
sometimes allowed in all games of marbles, but only by
unskilled players; with the others “Fen burying” is
the unwritten rule of the game.” (Beard,
The Outdoor Handy Book)
Back to Index
CABBAGE LEAF:
noun. A glass marble with greenish internal
markings; a term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
CABBAGING:
verb. A term used in the games of British marbles’;
afoul, an act causing a marble or tolley, to
be repositioned on the playing surface of a ring.
CALIFORNIA AGATE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A marble company located in Huntington
Park, California (Los Angles area); they ground Mexican
alabaster (a stone) into marbles by hand; operated from
the mid to late 1920s. See photo
CALIPERS:
noun. A measuring tool used to accurately measure a
marble. In some cases it necessary to cite the size of
marbles in increments of 1/64th of an inch or
mm. Due to the relative slight imperfections in the
spherical body, at these exacting levels of measurement, a
collector might spend a long time taking numerous
measurements until they can find the widest spot on the
marble. Among collectors, size is one of the criteria
relating to the financial value of a toy marble.
CAIRO NOVELTY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A small manufacturer of glass marbles;
founded by Oris Hanlon in Cairo, West Virginia; doing
business from the mid-1940s to early-1950s. Their marbles
are commonly called West Virginia Swirls. (MARBLE ALAN.)
CAMBRIDGE, OHIO:
proper name. Second location of The Christensen
Agate Company’s factory, or marbleworks. The company’s
first factory was located in Payne, Ohio. This Akron
headquartered company produced the first totally automated
marbles (among the most beautiful ever made) in Cambridge
in 1928.
CANE MARBLE(S):
noun. A specific type of hand-made glass marble
made from a decorated glass rod called a cane; most
made in Lauscha, Germany from the 1860s to 1936;
also made at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company
of Akron, Ohio in 1894-96. These marbles have
two cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying
that it was made from a cane. Sometimes these marbles are
called swirls, or German swirls.
They are subdivided by the type of core inside the marble,
i.e.; latticino, solid, divided, etc.; also
subdivision banded transparents, banded opaque,
Indians; also Joseph Coat; also some are
classified as onyx
or slags; also micas, or
glimmers. Once the decorated canes are produced by
glass-masters, lower skilled workers can turn out numerous
marbles from the canes at cottage industry production
facilities. (See photo)
CANDY STRIPES: noun.
A marble; “Swirled red and white or red, white and blue
marbles. Prized early glassies.” (FERRETTI) (See photo)
CANICAS:
noun. The Spanish word for marbles in Latin
America; the word comes from the sounds marbles make when
they hit each other.
CANICK:
noun. A “real agate marble, 30 cents to $150
apiece” (Illinois.) Abbreviation of kinicker,
kinick. (CASSIDY)
CANTON PORCELIAN COMPANY, THE:
noun. proper name. A ceramic company located in
Canton, Ohio (near Akron) and doing business during the
first half of the 20th century; manufactured a
wide variety of products out of porcelain, including
china marbles. These marbles were once used in a
children’s shoe promotion for Buster Brown shoes.
CAPTURE:
verb. A player’s term; to knock a marble out of the
ring, or to win a marble by hitting it, adding it to your
collection, as when playing For Keeps.
CARBOULDER:
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
CARDINAL REDS:
noun. The name of a red-colored, hand-gathered,
onyx marble made by The Akro Agate Company in the
1920s; original boxes containing these marbles have a
label showing the name was used by the company and was not
simply a name adopted by players, as was normally the
case.
CARNE:
noun. Abbreviation of Carnelian, the term used in
Wisconsin. (CASSIDY)
CARNEL:
noun. An old fashion abbreviation of carnelian, the term
used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY)
CARNELIAN:
noun.
A marble made of carnelian or similar material. “The best
marbles,” from South Dakota. “Ten or 15 cents apiece,”
from Nebraska. (CASSIDY) Also;
a type of natural agate stone marble, milled in
Germany, its scientific name is chalcedony, and has a
reddish waxy look. A very popular shooter marble that all
the boys wanted, but was so expensive few could afford
them. Also, a named glass toy marble made by
The Akro Agate Company. Also, CORNELIAN, an old fashion way to
spell the name, was a glass marble manufactured by The
M.F. Christensen & Son Company, of Akron, Ohio from
1905 to 1914. See American Cornelian Marble.
CARPET BALLS:
noun. see Bowls.
CATS-EYE MARBLE, CAT EYE, CAT’S EYE, CATEYE:
noun.
The name of
a common glass marble; first made in Japan in the
early1950’s, then copied by American manufacturers in the
mid-1950s and then by almost all other marble-makers the
world-over. For a period between the 1950s and late 1960s
these, multi-colored and sometimes beautiful marbles were
among the most popular toy marbles made. They are still
made today, though no longer multi-colored or beautiful,
their uniformity of design and identical appearance make
them undesirable for playing games For Keeps. They
are the most common toy marbles sold in the world. See
photo
CERAMIC MARBLE:
noun. Ceramic means made of clay; where the most
popular of all toy marbles made and sold in the USA from
the 1880s to 1950. Hundreds of billions were made and sold
during that time. There are four main types of ceramic
marbles; common clay, stoneware, vitrified stoneware and
porcelain. First manufactured in the US in 1884 by Samuel
C. Dyke, of Akron, Ohio; US Patent Number
432,127; at
the
Akron Toy Company; it was the first mass-produced toy.
Ceramic marbles are probably the oldest toys made.
Previous to 1884 these were imported to the United States
in large numbers, primarily from Germany and were among
the only marbles available in the USA.
CERISE AGATES:
noun. A named marble; red colored, hand-gathered
onyx marble made by The Peltier Glass Company of
Illinois in the 1930s. The word Cerise is French
for ‘cherries’. Similar in appearance to
The Akro Agate Company’s Cardinal Reds, but Cereises’ have a
more orange-ish tinge to the red glass.
CHALCEDONY: noun. A type
of fibrous quartz, agate, used to make toy marbles in the
Idar-Oberstien area of Germany beginning in1775,
production peaked in the 1880s (Carskadden.) However, they
were still being made for a short time after WWII. This is
the stone that Bulls-Eye Agates were made from and
until the post WWII area these were the most expensive and
most coveted marbles by all boys. After WWII their
relatively lower prices made them easily available to most
boys and girls in the USA. They were last sold in
commercial quantities in the USA in the early 1970s and
then disappeared entirely from the American market.
CHALKIES: noun. The name of a marble; not used
today and is more often seen in historic records of the
United Kingdom than the United States. In the United
States it is often seen in marble glossaries describing an
unglazed clay marble, made of white clay, porcelain
(china,) a light colored limestone or gypsum. School
children called them chalkies because they looked and
felted something like a stick of chalk that teachers used
on black boards, but were not so soft. Also, spelled
Chalky.
CHALKY:
noun. A marble made of chalk, a term used in Ohio
around1900. (HARDER)
CHAMPION AGATE COMPANY, THE:
noun. proper name. A marbleworks located in
Pennsboro, West Virginia, started in the marble business
in the late 1930s. They primarily manufactured cheap
clearies, industrial marbles, puries and game marbles for
Chinese Checkers. In later years they made more
interesting multi-colored that are commonly referred to as
West Virginia swirls by collectors. David McCullough,
today the world’s greatest marble-maker and Superintendent
of the JABO marbleworks in Reno, Ohio, got his start at
Champion.
CHANGIES:
noun. interjection. A call that allows the player
to change shooters. (HARDER.)
CHANGING SHOOTERS:
noun. A rule used in American marble tournaments.
The players may change shooters only at the beginning of a
game. The shooter used during the lag must be the
same shooter used during the rest of the game. The penalty
for changing shooters during the game will be forfeiture
of all the marbles knocked out in that turn.
CHARGE:
noun. A glassworkers term
describing a specific amount of molten glass required to
manufacture an item, a marble; also called a gather,
or gob.
CHASER:
noun. A large marble. Too large to be shot
comfortably with the fingers; therefore tossed or dropped
on objective marbles. (CASSIDY) See Boulder
CHASE, CHASING, CHASE UPS, CHASIES:
noun. A marble game; Chase Ups being a
regional variation of the name as used in Akron, Ohio;
most often played while walking to and from school, it is
a traveling game requiring little skill, as the player do
not knuckle down or shoot the marble but toss, roll or
bowl. Taking turns each player uses only one marble,
usually a boulder, trying to hit their opponent’s
marble. Your toss must be made in the same direction as
you’re heading on your walk and it’s unfair to toss your
marble in any other direction. Sometimes the game is
played for Keeps, where if your marble is hit you must
give your opponent a marble. Same as Followings.
CHEAPIE:
noun. A cheap marble; the term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY)
CHEMIST:
noun. A term found in the historic record of the
glass industry to describe the chemical knowledge required
to batch or to mix a formula for colored glass to make
marbles. See
J.H. Leighton.
CHICKADEES:
noun. A glazed or baked marble of very good quality
and with a glossy, porcelain-like finish, mottled, or
“blotchy” in several colors but with no regular design;
slightly smaller than regular mibs; term from Illinois.
(CASSIDY) (See photo)
CHINA ALLEY
(also chiney, chinie, chinee(s): noun. A marble made of
china ware, often with rings painted in different colors.
In Missouri spelled “chinees”in 1899. The term was also
used in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Ohio around 1900.
(HARDER)
CHINAS: noun. The name given to a marble made of
porcelain, can be glazed, unglazed, painted or dyed. A
very popular type of marble first made in Europe; Germany
exported large numbers to the United States; sometimes
highly decorated, with strips and designs or pictures with
detailed images. The highly decorated varieties are rare
and valuable. First made in the USA in the 1880s in Akron,
Ohio - the last companies to make them in the USA, was
The
Canton
Porcelain Co.
(1910s-1930s) near Akron.
They were also made and sold for industrial purposes;
first by The Standard Toy Marble Company. Matthew
Lang of Akron, Ohio, invented an injection molding system
to make them for his company,
The East End Marble
Company, Akron, Ohio, later he licensed his patent to
other Akron area marbleworks in exchange for royalties.
Marbles made of porcelain are among the hardest and most
difficult marbles to break or crack during play.
Un-polished China Marbles, meaning un-glazed,
make some of the very best shooter marbles, because their
slight texture gives players a firm grip, better control,
aim and backspin. Also see Un-Polished Chinas,
Ceramic Marbles, Commies. Also called allies,
chalkies, and plaisters. (See photo)
CHINAS, EARLY PERIOD:
noun. (ca. 1846-1870) Early chinas, or porcelain
marbles, were typically unglazed, or bisque. These marbles
are known for their fine designs; beautifully detailed and
colorful painted brushwork; commonly decorated with sets
of very fine, parallel lines in varied widths and colors;
motifs include pinwheels, bulls-eyes and flowers; some of
them quite elaborate and realistic. (CARSKADDEN 1.) These
unglazed chinas in sizes near 3/4"make excellent shooters,
with their a velvety textures. (See photo)
CHINAS, LATE PERIOD:
noun. (ca 1890-1910) Chinas from the later peiod
are typically glazed and their design is laid on top of
the glaze. Design are no longer fine and elaborate, but
sometimes almost sloppy in application of the paints;
motifs include helixes, spirials and some bulls-eye
paterns. Even cheaper imitation chinas come into the
market at this time; these are unglazed pipe-clays,
kaolin, white-bodied earthenware. Common colors are green,
orange and black. (CARSKADDEN 1.) These later marbles were
likely called chalkies and plasters by the
child players of the game. (See photo)
CHINAS, MIDDLE PERIOD:
noun. (ca. 1870-1890) With increased competition
from USA marble manufacturers, chinas from this period
show short cuts in decoration; an attempt to reduce labor
costs. Designs with helix and spirals are more common in
this period. Imitation chinas were introduced; these were
made of cheaper white earthenware and are glazed.
(CARSKADDEN 1.) (See photo)
CHINAS, MODERN REPRODUCTIONS:
noun. Civil War marbles from Atlanta, dug during
developments for the Olympics; sunken river boat cargo;
from grandmothers, great uncles’ attic’; these phrases
should cause you to run. These are industrial ceramic
balls produced by the billions for industry; chemical, oil
and gas, etc. they are decorated with magic markers called
Sharpies in motifs you’d never see on genuine, authentic,
antique chinas. For the past decade they’ve been sold all
over the USA at flee-markets, yard sales, on Ebay (look
for bad photos,) etc.
CHINESE CHECKERS:
noun. A board game that uses marbles; introduced in
the United States during the late 1930s. The boards used
in this game are usually highly decorated, most often with
oriental designs and bright colors, many printed upon
sheet metal, also can be made of wood or cardboard; 60
puries or solid opaque marbles are used as game
pieces, 10 marbles of six different colors.
CHINESE SPINNER:
noun. A cat eye (marble) in which the design did
not open out into four blades in the manufacturing process
but remains a single wisp of color in the center of the
marble. So called because of a fancied resemblance to a
Chinaman’s eye. (SACKETT)
CHINEY, CHINIE:
noun. A porcelain marble, possibly baby slag for a
china marble.
CHIP:
noun. A collectors’ term used to describe a type of
damage affecting the condition of a glass marble; can
apply to a missing section of a marble, or a tiny spot
where a flake came off; depending upon the size and extent
of chipping the monetary value is reduced.
CHIPPIE:
noun. A marble, usually glass, in a chipped condition; the
term used in Ohio around 1900. (HARDER.)
CHISTENSEN AGATE COMPANY, THE:
proper noun.
America’s fourth machine-made glass toy marble factory;
1925-1927 marble works in Payne, Ohio; 1927-1930 marble
works in Cambridge, Ohio; corporate offices in Akron,
Ohio. This company had no relation to The M.F.
Christensen & Son Company, but the name was chosen
because Christensen meant high quality marbles to
wholesale toy buyers. This company made and sold some of
the most beautiful glass toy marbles ever made. See
photo
CHRISTENSEN, CHARLES F.:
proper name.
(1879-1922,) the “& Son,” part of The M.F. Christensen
& Son Company; born in Cleveland, Ohio; the second
child and only son of Martin and Jennie Christensen; was 3
years old when his family moved to Akron. He attended
Spicer Elementary School and graduated from The
Akron High School in 1897. His first job at 19, was
working at the B.F. Goodrich Company where his
sister Katherine also worked as a clerk. The next year,
1899, he’s listed as a clerk at a corner grocery; for the
next few years he worked at various groceries in the area;
in 1901 he enlisted with
Company B.
Eight Regiment, Ohio National Guard
(During the Spanish American War); November 4, 1901
charged with absence without leave and threatened with
Court Martial; Again on
August 7, 1902 charged with failure to appear at camp. In
1904 he worked for the Union Rubber Company as a
bookkeeper. From 1905 until his passing in 1922 he worked
for The M.F. Christensen & Son Company as Vice
President. In 1908 a warrant was issued against him for
reckless driving and chasing a fire truck. In 1910 he
“quietly” married Ester (Lena) Mowery, a neighbor and
clerk at the corner grocery; in 1917 she divorced him in a
very public trail, front page news, for among other things
taking indecent liberties with his stenographer at
the marbleworks. The next year 1918 he married his
stenographer,
Mary
“Nellie” Ester Baughman. Charles adopted a young girl from
North Carolina, a daughter Jacqueline. In 1922 Charles
died of
Uraemia - chronic Nephritis, age 42. He is
buried at the family plot in Glendale Cemetery. (See
photo)
CHRISTENSEN, MARTIN FREDERICK:
proper noun. (1849-1915.) Born 1849 in Copenhagen,
Denmark and died in 1815 in Akron, Ohio. Immigrated to the
United States in 1867; worked in the drop forge steel
industry; founder, Akron’s Drop Hammer Forging Company
(1890-1895); Akron’s The M.F. Christensen Company
(1895-1898); invented first practical steel ball bearing
machine US Patent Numbers 632,335 and 632,336 in 1899;
invented first machine to manufacture glass balls, or
marbles, US Patent Number 802,495 in 1902; invented the
modern marble auger (helically grooved cylinder
marble-forming machine,) but the design was stolen by
Horace C. Hill, Christensen’s trusted bookkeeper, and
patented under his name, US Patent Number
1,164,718; the US
Federal Courts recognized and credited M.F. Christensen
with the invention of the Hill machine in a 1929 court
case called The Akro Agate Company vs. The
Peltier Glass Company. Martin was married in 1873 to
Jennie D. Levi, who gave him four children; Helen,
Charles, Katherine and Jessie. Martin died of a stroke in
1915 and is buried in the family plot at Glendale Cemetery
in Akron, Ohio. (See photo)
CHISTENSEN & SON COMPANY, THE M.F.:
proper noun. The world’s first machine-made glass
toy marble company, of Akron, Ohio (1903-1918.) Owned and
operated by Martin Frederick Christensen (1849-1915,) son
Charles and daughter Jessie. The M.F. Christensen
marbleworks is today the oldest still standing toy factory
in the United States. (See photo)
CHUCK:
noun. 1. A shooter or taw that remains in the ring
after being rolled towards the marbles in the ring; see
fat [also called a poison shooter.] 2. A marble, taw. 3. A
game of marbles for two players. 4. The area or ring for
the game of chuck. (HARDER.) The game of Chucks,
its object, rules and strategies are unknown at this time.
CHUCKS
(chuckings in, chucky,
chucks-up): noun. A variation of chuck used
around 1894. Also, Chully, variation of chuck used in 1855
(HARDER.)
CHURN-DASHER:
noun. A taw streaked with white and blue and, like
the “aggie,” a harder, better marble than those shot at in
the ring. (COMBS.) (See photo)
CHRISTMAS TREE:
noun. A players’ name for a popular glass marble; a
modern type of marble (gob-fed,) in red, green, sometimes
white colors; manufactured by The Peltier Glass
Company, in the 1940s and JABO, Inc. in the
2000s.
CINCI, CINCINNATI:
noun. A marble game played with a small ring; all
marbles must be shot with two knuckles on the ground to
prevent fudging. (CASSIDY) The object, rules and
strategies of this game are unknown at this time.
CLAM:
noun. Another name for marbles. (FERRETTI)
CLAMBROTH MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between the late 1890s and 1936; a sub-class
of Banded Opaque Marbles. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane; have an opaque base,
usually of white or black glass, with thin stripes of
colored glass upon its surface, running from pole to pole
and the stripes are evenly spaced. (See photo)
CLAY MARBLE(S):
noun. A toy marbles made of ceramic materials, can
be plain, dyed, painted or glazed. Also called clays,
clayeys, clayies. See Commies, Ceramic Marbles.
CLAYIES (Clayeys): noun.
A players’ term for a
common clay marble, usually
made of earthenware.
CLEARANCE, CLEARS, CLEANERS, CLEARIES:
interjection.
A player’s term; if debris, such as a leaf, stick or
pebble is in a players line of shot and a player wishes to
remove the debris they must first call out the word
Clearance, so all players can hear the call. Claiming
clearance gives a player the right to remove the debris.
However, if one of the players calls no clearance
before the game’s start, or before another player makes
the call of clearance, the debris must be left in
place. In the historic record (Play Ground, 1866,
p40) the call against clearance is “fen clearance,”
meaning to defend clearance, or to defend the
debris or obstruction from removal. Also, a term used at
American marble tournaments and in the Rules of Ringer. In
tournament play, a contestant must ask the referee for
clearance and if the referee agrees, the referee will
remove the obstruction, not the contestant.
CLEARIE(S):
noun.
A
name for a glass marble made of any single color
transparent glass. These were first made as furniture
casters in the United States by
J.H. Leighton and
beginning in 1903 as industrial marbles made by
The M.F. Christensen & Son Company. They were not sold
to toy stores until the 1930s when a few children obtained
samples, their playmates went wild for them and a keen
marketing agent saw the potential of selling cheap
industrial marbles as higher priced toy marbles. These are
the most inexpensive of all marbles made. The vast
majority of glass marbles made since the 1900s are
clearies and intended for industrial purposes. Also
see Purie, Crystal. (Also clearies as a
variation of clearance.)
CLICKERS:
noun. A German word; name for toy marbles; the name
comes from the sound marbles make when they hit each
other.
CLICKS:
interjection A call claiming a right; term as used
in Wisconsin. Perhaps a variant of kicks. (CASSIDY)
CLIP:
noun. The act of hitting a marble. verb. To
strike or hit a marble. (HARDER.)
CLODKNOCKERS:
noun. Ordinary target marbles. (FERRETTI)
CLOSE:
noun. A marble game played against a wall; the
winner is the player who gets his marble closest to the
object; game as played in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY) The rules
and strategies of this game are unknown.
CLOUD MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a specific type of
glass toy marble; a
hand-made glass marble from Germany made until the mid
1930s. They have flecks of colored on the surface and some
say it looks like colored clouds floating across the
surface of a marble. (See photo)
CLOUDIES:
noun.
A ceramic marble; same as Jasper; term used in the
historic record, found in US sales catalogs before 1910.
(Carskadden 2.)
COB: noun. A large
marble; a players’ term as used in the area of Hamilton,
Ohio during the 1950s; also, Half- Cob and
Quarter Cob, describing smaller sized marbles.
CODD-BOTTLE(S): noun. A
glass bottle used most often in Europe during the 19th
century and having an ingenious shape to its neck with a
pocket that holds a glass marble (often a bullet-mold
marble.) The purpose of the marble is to act as a
stopper to keep the beverage inside the glass bottle.
These bottles were often smashed by young boys in order to
free the glass marble so it could be used for games.
COMBOS:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
COMMAS:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
COMMIES:
noun. Glass marbles, particularly the creamy
ones. (ZUGER.)
COMMIES (Commy):
noun. A widely used slang term for
common clay marbles in the historic record. Also, sometimes used
to describe non-descript glass marbles, industrial
marbles, or the common modern cats-eyes that are uniform
and identical in appearance making them undesirable as an
ante in games played For Keeps.
COMMON CLAY MARBLE(S):
noun. A players’ term that described just about every type
of ceramic marble, though normally reefer to the cheaper
earthenware marbles. Common clay marbles were also called
commies, combos, commas,
commy, commons, commoney, commony, clayeys, clayies,
crockies, dabs, dabbers, dibs, doughies, doggie, kimmie,
predab, stookie, tooser,
etc. in the historic record. Clay marbles are likely the
oldest toys made in world history and are found in the
archeological record of almost all ancient civilizations.
These marbles were first manufactured in the United States
by Samuel C. Dyke in 1884; US Patent Number,
432,127. All the commies made in the United States
were made in area of Akron, Ohio from 1884 to 1942.
Commies can be dyed, painted different colors or plain
showing the color of the clay used. In 1884, these were
the very first mass-produced toys and their
introduction radically changed the American childhood
experience. They were the first toys that all children
could afford to buy with their own money. One penny could
buy upwards of 30 commies. Trillions of commies were made
and sold in the United States, probably more than all
other types of toy marbles combined up to the present
time.
COMMONEY (Commony): noun.
A players’ term for a common clay marble, usually
made of earthenware.
COMMONS:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
CONQUEROR:
noun. A game played with chestnuts (HARDER.) The
object, rules and strategies of this game are unknown.
Also, a marble game described in the book Play Ground,
1866 (See game,) detailing the object, rules and
strategies of play. It’s possible this later game is the
same as described by Harder, however, no mention is made
to the use of chestnuts and it was common for widely
different games to use the same names if different parts
of the country. Substituting nuts for marbles was common
in the more primitive pioneer areas of the USA and to the
period between ‘first contact’ in the 1600s and the early
1800s.
CONTEMPORARY ART GLASS MARBLES:
noun. A collectors’ term for a modern, hand-made,
glass marble or glass sphere made by a studio glass
artist; these marbles are made in the old German style.
Popular studio glass artists making marbles include Mark
Matthews, and the only contemporary glass marbles made in
the traditional style of hand-gathered / hand-made glass
marbles, as historically made in the USA, are made by
Brian Graham, President of the Board of Directors of
The American Toy Marble Museum in Akron, Ohio. (See
photo)
COOBIE:
noun. A marble of baked clay; term used in
Kentucky. (CASSIDY.)
COON TRACK:
noun. A regional dialect and variation from raccoon
track. Same as boss out and boss and span.
(HARDER.) Descriptions, rules, etc, for games with these
same names can be viewed on our
Games pages.
CORKSCREW MARBLE:
noun. A name given by collectors to a type of
machine made, glass marble made by
The Akro Agate Company in the 1930s where the colors look like they
form a corkscrew around the marble. The original name the
company used for their marble was “Prize Name.”
CORNELIAN:
noun.
CORNELIA:
noun.
A cornelian; term used in Wisconsin. See kineelia.
(CASSIDY.)
CORNELIAN MARBLE(S), AMERICAN:
noun.
An reddish, opaque, glass marble manufactured by
The M.F.
Christensen & Son Company;
the company’s premium marble and for the period between
1905 and 1920 these shooter marbles were among the most
coveted by players. Cornelian is an antiquated spelling of
the word
carnelian.
COUNTER:
noun. A marble not used in playing, but ‘fine for
stakes”; term used in Washington State. (CASSIDY.)
CRACKER(S):
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
CRACKLED MARBLES:
noun. Glass marbles having a surface, which was
cracked by putting a heated marble into cold water, then
reheated. These are similar to frying marbles on a kitchen
stove then crackled by immersion in water, see Fried
Marbles
CREAMIES:
noun. A term generally applied to all glass
marbles. (ZUGER.)
CROAKEN:
noun. A clay marble; same as Croaker.
(Steele.)
CROAKER:
noun. A clay marble; glazed and mottled, “well up
in the estimation of players.” (Steele.)
CROATER: noun. A
marble; same as Crockery.
CROCKER:
noun. A cheap marble; term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY.)
CROCKIES (CROCKERY): noun. A players name for a glazed
stoneware marble, most often Brown or brown in color but
often with many other colors, as in American Majolica
Marbles. Also, seen (rarely) in the historic record as
a name for a
common clay marble usually made of
earthenware.
CROOKS:
interjection. A call granting permission to the
shooter to move around a ring to a more favorable position
nearer the target. The counter call is no crooks, or vence
ye crooks. Heard in Kentucky, crooks and no crooks.
(HARDER)
CROOKIE:
noun. Same as Crockies; term used in Nebraska.
(CASSIDY.)
CROSS-TRACKS:
noun. A marble game played between railroad tracks,
in which the marbles are shot at directly; term used in
Wisconsin. Also see back-slaps.(CASSIDY) The object, rules
and strategies of this game are unknown.
CROTON ALLEY:noun.
A players’ name for an unglazed porcelain marble
“handsomely marbled with blue;” a type referred to in the
historical record as a Jasper. (ROBERTS) Also, the
term “croton” refers to a plant with variegated (different
colors) leaves. Jaspers are a variegated white-bodied
stoneware with different colored lines of blue, green and
rarely pink, running through the body of the marble.
(Roberts)
CRUCIBLE:
noun. A glassworkers’ term used to describe a ceramic pot
found in a glass furnace. It’s used to melt and hold
molten glass; a device used for manufacturing
hand-gathered items, marbles. (See photo)
CRUSHER(S):
noun.
A players’ term for a large marble, see Boulder.
CRYSTAL:
noun. The name of a marble, as in a crystal
ball marble; sometimes called a clearie, or
purie by those who grew up playing the games of
marbles in the post WWII baby-boomer generation; a clear
glass marble, without any color. Once made with lead to
increase its clarity. However, lead is poisonous, or toxic
and government regulations now forbid companies from using
lead when making glass in the United States. Also called
flint glass in the historic record when clear glass
is made without lead; among the least inexpensive glass
marbles made; mostly used for industrial purposes; also
used sold as decorator marbles for use in the floral
industry.
CULLET:
noun. A manufacturer’s term; waste or broken glass
that can be recycled into new marbles.
CUNGEON (cungeon roots):
interjection. A call to preclude the hitting of
one's marbles by an opponent, Georgetown, D. C. (HARDER.)
CUNNY-FINGERED:
adjective. 1. Said of holding the taw or shooter
before the thumb which is turned inward under the fingers
of the closed fist; the way a girl shoots marbles (1949.)
2. Said of holding the taw on the middle of the forefinger
instead of placing it on the tip of the forefinger, as
experts shoot marbles. Also – from
HARDER, this term is in
general use in American speech.
CUNNY THUMB:
adjective. A player’s term, referring to a childish
shooting style - when uttered by older more advanced
players that shoot with backspin, the term carries a
demeaning connotation. This shooting style is sometimes
called Scrumpy Knuckles in the historic record (Beard,
The
Outdoor Handy Book)
At the
National
Marbles Tournament this style of
shooting is called deadeye. Shooting in this style
causes the marble to spin with top spin, not a desirable
action in most traditional American marble games.
CUP (cupping):
verb. A player’s term, used in American marbles
tournament play, especially at those tournaments played in
a windy areas; describing a situation where the player
cups their hands around their still rolling shooter to
protect the wind from pushing it out of the ring and
ending their turn. Due to the strong winds referees allow
the players to cup their shooters, as long as they are
convinced the player’s hand never touches the shooter.
Cupping is not allowed during the Lag.
CUPPING RULE:
game rule. From the New Game of Ringer; Cupping is
when a player protect his or her shooter from being moved
about by the wind. Placing hands or kneepads around the
marble can protect the shooter. The shooter may not touch
the hands (or kneepads) or the turn is over. To verify
that the marble has not touched, an opening must be
maintained at all times for the referee to view the
shooter. Target marbles may never be cupped. Penalty for
cupping a target marble is that the target marble must
returned to the center of the ring and the forfeiture of
the continuation of the shooting players turn. The shooter
may never be cupped during the lag.
CUT-MARK (Cut-Off Mark):
noun. A glassworkers’ term used to describe the
mark(s) left on a glass item, a marble, resulting from
excess glass being removed during the manufacturing
method. The term applies to hand-made glass marbles made
from canes, hand-made / machine-made glass marbles and
from gob-feed marbles. The mark left on a hand-made /
hand-gathered marble is rightfully called a pontil.
CYCLONE MARBLE(S): noun. A
collectors’ name given to a specific type of marble
manufactured by The Christensen Agate Company. (See
photo)
CZECHOSLOVAKIAN FORTUNE TELLING MARBLE:
noun. A molded, glass, game marble with numbers ‘0’
through ‘30’ impressed into the glass; a game used to
discern the future for anxious players; game instructions
encourage players to ask a question then roll the marble
to obtain a number; the number corresponds to 30 answers
under each of six columns titled Love, Marriage, Luck,
Surprise, Finance, Home. (See photo)
Back to Index
DABBERS:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware. (HARDER.)
DABS:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
DABSTER:
noun. A player’s term for one who excels at the
games of marbles. (Play Ground 1866.) Also see
Mibster.
DABSTER, KNUCKLE DABSTER:
noun. A piece of equipment for playing marble
games, a soft piece of material or animal skin placed on
the cold, rough ground to cushion a player’s knuckles.
From Beard,
The
Outdoor Handy Book “Every boy who plays
marbles should posses a knuckle dabster; these can be made
from bits of soft woolen cloth, felt, or the skin of small
animals. Mole skin makes the softest and prettiest of
knuckle dabsters, but any piece of fur will answer. Some
boys wear them fastened to their hand, but the most expert
players seem to prefer to throw them down at the spot from
which they are about to shoot and then knuckle down on the
soft fur or woolen cloth. A knuckle dabster prevents one’s
knuckles from becoming sore and raw, and adds greatly to
the comfort of the player.” As the marbles playing season
stretches from February to May, children began playing as
soon as the snow melted. The sight of children playing
marbles on a warm winter day was a sign that spring was
just around the corner. At this time of year the ground
was often frozen, or cold and damp, so a knuckle dabster
came in handy. This is primarily a late 19th
century term. It seems to disappear from the historic
record by the mib 1920s. (See photo)
DAKE: noun. A
marble used as a stake in a game. Probably from date
with common phonetic substitution of k for
t. – adjective phrase. Daked in. (CASSIDY)
DAKED IN:
adjective phrase. Said of marbles places within the
ring; term used in Kentucky. From dake. (CASSIDY.)
DAISY WHEEL:
noun. A collectors’ term for a design applied to
porcelain marbles (see chinas) manufactured in Germany
before 1936; design resembles a daisy wheel, with
anywhere from four to 12 brush strokes of color radiating
out from one point.
DATE, (date-ups, dates):
noun. same as ante. - verb. phrase. To
date-up, to date one up, etc. - adjective. Dated
up, dated one up. – interjection. Date me up.
(HARDER.)
DAUBS:
noun. Another name for marbles. (Steele.)
DAVIS MARBLE WORKS, THE:
proper name. A small and short lived glass
marbleworks founded by Wilson Davis in Pennsboro, West
Virginia in 1947. It appears to have done business for
about a year. Its marbles are commonly called West
Virginia Swirls. (MARBLE ALAN.)
DEAD:
adjective. (A common term in various sports: 1658
bowling, 1844- cricket, 1868- croquet; also in baseball
and football). 1. Of a marble or taw that through some
specific occurrence is deprived of play during a
particular game. 2. Of a marble or taw when it fails to
clear the ring in which targets are placed (1899.) "The
player's taw was said to be `fat' (`dead') when it failed
to clear itself out of the ring after knocking out the
stake." See fat and chuck' for other meanings. In one form
of play, at least, the taw is "dead" only when it rolls
into a ring that has already been broken, that is, one in
which marbles have already been knocked out by an
opponent. If the player who rolls into the ring has
knocked out the marbles, he places them in the ring along
with his taw, and his marble is called fat or chuck. The
taw must remain in the ring until one of the marbles is
knocked out, in which case the taw is "dead" and is out of
play for that particular game, or until the taw is knocked
out of the ring by a partner or an opponent. (HARDER)
Also see killed.
DEAD DUCK:
noun. As used in the play of marble games, when a
target marble or duck is sitting close and is an
easy shot. Also see Snooger.
DEADEYE:
noun. A player’s term used to describe a shooting
style that causes top spin, a less desirable way of
shooting that shooting with back-spin. The term is
specific to the
National
Marbles Tournament and
does not carry the negative connotations used elsewhere
for this shooting style, in fact the term enhances this
otherwise largely ineffective style of shooting. See
Cunny Thumb. (See photo)
DEAD LEAD:
noun. As used in the play of marble games, a turn
is not over or finished until all the marbles in the ring
have come to a complete stop, dead stop.
DEADLINE:
noun. (Probably from military parlance; 1864-). The line
behind which player must not allow his shooter to touch
the ground on the first shot; if the marble does touch the
ground behind this line, the taw is out of play or is
dead. (HARDER.) Also, in lagging if the shooter
crosses the lag-line and goes on to touch the
backboard, the player’s lag is disqualified; which sounds
similar to Harder’s definition.
DIAMETER:
noun. A unit of measurement taken from one point on
a circle or sphere in a straight line through its center
to a point opposite the first. The size of a marble and
the size of a marble ring are measured by its diameter,
not the circumference. A circumference measures the
distance all the way around the outside of a circle or
sphere and is a much higher number than its diameter.
DIB:
noun. A shooter or taw; term used in Manitoba, from
the English Dialectic Dictionary. (CASSIDY.)
DIBS:
interjection. A player’s term, called out to make a
claim for a certain marble, in the game For Keeps.
Also, in the
original Rules of Ringer, when a player knocks an
opponents shooter, (known as a poison shooter ) out
of the ring, the player then chooses any one of the target
marbles in the ring as their point.
DIBS:
noun. A marble game played by sending the marbles
into a hole in the snow or sidewalk; a term from Manitoba,
Canada. (CASSIDY) The object rules and strategies of this
game are unknown.
DIBS:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
DIDDLE: verb. To
move the taw or shooter forward unfairly. (HARDER.)
DIE SHOT:
noun. A marble game where a marble is balanced on
top of a die and the object is to knock the marble off;
the successful player earns the points equal to the number
shown on the die. (Play Ground 1866) See Games, Die Shot
DIGGER:
noun. A collectors’ term for a treasure hunter who
digs and searches for toy marbles at the site of old
abandoned marbleworks. Often this is an unlawful activity
requiring unauthorized access to the property and must be
accomplished with great stealth, look-outs, etc; fines
imposed by the courts, if apprehended by law enforcement
officers, are often far less than the potential earnings,
thus it’s become a popular hobby in and of itself. Diggers
can destroy the potential value of a historic site for
genuine archeology and have rendered some sites in the
Akron area scientifically worthless.
DING:
noun. A collectors’ term describing a mark
appearing on the surface of a marble; a type of damage
that affects the condition and monetary value of a marble;
usually a small spot showing an impact strike caused
either by lax handling, or reflecting it’s prior use in
the games of marbles, but no glass is missing as in a
chip. Also called a
moon or
bruise by collectors.
Players’ refer to the dings or moons in
their real agate shooter marbles showing various impact
points obtained during a game.
DING:
verb. A players’ term describing the act where a
shooter marble impacts a target marble, or the impact of
two target marbles; term based upon the sound of two
marbles hitting each other.
DIVIDED CORE MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term; the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between 1860 and 1936. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane. Distinguished from other
cane marbles by their core; the core of these marbles are
separated into two or more bands or ribbons of one or more
colors of glass, twisting slightly and running from pole
to pole. (See photo)
DOB:
noun. Also dobber. A large marble. See quotation
under dob in the ring. (HARDER.)
DOB IN THE RING:
noun, phrase. A marble game. See quot. John T.
Page, "The Origin of Taw," (1899), 66, West Haddon,
Northamptonshire: "As boys we used to play a game of
marbles here known as `dab in the ring,' which consisted
of starting from a certain point known as `taw' and
endeavoring to knock out with a big ‘dob’ as many marbles
as possible." Also, dab at the hole (see chucks).
(HARDER.)
DOB-TAW:
noun. A large marble. (HARDER.)
DOBES:
noun. Another name for marbles. (Steele.)
DOG UP:
verb. phrase. To roll a marble to a more
advantageous position, either nearer or sometimes farther
away from the target. Also, from
HARDER, dogging up.
DOGGIE:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
DOGGIE:
noun. A brown clay marble. (Steele.)
DOOGIES:
noun.
A general term for marbles in Missouri; a diminutive of
doogs: the number of marbles one has at stake in a game;
observed in Suffolk. (CASSIDY)
DOUBLE ACTION GOES OVER:
interjection. (Perhaps from the game of billiards.) A call
that nullifies an opponent's hitting two marbles at once.
(HARDER.)
DOUBLES:
interjection. A call exclaiming the accomplishment of
knocking two marbles out of the ring on the same shot.
Also see Dubs and Trips for three marbles
knocked out.
DOUGH-BABE:
noun. A
common clay marble; term used in Washington
State. (CASSIDY.)
DOUGHBOY:
noun. A marble made of clay. (HARDER.)
DOUGHIES:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
DOUGHNUT:
noun. A collectors’ term for a design applied to
porcelain marbles (see chinas) that resembles a
doughnut.
DOUGHY:
noun. A cheap clay marble, usually painted red, blue,
green or brown; term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.) See
common clay marbles.
DOWN AND OUT:
noun. A marble toy/game manufactured by The
Milton Bradley Company around the turn of the 20th
century. The object being to drop a marble into the
helically grooved cylinder standing in the middle of a
convex board having numbered holes representing points;
the player with the highest total points wins. Marbles
purchased by Milton Bradley, from The M.F.
Christensen & Son Company, were used in some of these
games.
DOWNSIES:
interjection. A call demanding that the shooter
keep his knuckles on the ground when shooting. (HARDER)
DRAGON’S EYE:
noun. A Chinese spinner, according to some
informants; according to others, a cat’s eye in which the
design has opened out more than a Chinese spinner but
still not completely. (SACKETT.) See
photo
DRAKES:
noun. A term used in the game of hundreds; the line
from which the marbles are rolled. (HARDER.)
DRAT:
noun. A marble of baked clay; a term used in
Kentucky. (CASSIDY)
DRIBBLE:
verb. To roll a marble, usually a large marble, at
a target; in some games a player cannot dribble his
marble; the call made being fen dribbing, or no
dribbing and instead the player must take a Plumb
Shot, sometimes called Bobbing.
DRIBBLES:
interjection. A call claiming the right to dribble
one’s marble. English Dialectic Dictionary, dribble,
verb. 6: “To cause to move slowly, especially to roll
or shoot a marble along the ground in small shots.”
(CASSIDY)
DROP:
noun. An expert marble player. See quote,
"Marbles," (1899), 66: "A good and accurate shooter was
called a ‘drop’- respected, envied, and feared." (HARDER)
DROP-BOX:
noun. A marble game in which marbles are dropped
from chin height though a small hole in the top of a box
(such as a cigar box.) (CASSIDY.) Also, when playing
Drop-Box For Keeps, if the player misses the hole
the marble is placed inside the box. The player who
successfully drops their marble through the hole and into
the box wins all the marbles in the box. This is sometimes
called a ‘suckers’ game because the player who controls
the box always takes home a much greater share of the
winnings.
DROPSIES (Droppsies):
noun. A marble game
played primarily by young children who’ve not yet
developed the necessary hand coordination to knuckle down
and shoot a marble. Players place a large number of target
marbles in a small ring, stand with their toes to the ring
and drop a boulder into the ring with the hopes of
knocking out target marbles;
see Bounce Eye.
DROPPERS:
noun. A marble game, see Bounce Eye.
DROPPING THE MARBLE:
verb phrase. A rule used in American marbles
tournament play. “If the shooter slips from the player’s
fingers after the shooting hand has touched the ring, and
the shooter has traveled more than ten inches’ the
player’s turn is then over. If his or her hand is not
touching the ring or the shooter has not moved more than
ten inches then the player may attempt another shot. The
shooting player may not pick up the shooter to stop it
from moving ten inches. If he or she does so it will be
considered to have moved more than ten inches and the shot
will be forfeit.” See Slips.
DROPPINGS:
noun. A marble game, see Bounce Eye
DROSS:
verb. To win all the marbles; term used around
1877. (HARDER.)
DUBBED UP:
verb. phrase. A player has dubbed up when he
claims that he has lost all his marbles although he still
has marbles in his possession; from 1884. (HARDER)
DUBS:
interjection. A player’s slang for ‘doubles,’ as
called out in excitement when a player knocks two target
marbles out of the ring. “An abbreviation of doubles,
means that you knocked two marbles out of the ring in one
shot” (Beard,
The
Outdoor Handy Book).
Also, Dubs: interjection. (? from either doubles or
double the fist on the ground). 1. A call used by players
to represent certain rules (1882). 2. A call giving the
player right to take all marbles. -interjection.
Fen doubs; fend dubs, (1882) no dubs. A call revoking the
rights that would be obtained by calling dubs. Also, Dubs:
noun. plural. 1. Two marbles. (1890). Also,
dubbings in; dubs down for knuckles down. (HARDER) Also,
dubs: interjection. Add 3. A call claiming
possession if two marbles are shot out of the ring; a term
used in Indiana. (CASSIDY)
DUCK:
noun.
As used in
the play of marble games, another name for a target
marble, often seen in the historic record
referring to the marbles at stake in the game of keeps;
from
the term sitting ducks, or possibly from a game
called duckstone.
DUCK IN A HOLE:
noun. A marble game that uses three holes; played
similarly to Pots that has four holes. (Steele.)
DUCKS:
noun. singular. A stake in the game of
keeps. (COMBS.)
DUCKS:
noun. A marbles game. (FERRETTI) The object, rules
and strategies of this game are unknown.
DUMP:
noun. The same as dump up; term used in Missouri.
(CASSIDY.)
DUMP UP:
verb. phrase. To put a marble on a mound of dirt;
the term used in Missouri. – noun. The mound
itself, usually placed inside the pink. (CASSIDY.) This is
a common game played in many places in the world. The
object is to knock a target marble off a small clump of
malleable clay or dirt from a good distance. The player
who successfully knocks the marble off wins the marble. A
similar game using three marbles as a base to place a
target marble on-top is called Pyramid,
See Game
DOUBLE HAND’S LENGTH:
interjection. This cry permits a player to move his
shooter two hand’s lengths nearer to the marbles before
shooting. (ZUGER.)
DUBBS:
interjection. A general cry, giving claim to all
the marbles and often used by a boy who grabs baits and
runs. Always used as a preliminary to an argument over
ownership. (ZUGER.)
DUG MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a toy marble dug by treasure
hunters at the site of an old marbleworks, then sold to
the hobby for a handsome profit. Often these toy marbles
are inferior in quality, as for one reason of another the
manufacturer choose not to market them and likely threw
them into the reject pile, to be discovered decades later
by a digger. Often these marbles are out of round,
show signs of damage, etc., but can be polished and made
to look brand-new. Sometimes rare variations of more
common marbles are found, as they were discarded at the
factory because for one reason or another they did not
meet the specifications of the order; these are sometimes
called Experimentals, or Hybrids.
DUTCH ALLEYS:
noun. phrase. Stone marbles burnt or glazed in various
colors. (HARDER.)
DUTCH MARBLES:
noun. A player’s term for a variegated clay marble,
described in 1855; the lowest of three classes of marbles,
the others being Yellowstone and Real Taws.
(Francis.)
This sounds like a description of a Jasper.
DYKE & COMPANY, THE S.C.:
proper noun. (1888-1892) A marble company in Akron,
Ohio once located at the present site of the Metropolitan
building on South Main Street. The company made and sold
one million marbles a day, filling five railroad box cars;
President, Samuel C. Dyke merge the company with his
brother’s marbleworks in 1892 to form
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company.
DYKE, ACTAEON
L.:
noun, proper name. Known as “A.L.” Dyke; the older
brother of Samuel C. at times the two brothers got along
famously, engaging in the newspaper and marble business
together. At other times they were fierce competitors and
alienated from one another. In 1893 Sam left his position
as Superintendent of
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company to start his own venture and A.L.
took over as Superintendent. Later, in 1904, when the
marbleworks burnt to the ground, A.L. secretly left Akron
owning debts to a number of prominent businessmen and was
never heard of again.
DYKE’S
AMERICAN AGATES:
noun. A term trademarked and registered in 1889 as
a label with the US Patent & Trademark Office to Samuel C.
Dyke; used on boxes of marbles shipped for retail sale,
boxes designed as counter display units and in sales
catalog advertisements.
DYKE MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. One of a number of marbleworks opened
by Samuel C. Dyke after leaving as Superintendent of
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company in
1892. The company manufactured Little Brown Jugs, ceramic
and hand-made glass marbles, the later under license from
J. H. Leighton. This was a partnership with Sam’s brother
Daniel F., of Chicago, who worked for The Rand McNally
Map Company. This company evolved into
The Akron
Insulator & Marble Company; located in the Switzer
Allotment on Akron’s near south side.
DYKE, SAMUEL COMLEY:
noun. proper name.(1856-1924) The Father of the modern
American toy industry; first American to manufacturer
marbles; first to mass-produce a toy, a clay marble, in
1884 at the
Akron Toy Company; He invented and
patented, US Patent Number
432,127, a molding device that allowed a single
worker to make up to 800 marbles per hour, dramatically
reducing the cost of a toy; allowing all children for the
first time to buy a toy with their own money. Dyke was the
owner of a number of marbleworks in Akron, Ohio;
The
S.C. Dyke & Company was first to make glass marbles in
the United States in 1890; first to manufacture stone
marbles in the United States in 1892 at
The Akron Stone
Marble Company. Dyke later became leading figure in
the electrical insulating industry. In 1897 he became a
United States Ambassador at-large under President William
McKinley. In his last year of life, 1923 he assisted in
the formation of the National Marbles Championship
and was its honorary chairman that year. (See photo)
DYKE'S STONEWARE SPECIALTY COMPANY, THE:
Back to Index
EASIES:
interjection. A player’s term, a call allowing a
player to shoot easy and slow into the ring to set
themselves up for their next turn. See Laying-in
EARNEST: noun. A
game in which the players keep the marbles they knock from
the ring; a variant of keeps (HARDER.)
EARTHENWARE MARBLES:
noun. See common clay marbles.
EDGERS:
noun. The name for a target marble sitting near the
edge of the ring; an easy shot. (FERRETTI)
EDGING:
noun. The ante in marble playing; term used in
Oklahoma. (CASSIDY.) A variant of
Ageing.
EGGET:
noun. Variant of agate. (COMBS.)
EGGIES:
verb. Short for “Can I borrow a few marbles?” as in
“Eggies on the aggies?” (FERRETTI)
END OF CANE MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term relating to a specific and
relatively rare feature seen in German swirl marbles;
a hand-made glass marble made from a cane; manufactured in
Germany before 1936; the design features of the marble,
the colored stripes and core, are discontinuous, end
abruptly inside the interior of the sphere and do not
reach the surface of the cut-off mark on one end of the
marble’s poles; described in collectors’ identification
and price guides, as the first or last marble made from a
cane; the end of the cane. (See photo)
END OF DAY MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors term describing a type of
hand-made glass marble made from cane; manufactured in
Germany before 1936; identifiable design features show
flecks of multi-colored glass; described in an old
collectors’ identification and price guides as the last
marbles made during a workday when all the scrape and
waste glass resulting from that day’s production are
melted into one marble, hence the name and it stuck in the
hobby. While it’s a charming description, it’s not how
these marbles were made. They were a specific style of
marble manufactured for commercial sale over a long period
of time. (See photo)
ENNIES (Anys):
interjection.
A call which
if said before an opponent said vents
entitles the player to any (whence the name) of a
number of advantages; he may “tee up the objective, remove
an obstruction in the surface of the ground, fill in a
depression, exercise roundance, etc.” term used in
Oklahoma. (CASSIDY.) Same as Anything; spoken as a
diminutive or baby-talk; gives a player permission to take
shots in a manner not normally allowed, bend rules, etc.
ENGLISH:
verb. As used in the play of marble games, the act
of putting backspin or sidespin on a marble. Being able to
put English on your shooter allows one to play a
much more controlled game and make more sophisticated and
complicated shots, increasing the odds of winning.
Backspin on a shooter is highly desirable as it causes the
shooter to stop and come to rest near the point of impact
with a target marble, hopefully sending the target marble
out of the ring and thereby allowing the player to
continue shooting, close to the other target marbles.
EAST END
MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A very
important marble company located in Akron, Ohio. Matthew
Lang was its President, Superintendent and the inventor in
1889 of the marble making process that generated all of
its income. Lang invented the injection molding process,
receiving a grounded patent (an invention so
revolutionary, the US Patent Office began an entirely new
category to list his invention.) The marbles manufactured
by Lang’s injection molding process are made of porcelain
and are easily identifiable by a slight ridge, or grind
marks to remove same, on the equator of the marble and
sometimes you can discern the point where the porcelain
slip was injected into the mold. Lang licensed his patent
to all the major ceramic marble makers and also to the
rubber industry where the patent’s true value was
eventually realized. Lang’s injection molding process is
still widely used in multiple industries today.
EVERS (everythings):
interjection. A call that allows all liberties in
making shots. (1890) -interjection. under fen, fen
everything. (HARDER) Also – interjection. A call to
prevent an opponent from moving his marble. (CASSIDY) Same
as Anything; giving a player liberal adherence to
the rules and to take shots not normally allowed in most
games or neighborhoods.
EVERS ON PARDS:
interjection. A call to prevent an opponent from
shooting one’s partner’s marble; term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY.)
EXPERIMENTAL MARBLE:
noun. A collectors’ term referring to a marble that
doesn’t quite fit the specific definition of a named
marble. Often these are dug marbles, likely
rejected by the manufacturer because it failed to meet the
specifications required for an order, or was outside of
the acceptable range of variation to be marketable.
Rarely, an actual case of a marble being the subject of a
marble-maker’s experiments. Not in the same category as
whimsy.
EYE:
noun. In the manufacture of glazed stoneware
marbles when they come out of the furnace they are
often stuck together by the glaze and must be broken
apart. This leaves a diagnostic mark in she shape of a
small circle of discolored glaze at the points where the
marbles touched each other, called an eye. (See
photo)Also, in natural stone agate marbles, the
small circular spots of different colors sometimes seen in
the mineral Jasper (a material sometimes use to
make marbles) are called eyes. Also a marbles game,
a variation of Eye Drop.
EYES:
interjection. A call to prevent another player from
doing something; a term used in Wisconsin. Possibly from
“I”, as claiming the right to oneself. (CASSIDY)
EYE BOUNCE, EYES BOUNCE, EYE DROP, EYE DROPPERS:
noun. verb. A player’s term or game rule.
The name for a shot made from a standing position in games
like Droppies where the player places a shooter
marble close to their eye (for a better aim) then drops
the shooter onto a target marble intending to knock it out
of a ring. A game rule where the shooter marble must be
dropped from the player’s eye level. Also see Nose Drop,
a British marble term used to decide the order of play,
with a shot similar to the eye drop only the
shooter marble must touch the nose before being dropped;
see Bounce Eye.
Back to Index
FACET:
noun. The oldest agate marbles manufactured in Germany
were ground round by hand and upon close inspection with a
magnifying glass reveal numerous tiny flat spots or
facets all over the surface of the marble. Facets
are an identifiable feature confirming an agate is a
genuine antique. Also, facets are sometimes seen on
hand-made glass marbles made in Germany where the pontil
was ground smooth.
FAT:
noun.
noun.
A "ring" in the shape of a square. - adjective.
Condition occurring when a shooter remains within the ring
or square in which the targets are placed. See dead
for quotation and comment. In common use in
English-speaking world. (HARDER)
An important and often played marbles game in the 19th
century in the United States; also used in marbles
tournaments before the mid 1920s. The game of Ringer
eventually replaced this game in all tournament play. Fat
is a more aggressive game than Ringer, requiring
greater skill and advanced strategic play. It is played in
a 15 foot ring, with a two foot ring inscribed in the
center (sometimes called the pink)where 10 target
marbles are placed, in two man match play the player
knocking out 6 of ten target marbles is declared the
winner. The space between the inner and outer ring is
referred to as “the fat.” Fat, has been described
as a hunt and destroy game where killing the
opponent’s shooter in the fat was an important object.
(Ringer is more of a targeting game.) A variation of the
game Fat, as played in some parts of the country,
had the same central ring which held a handful of target
marbles, but instead of a larger ring it used a
pitch-line as a starting point roughly 10 feet from
the pink and the fat was considered the
whole area of the playground, vacant lot, backyard, etc.;
as long as the surface was suitable for play it was
fair.
In
some parts of the country this game was know by the more
genteel name of Pati, or Patterson. New
Yorkers called it Yank or Yankee.
FEM: A small marble, a
fiver; term used in Wisconsin. Probably from the
Norwegian fem for five. (CASSIDY.)
FEN:
interjection. An abbreviation for ‘defend,’ slang,
as used in the play of marble games, called to defend the
integrity of the game, or to keep a rule in place,
preventing an opponent from calling certain liberties to
the rule, like Clearance, Rounders, etc. In
use, if a player called “Fen Clearance” this would stop a
player from removing any debris from their line of aim, or
calling “Fen Burying,” would stop a player from stomping
your shooter into the dirt. Fen Dubs, “an abbreviation of
defend doubles, means that you must put back all but one
marble.” (Beard,
The
Outdoor Handy Book.)
Fen was an important and widely used part of
marbles playing langue in the United States during the 19th
century. Although Bread’s book is still in print and still
one of the best works on playing marbles, the term is
otherwise rarely seen in the historic record of the 20th
century.
FEN-PUNCHINGS:
interjection: “is used as a warning not to place
the marble hand any nearer to the object aimed at, than a
designated line or spot.” (PATTEN)
FIEDLER, ARNOLD:
proper name. A marble-worker of note; a German
glassworker who immigrated to Clarksburg, WV in the late
1910’s, who with his sons worked at
The Akro Agate Company. In 1927 moved to Cambridge, Ohio to work at
The Christensen Agate Company as their
glass-master, a position sometimes referred to in the
historic record as a chemist. The brilliant colors
and sophisticated color combinations used by Fiedler in
making the later company’s marbles are today some of the
most desirable marbles among collectors.
FIGURE MARBLE(S) (Figured Glass Marbles):
noun. A manufactures’ term for a type of glass
marble made in Lauscha, Germany until 1936; these are
clear glass marbles that have a small white figure inside
(glass can also be transparent greens, blues, ambers, etc.
but in these colors they are very rare.) The figure is
usually an animal, like a rabbit, dog, cat, cow, horse,
bear, etc. but can also be human, or a religious icon.
These charming marbles are normally large, intended for
babies to roll around and are very collectable. The figure
inside the glass marble is made of porcelain. These
marbles are referred to by collectors as ‘sulphieds,’
because during the early days of the hobby some author
mistakenly believed the figure inside was made of sulfur.
The name figure marble is the one that appears in
the historical record being used by the manufacturers.
American retailers, sales catalogs, etc. (See photo)
Also,
some modern glass artists are making these marbles today.
(See photo)
Also, a
modern glass marble made by Jabo, Inc. with a dark,
bold and contrasting design on its surface that resembles
some object, animal, or Oriental calligraphy, or Arabic
letters. (See photo)
FIN-FLICK:
interjection. A call claiming the right to move
one’s marble behind the opponent’s marble; term used in
Wisconsin. Fin is a variant of fen; flick is
evidently the standard word, but the precise sense is not
clear. (CASSIDY.)
FINS:
interjection. “This term is used as a stalling
device which if called out before anyone else calls “no
fins” allows the player to suspend all rules until he has
planned his next shot.” (RUNYAN)
FISH:
noun. A marbles game where a fish-shaped ring is
drawn. The object being the same as in all other ring
games to knock the most marbles out of the ring.
FIRSTS:
interjection. A call made by a player claiming the
right go first in a game.
FIRST IN THE RING:
interjection. A call announcing “that a boy had
arrived at the marble playing site, and with himself
shooting first, was willing to play with anyone at all.” A
term used in West Virginia. (CASSIDY)
FIVER:
noun. A small marble; from the cost: five for one
cent. (CASSIDY)
FLAKE:
noun. A collectors’ term referring to a small
amount of damage seen on the surface of a glass marble; a
small shallow chip where some amount of glass was
removed by impact; can be cause by a lack of proper care,
or reflecting its prior use at play in marble games;
relates to the condition of a marble and ultimately
affects the financial value of the marble.
FLAME MARBLE:
noun. A name given to a type of glass marble
made-up by collectors to identify a specific type of glass
marble made primarily by The Christensen Agate Company,
but also others companies; the marbles’ colors and design
look like the flames painted on the sides of old hot rod
cars.
FLICK: verb. A
players’ term; the motion of one’s thumb used to propel a
marble from their hand; or middle finger when using the
Arabian two-handed flick, shooting style.
FLINT (flintie):
Player’s slang often seen in the historic record to
describe any stone or natural agate marble; rarely in use
at present. Also, ‘flinties’ a named reddish brown glass
marble manufactured by The Akro Agate Company.
Also, marbles made of “flint,” a very hard rock, and used
primarily by adults in a game called Rolley Hole.
These hand-made flint marbles are only made in an area
near the boarder of Tennessee and Kentucky and are the
hardest marbles known in the world. Also, from Cassidy,
“They cost 10¢ to
50¢ in New York,” likely describing the term used for a
more common stone marble than one actually made out of a
flint stone.
FLINT GLASS: noun.
A glassworkers’ term describing a type of clear glass made
by using soda lime rather than lead; a much less expensive
manufacturing process is required for flint glass
than leaded glass. Leaded glass is softer than flint glass
and better for cutting. Flint glass is safer, cheaper to
make, is harder enabling it to be easily pressed, made
thinner and it cools faster than leaded glass. The formula
for flint glass was invented by Thomas Leighton who was
the uncle of James H. Leighton, inventor of the first
American glass marble. All American glass marbles are made
of flint glass.
FLIP:
noun. A 19th century marble game played
with a finger top and marbles. Likely, similar to or the
same as the game called Teetotum.
FLUORESCENT:
noun. A collectors’ term for a type of marble that
fluoresces under a black-light. These marbles are made
from radioactive pigments like uranium, but their toxic
radio-active properties are rendered harmless by being
encased in glass. (See photo)
FOLLERINGS:
noun. A marble game; same as Chase, Chase-up,
Followings or Follow-ups. Described by Daniel
C. Beard in Outdoor Handy Book
(For rules see, Games:
Follerings.)
FOLLOW THE LEADER:
noun. 1. The same as [the game] pee-wee, as
played in Ohio and Wisconsin. 2. Similar to [the game]
pee-wee, but with many calls and counter calls such as
"knuckles down" and "roundsomes" as heard in Ohio.
(CASSIDY) The object, rules and strategies of this game
are unknown.
FOLLOW-UP(S):
noun. A marble game for two (often played on the
way between home and school): one player throws his marble
ahead on the ground; if his opponent can hit it with a
marble of equal value, he wins it; the term as used in New
York. This could also be played with boulders but played
with commies in Iowa. (CASSIDY) Also see Chase-up.
FOBS:
noun. Four marbles; from 1856 (HARDER)
FOR FAIR:
noun. As used in the play of marble games states
that all marbles put into play will be returned to their
original owners at the end of the game. The opposite of
playing For Keeps, where each marble shot out of
the ring becomes the personal possession of the player
knocking them out. Playing “For Fair” is a gentle game;
assuring that feeling won’t be hurt if marbles are lost.
FORFEITURE OF POINTS:
noun. A rule used in American marbles tournament
play. “Whenever there is a forfeiture of points one marble
per point must be returned to the ring. Whenever marbles
are returned to the ring it is placed in the center spot
of the ring. If this spot already has a marble in it then
the referee must place the marble as close to the center
as possible. If there is a forfeiture of points and the
offending player does not have any points scored then that
player must forfeit his or her next turn.”
FOR FUN:
noun. As used in the play of marble games, it is
the same as playing For Fair.
FOR GOOD: noun. As
used in the play of marble games, the same as playing in
Earnest or For Keeps
FOR KEEPS:
noun. As used in the play of marble games, states
that every marble shot out of the ring, becomes the
personal possession of the shooter. It is this rule that
caused the games of marbles to become so popular with
youngsters in the United States. Playing For Keeps,
was deemed by some adults to be a form of gambling and in
some cases the games of marbles were outlawed at some
schoolhouses and by some parents with self-proclaimed high
moral standards fearing their students or children would
be draw into disrepute. The term is also commonly used in
American English speech where “playing for keeps” means
one is serious.
FORK OVER:
verb. A players’ term; when playing a game For
Keeps, as described in the game of Fat; if a
player hits an opponents shooter, or snapper, that
boy who’s shooter was hit must give “all the marbles he
may have won in that game to the player hitting him,” in
other sections [localities] it was the custom to return
these marbles to the ring.” (Steele.)
FORTIFICATIONS:
noun. A marbles game; an interesting and relatively
easy ring game, but with complicated set of directions to
follow - see Games,
Fortifications (Play Ground 1866)
FOUL, FOUL SHOT(S):
interjection. A British players’ term noting an
infraction of the rules in a game of marbles.
FOURBLES:
noun. plural. Four marbles; from 1890. (HARDER)
FOX AND GEESE:
noun. A board game that uses marbles; on the same
board used to play solitaire, on the reverse side
sometimes is set up for Fox and Geese. The object
of this two-man game is to use the center marble to
capture 11 of 17 geese (marbles of a different color) by
jumping over them into an empty hole; or the geese
effectively blocking the fox from taking a move. Also see
German Tactics.
FRACTURE:
noun. A collectors’ term referring to a type of
damage seen on a glass marble; a plain or line seen in the
interior of a marble showing some fault; possibly a fault
in the glass’ linier coefficient; an impact or
stress has caused a fracture; can be a minor flaw when
judging a marble’s condition, but normally is considered
serious damage, dramatically reducing the monetary value
to collectors. Some glass marbles, like those called
furnace marbles, made by
The Champion Agate Company,
can be filled with tiny fractures, resulting from a
failure of the glass’ linier coefficient; however because
these are such extraordinarily beautiful and rare marbles,
this manufacturing fault is completely overlooked by
collectors; if these furnace marbles were played with they
would likely disintegrate upon impact.
FRAZEY POTTERY: proper
name. A pottery in Zanesville, Ohio that left a record
that mentions the sale of marbles in the mid-1800s. It is
not clear if these marbles were actually made at the
Frazey Pottery or if they were German imports.
(Information discovered by historian and author of books
on ceramic marbles, Jeff Carsadden)
FRIED MARBLES:
noun. The name for a glass marble that’s been
altered; a process of heating glass marbles in a frying
pan on the kitchen stove, then dropping the hot marbles
into cold water; produces a crackled effect in the glass.
Also see Crackled.
FUB:
interjection. A players term, called when a marble
to slip from the hand while in the act of shooting, a call
made to nullify the error. Seen in the historic record but
not used today. See Slips. Also variations, fumble
and fumbler. Fen Fubs, a call requiring the act to remain
as a shot. Also, to move the hand forward unfairly, but
not used today - See Hunching.
FUDGE (Fudging):
verb. A player’s term for un-fair play or cheating,
variation of forms fulch, fulck, fulk, fulsh, vulch,
fullock, fullek, fullick;
can relate
to any infraction of the rules, but most commonly called
out to identify a player who’s hunching.
FUDGER:
noun. One who fudges and also a general term
for an undesirable. (ZUGER.)
FUDGING:
verb. A despicable act in which one fudges
over the line of the ring because of lack of knuckle.
(ZUGER.)
FUDGINGS: interjection.
A call to get one's opponent's permission, in standing-up
marble games, to get down on one's knees and use a thumb
shot. A term used in Louisiana. (CASSIDY)
FUNNY: noun. A
marble game; term
probably originates from the game of cricket. (HARDER.)
The object, rules and strategies of this game are unknown.
FUNS, FUNNIES:
noun. A player’s term, same as Fair or playing
For Fair, a marble game where at the end of the game
all the marbles are returned to their original owners;
opposite of For Keeps.
FURNACE:
noun. An important piece of equipment for
glassworkers; a glass furnace can be so small only an item
the size of a postage stamp would fit inside, or as large
as the largest trucks’ trailer (sometimes called a
gob-feeder.) A glass furnace needs to maintain a
temperature of 2000 degrees for 24 hours in order to melt
sand and all the other ingredients of a glass formula into
glass. A typical glass furnace in a studio glass shop
holds one crucible. (See photo)
Back to Index
GAME:
noun. A term used at marble tournaments to describe one in
a series of multiple games to make a match.
GAME BALL / GAME MARBLE:
noun. An opaque glass marble of any single solid
color, sometimes called puries , used in board
games like Chinese Checkers. Some children also use them
for playing the games of marbles. These marbles, in size
5/8,” are used as official tournament marbles in the USA.
GATHER:
noun. A glassworkers’ term used to describe a small
amount of molten glass, also called a Gob, taken
from a furnace’s crucible on the end of a Punty, to
manufacture a an item, in this case a hand-gathered glass
marble(See photo)
GATHERING-BOY:
noun. A glassworkers’ term for person who’s job it
is to gather molten glass with a punty from a
furnace. The gather-boy then hands the punty to a
glass-master and times his duties so that it’s received in
a timely fashion, with the molten glass at it’s peak
malleable condition.
GENERAL GRANT BOARD, GENERAL GRANT GAME: noun.
A board game using marbles, also known as Solitaire;
the name is supposedly based upon a story told of General
U.S. Grant, who during the Siege of Vicksburg remained in
his tent playing this solitaire game, a game of strategy.
GERMAN SWIRL MARBLE(S):
noun. A general name given to a large number of
hand-made marbles from Canes; manufactured in
Lauscha, Germany between 1860 and 1936. These marbles are
subdivided by the type of core inside the marble, i.e.;
latticino, solid, divided, naked core, coreless, etc.;
also subdivisions banded transparents, banded opaque,
Indians; also Joseph Coat; also some are
classified as onyx
or slags; also micas, or
glimmers. (See photo)
GERMAN TACTICS:
noun. A board game that uses marbles, played on the
same board as solitaire. It is essentially a
military game where one player uses two marbles
representing officers and the other player using 24
marbles of a different color as solders.
GET ONE’S INITIALS ON IT:
verb. phase. (probably from the games of cricket
and baseball). To strike the target without knocking it
out of the boundary line of the ring. (HARDER) Also, when
a player hits the target marble firmly and squarely
sending it out of the ring.
GET YOUR INITIALS ON IT:
verb. phase. Expression used when one nearly gets a
marble out; used as a good luck omen and supposed to help
the one with his initials on it to secure the marble
eventually. (ZUGER.)
GIBBS, HENRY & JAMES:
proper name. As it relates to the early manufacture
of marbles in the USA; “Mr.
Henry Gibbs of the Sixth Ward was for a time traveling
salesman for him [Jabez Vodery.] In 1850 Mr. James
Gibbs father of Henry Gibbs manufactured the same kind of
marbles [ceramic] at Alton, Ill. Mr. G. with the help of
his son carried on the business at Alton for a number of
years.” (Akron Daily Beacon, August 3, 1888 - 4:4;) these
are hand-made ceramic marbles and were not mass-produced.
This family later founded The Gibbs Manufacturing Company
of Canton, Ohio; a large and important manufacture of
toys; mechanical and of tin.
GIVE-AWAY:
noun. A marble game played Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY)
The object, rules and strategies are unknown today.
GLANCING SHOT: verb.
phrase. A shot not head on, that hits the target
tangentially, then bounces off. (FERRETTI)
GLASS: noun. A
material that is now almost exclusively used to
manufacture marbles; see Flint Glass.
GLASSIES (Glassey):
noun. A common term for a glass marble used in the
United States, in the historic record and still used
today.
GLIMMER(S):
noun.
A hand-made transparent glass marble made in Lauscha,
Germany until 1936; they can be hand-made from cane or
‘hand-gathered. The transparent glass, commonly clear but
also found in a variety of colors, holds small flakes of
mica inside the marble that sparkle, or glimmer in the
light; the more mica in the marble the greater the value
to collectors. The term Glimmers was used by the Germans
and Americans throughout the historic record. Also the
term Snowflake is sometimes seen in American retail
magazines from the 1900s to 1920s referring to these same
marbles. Collectors invented and use the term Micas
to identify these marbles. (See photo)
GLORIA MOSAIC:
proper name. noun. A game or amusement using
brightly painted clay marbles, where the object is to
place different colored marbles on a board with holes to
make a design or pattern. Its origins are German but the
box in which it comes is printed with English words.
Likely a post WWII product.
GLOBLLA:
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
GO, GOES:
noun. A term announcing it is a player’s turn to
shoot his marble.
GO DOWN MOSES:
verb phrase. An African-American players’ term from
Hilltop USA (a neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio) having the
same meaning as “grabs” in a game of “Keeps.” As related;
a player would begin humming a monotone note alerting the
other players to the pending action. The same player would
then call out the term Go Down Moses, at which
point all the players dove into the ring in an attempt to
grab as many marbles as possible.
GOB:
noun. A marble sized portion of molten glass
delivered either by the hand-gather process or by an
automatic molten glass dispenser, called a “gob feeder” to
a marble-forming machine, which makes the glass into a
spherical shape. As Described in the US Patent
Classification Glass; “A discrete portion of molten glass
(a) delivered by a feeder or (b) gathered on a punty or
blow pipe. Also called a charge.
GOB-FEED MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term used to identify a marble
made by a Gob-Feeder; a marble made by a totally automated
process; a modern marble.
GOB-FEEDER:
noun.
A glassworkers’ term describing a type of large, glass
furnace used in modern marble factories that totally
automates the manufacture of glass marbles. The process
was developed and patented by
The Hartford Empire Company
and first put into production in the later part of the
1920s. The Christensen Agate Company, headquartered
in Akron, Ohio, was the first marble company to use a
gob-feeder. (See photo)
GOOD SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD:
proper name. A trophy awarded at the
National
Marbles Tournament, created by tournament officials in
the late 1960s, was usually awarded to the smallest
contestant. Previous to this award, all contestants were
expected to be well behaved, show good manners and good
sportsmanship at all times. The award was created to help
re-enforce this principle and as a public relations act to
down-play the appearance of boys with tattoos, those who
smoked tobacco, cursed openly, etc. while in Wildwood, NJ
and away from the influence of their families.
GOLDSTONE:
noun.
A glassworkers term defining a type of glass that sparkles
and has the appearance of a gold-like color.
GOLDSTONE MARBLE:
noun. A collectors’ term for type of marble. See
Lutz
GOONGER (guna):
noun. An especially big marble; term used in
Michigan. Probably echoic. (CASSIDY.)
GOOSEBERRY MARBLE:
A collectors’ term for a specific type of hand-made glass
toy marble made in Germany from a cane, manufactured
before 1936, generally amber in color, resembling the
Clambroth style with thin white strands, evenly
spaced, running pole to pole.
GRAB BAITS AND RUN:
verb phrase. A contemptible act in which one grabs all
the marbles and runs, when the bell ending recess rings.
(ZUGER.)
GRABS:
interjection. A players’ term applied during the
game of Keeps; called upon learning the game must
end, as when the school bell rings or mother calls her
children to dinner, and upon the call players attempt to
grab all the marbles left in the ring.
GRAY-MARE:
interjection. The first player to shout this when
the school bell rang could pocket all the marbles he got
his hands on, as used in Kentucky. Also -verb. To
steal marbles; a term used in Kentucky. (CASSIDY)
GREENWARE:
noun. A potter’s or ceramicist’s term referring to
a molded clay product that is dry, but unfired; a dry but
fragile state that ceramic marbles are in when they are
placed into a kiln for firing.
GREINER, ELIAS:
proper name. (1793-1895) First to manufacture glass
marbles for commercial purposes. Lived in the village of
Lauscha, Germany, with his son Septimius and made
his first glass marble in 1853. (See photo)
GREINER, SEPTIMIUS:
proper name. (1880-1877) Son of Elias Greiner (also
see) in partnership with his father manufactured the first
glass marbles. Later took over his father’s marble factory
and in turn later passed the factory on to his son. (See
photo)
GRINDER:
interjection. A call made allowing the players grab
as many marbles from the ring as possible. Commonly called
when the games must end, or by a “tough” with intentions
to “swipe the marbles of the more timid lads.” (BEARD)
GROPPER ONYX MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A New York City based distributor of
glass toy marbles manufactured by The Christensen Agate
Company and The Peltier Glass Company; doing
business during the 1920s and early 1930s. Boxes of
marbles from these companies can be found with this other
company’s name printed on the box top.
GUESS GAME, GUESSING GAME:
noun. A game in which a player guesses how many
marbles an opponent is holding; [if the player guesses
wrong,] he has to give the opponent the difference between
the guess and the number of marbles held [if he guesses
correctly he wins all the marbles held in the hand] the
game as played in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY)
GUINEA:
noun. A very decorative, colorful, highly desirable
and collectable toy marble manufactured by The
Christensen Agate Company
in the late 1920s.
(See photo)
GRUNCHING:
interjection. A regional term used in Reading, PA
to describe the infraction of the rules caused by moving
one’s hand forward while shooting. See Hunching.
Back to Index
HALF:
noun. One half of a marble, kept usually for
sentimental reasons, or for boot in trading. (HARDER)
HALF-BOULDER:
noun A marble a little larger than ordinary, but
not so large as a boulder. (SACKETT.) See Shooter
Marble
HALF MOON:
noun. A player’s term describing a crest shape
injury on a natural agate marble causes by its impact with
another marble.
HAMBONE:
noun. The distance from elbow to fingertip; a term
used in Kentucky. Also - interjection. A call which
permitted a player to advance his shooter this distance; a
term used in Kentucky. (CASSIDY)
HAND-GATHERED (Hand-Gathered Marble):
adjective. A glassmakers’ term referring to an
object made of glass, such as a marble, to describe a
method of obtaining molten glass; the marble as being
hand-made or machine-made. In this process a
gather-boy places the end of a punty into a
furnace crucible and extracts an amount of molten
glass on the end of the punty. That gather is then molded
into shape, either directly on the end of the punty in the
hand-made method, or a gob is cut off the gather
into the forming-wheels of a marble machine. Also spelled
as handgathered in a collectors’ identification and
price guide. (See
HAND-GATHERED, MACHINE-MADE MARBLE(S):
noun. adjective.The first machine-made glass
marbles were turned out by Martin F. Christensen in 1902,
immediately prior to his application for a US Patent on
the first glass marble-machine. All the marbles
manufactured by
The
M.F. Christensen & Son Company
(1905 to 1917) are in this class. The
Christensen Agate Company used this process
to manufacture toy marbles from 1925 to 1928, at which
time they began using automatic gob feeders. Also, all the
marbles manufactured at The Akro Agate Company and The Peltier Glass
Company before the introduction of automatic glass
feeding component to their manufacturing process around
1930. Diagnostic traits of these marbles, usually in the
onyx style are, colored design features which resemble
number ‘nines, ‘sixes,’ tails which wrap around the marble
in various directions, commas, ‘S’s’ and occasionally
shear-marks. You can tell a hand-gathered machine-made
marble from hand-gathered hand-made marble, because the
design features will twist about the marble in random
patterns, i.e. on a constantly changing axis. A hand-made,
hand-gathered marble will show design features that turn
around the marble on a single axis. The majority of
hand-gathered machine-made marbles were manufactured for
industrial purposes.
HAND-MADE (Hand-made Glass Marble):
noun. adjective. In the field of marbles this term
usually refers to a ‘hand-made’ glass marble; the
diagnostic marks and feature to look for, if from cane,
two cut-off marks, one at each pole; uf hand-gathered, a
pontil at one pole. Also see Contemporary Art
Glass Marbles.
HAND-MADE & HAND-GATHERED (Hand-made & Hand-Gathered Glass
Marble):
noun. adjective. The first glass marbles
manufactured for the world toy market are in this
category. In 1850,
Elias Greiner of Lauscha, German
received permission from the Emperor’s ministers to
manufacture this new class of glass goods. Herr Greiner
made these marbles with ‘marbelshears,’ a tool previously
invented by his Step-brother to make artificial animal
eyes and glass buttons. The typical diagnostic feature
being marbles of the onyx style, referred to as
“artificial agates and precious balls,” colored “marbled,
agate, amber, lapis lazuli, topaz, etc.,” and having a
regular ground or finely facetted pontil. Other diagnostic
design features resemble number ‘nines, ‘sixes,’ tails
which wrap around the marble as if turned on a single
axis. (Seen spelled as handgathered in a
collectors’ identification and price guide.)
The first
glass marbles manufactured in the United States for the
toy market are in this category as well. In 1890,
James Harvey Leighton manufactured glass
marbles at
The
S. C. Dyke & Company, receiving a
US
patent for the hand-tool and process in
1891. Leighton’s process turned out glass marbles at a
rate three times faster than the German “marbelshears”
and where manufactured in the United States until 1908.
Leighton’s marbles, also in the onyx style, referred to as
“immies” or “imitation agates” in the historic record.
These marbles are similar in design to those mentioned
above as made by Elias Greiner of Lauscha, German; having
a diagnostic pontil referred to by collectors as melted or
pin-point pontils.
This class
of toy marbles also includes ‘End of Day,’ ‘Clouds’ and
Sulphides that were manufactured in Germany until the
around WWII, and some contemporary art spheres created
today could also fall into this classification.
HAND-MADE MARBLES FROM CANES:
noun. adjective. These marbles are easily
identified by two cut-off marks, one at each pole.
The first
record of toy marbles manufactured from canes comes from
an application submitted by Elias Greiner of Lauscha
Germany to the Emperor’s ministers in 1855, seeking
permission for their manufacture. These marbles are known
to collectors as German Swirls, Joseph Swirls, Onionskins,
Lutz, and others, were believed manufactured until the
1930’s.
Also
falling into this class are those marbles collectors call
Indians, Banded Transparents, Banded Opaques and the
likes. These were first manufactured in the United States
at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company in
1892 and continued for a about a year. American retail
catalogs show these same marbles as “imported” also, and
archeological evidence from Lauscha, Germany shows these
were indeed manufactured there too. It is not entirely
clear who was copying who in this case. Maybe better trade
catalogs will come to light that better show exactly what
styles were made when and by who they were made.
This class
also includes a majority of the contemporary art spheres
created today from prefabricated glass canes.
There is a second method
of making cane marbles that employs a bench mounted press
that looks like a big pair of pliers. This method is also
treated under hand gathered pressed glass marbles because
the marbles are formed by squeezing or pressing. There are
only a few toy marbles made with this technique and they
look nothing like regular cane marbles that collectors are
familiar with. Some examples of these are the odd marbles
identified as Czechoslovakian by collectors. The majority
of the type made by this process are made of transparent
monochromatic glass and are utilized as bottle stoppers in
"Codd" bottles. It is known that Germany produced many of
the bottle stopper marbles made by this method.
HANDERS:
noun. A marble game, also called Handlers,
Tipshares. (See Games, Tipshears or Handers)
(Play Ground, 1866)
HAND’S LENGTH
(finger's length, two finger's
length, etc.): interjection. A call that
allows the shooter to move his marble or taw away from the
defensive marble in order to allow greater freedom of
movement. (HARDER)
HAND’S LENGTH:
interjection. The cry entitles one to move his
shooter a hand’s length nearer to the marbles before
shooting. (ZUGER.)
HAND IN GULLY:
noun. phrase. A marble game in which a smaller ring
is encompassed by a larger ring. (HARDER) The object,
rules and strategies of this game are unknown.
HARTFORD EMPIRE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass engineering, patent holding and
developing company formed to obtain and exploit patents
for automatic glass-making machinery. Founded in 1909 by
The Corning Glass Works, was originally called
The Empire Machine Company; in 1916 merged its
intellectual property with that of The
Hartford-Fairmont Company and in 1924 made a similar
arrangement with The Owens-Illinois
Glass Company.
In 1925 Karl E. Peiler assigned his break-through
patent, the first practical gob-feeder, to Hartford,
which resulted in their obtaining an iron clad trust (or
monopoly) over the worldwide glass industry, enabling them
to control and regulate the worldwide manufacture of glass
goods through license of their automatic glass-making
technology. Glass companies had little choice when it came
to the agreements and contracts they signed with
Hartford; they either took the license and accepted
the imposed restrictions on the types and quantities of
goods made, as specified in the contract, or attempted to
keep their doors open using the old fashion, hand-gather
methods and face the prospects of their competitors using
Hartford’s automated technologies. In 1938 a US
Congressional Commission called the Temporary National
Economic Committee investigated anti-trust allegations
concerning Hartford, which lead to one of the
largest and longest running anti-trust suits in US
history. Known as Hartford Empire Co. v. U.S.,
this case is often discussed today in light of a similar
anti-trust suit brought against the Microsoft
Corporation in the 1990s by the US Department of
Justice under the Clinton administration.
HATPIN(S):
noun. A popular item worn by women’s in the 19th
century used to help keep a woman’s hat on her head;
consists of a long, five to six inch iron or steel pin,
with a decorative figure, or in this case a hand-mad glass
marble at the top. Many beautiful marbles manufactured by
J.H. Leighton
were used in hatpins. A number of
these where made at The Navarre Glass Marble &
Specialty Company, of Navarre, Ohio.
HAVE OTHERS
(-clears, -peaks, etc.):
verb. phrase. To have permission to extend the
rules for certain advantages. See also Overs.
(HARDER.)
HEATON AGATE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass toy marble company
manufacturing in Cairo, West Virginia, beginning in the
late 1930s and continuing to the early 1970s; made West
Virginia swirls, Cats-Eyes, board game marbles
and industrial marbles; a predecessor to the Jabo, Inc. of
Reno, Ohio. (MARBLE ALAN.)
HEATON, WILLIAM:
proper name. Founder of
The Heaton Agate Company
in 1939, located in Cairo, West Virginia; sold the company
in 1979 to
The C.E. Bogard & Sons Company.
HEINZELMAN, HARRY:
A marble-worker of note. An employee of
J.H. Leighton
at his Navarre Glass Marble and Specialty Company
until that company’s demise in 1901;.hired in 1903 by M.F.
Christensen to work at his Akron, Ohio marbleworks, The
M.F. Christensen & Son Company, where he became its
glass-master and its highest paid laborer.
HEGGIES:
noun. A marble sitting near the edge of the ring;
an easy shot. Same as Eggies. (FERRETTI) See Snooger
HEISTING:
verb. As used in the play of marble games, an
advanced and skillful method of shooting a marble where a
player holds their shooting hand on top of their other
hand. This allows the shooter to obtain a height advantage
giving them greater accuracy at a distant target. This
technique is not allowed in the Game of Ringer and
American marbles tournament play where one knuckle of the
shooting hand must remain firmly upon the ground at all
times while shooting. It is a technique often used in the
game of Rolley Hole and by advanced players.
HELPING THE PLAYERS:
noun. phrase. A rule used in American marbles
tournament play. “No player may receive help during the
game. Coaches are asked to meet with their players before
and/or after each game to offer advice. Coaching a player
while a game is in progress is not permitted. People
should remain silent during the game except for words of
encouragement. The penalty for breaking this rule is:
first offense – warning, second offense - expulsion of the
person giving advice from the playing area.”
HIGH-DROPPERS:
interjection. A call used to claim the advantage of
dropping one’s marble on his opponent’s. Sometimes called
eye-droppers. (SACKETT)
HILL, HORCE C.: An
employee at The M.F. Christensen & Son Company; the
son of a neighbor and good friend of Mr. M.F. Christensen.
Hill was the Company’s bookkeeper from 1908 to
1913, also a stockholder of the corporation from 1910 to
1913. Around 1910 Hill stole drawings for a revolutionary
glass marble-forming machine (now called a Marble Auger)
which was designed to work with an automatic god-feeder
(not yet perfected, but anticipated as being on the near
horizon of technology; M.F. Christensen was perfecting
this new invention at his marbleworks. Hill applied for a
patent on M.F. Christensen’s new machine in 1911, which
after being rejected and re-applied for was eventually
granted in 1915 USPNo.
1,164,718. Hill also stole a complete list of
the company’s customers and suppliers, embezzled a couple
of thousand dollars and stole untold thousands of marbles
which he used to help start
The Akro Agate Company,
in 1911 and was one of its principle stock holders.
Arrested in 1915, tried, convicted and sentenced to
prison; died of Chronic Brights disease in 1916. His
fellow employees at The M.F. Christensen & Son Company
called him Bucky Binder, after his buckteeth and
being a bookkeeper. In 1929, the federal courts voided
Hill’s patent and recognized M.F. Christensen as its
inventor.
HISTING:
interjection. As used in the play of marble games
to call attention to an infraction of the rules; when a
player lifts their knuckle off the ground while shooting;
found in the Rules of Ringer where one knuckle of
the shooting hand must remain firmly upon the ground at
all times while shooting; “histing” carries the penalty of
a lost turn. Variations; hists,
h'ist, heist, histe, hyst, hyse, hysen, h'ish, heist,
heights, heyst, hoist. Before a game starts a player might
call out call, “fen hists,” meaning no histing.
HIT:
verb. A player’s term denoting a shooter marble came in
contact with a target marble; can be a light tap called a
kiss, or with enough force to knock the marble from
a ring.
HITS:
noun. A marble game in which marbles must be hit
out of a ring; a game that’s played in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY) The rules and strategies of this game are
unknown.
HOLE:
noun. As used in marble games played on a dirt
surface. The hole can be a target pot as in the
game of Pottsies where each player puts their
ante; the hole being dug into the surface of the ring,
usually with the heel of one’s shoe. A smaller hole, as
used in the game Rolley Hole is made by placing a
shooter marble on the surface of the playing field and
stomping on it with the heel of one’s boot, so that when
the shooter is removed they leave a clean hole the size of
the shooter; a very small target.
HOLES:
noun. A marble game played in Akron, Ohio; five
small, shallow cans (like tuna fish cans) are buried in
the dirt up to the edge of the can’s top at four corners
describing a square and the fifth can is buried in the
center of the square. The object is to shoot a marble into
each can in sequence around the square and with the center
hole being the finishing point. The first to shoot into
the center wins.
HOLE IN:
verb. phrase. To get [a marble] into a hole; a term
used in Massachusetts. (CASSIDY)
HOLLY-GOLLY:
noun. A marble game played with hickory nuts, not
with marbles in Tennessee. A variation of the game’s name
is Hul Gul. (HARDER) The object, rules and strategies for
this game are unknown.
HOLY BANG:
noun. A marble game. (HARDER)
See Games,
Holy Bang
HOODLES:
noun. The name for an unknown type of marble or
marbles, likely a clay marble; name seen in the historic
record of the 19th century.
HORSE HAIR OXBLOOD:
noun. A collectors’ term describing a long thin
line of oxblood glass running through the body of
the marble.
HUNCHING (Hunch):
verb. A term used in the play of marble games,
similar to histing when a player lifts their
knuckle off the ground while shooting, but in this case
the player also moves their hand forward to propel the
marble, instead of relying upon the force of their thumb.
It’s a common mistake among new players who’ve yet to
fully learn the art of holding and shooting a marble.
Hunching is an infraction of the rules in most games in
the USA, especially noted in the Rules of Ringer
carries the penalty of a lost turn and any marbles knocked
out by the offending player are returned to the ring
center. Also, Playing a ‘hunch,’ the term in modern
usage derives from the games of marbles when a player
perceives they can obtain some advantage over their
opponents by hunching. Unlike its modern usage
there playing a hunch has a positive connotation, in a
game of marbles playing a hunch is against the
rules. Also called
Fubbing, Fudging,
Grunching, Fudging, Skinch, Smooch, Smooching,
Snudge, Snudging, Take Up.
HUNDREDS:
noun. The name of a marble game, often seen in the
historic record, but the object, rules and strategies used
are unknown at this time.
Back to
Index
IDAR-OBERSTEIN:
proper name. A city in Germany where fine stone
agates, especially the bulleye agate were mined, milled
and turned into toy marbles.
IMMIE: noun. An imitation china marble; term
used in Arkansas, Illinois and Pennsylvania. (CASSIDY.)
Also,
a player’s slag for a glass marble made to look like a
natural agate marble. The term appears in the historic
record as an abbreviation of an imitation agate.
IMMIES UP:
noun. A marble game. (CASSIDY) The object, rules
and strategies used are unknown at this time.
IMITATION AGATE MARBLE(S):
noun. A widely used term for a marble made of clay,
or glass that was attempting to imitate a natural agate
marble. Dyke’s American Agate Marbles were glazed
stoneware and it’s a stretch of the imagination to believe
these might be made of stone. Some glass toy marble did a
better job of imitating a natural stone agate, with
layers, or bands, of different colors, some have multiple
colors. The first glass marbles made by Elias Greiner
of Lauscha, Germany in 1851 attempted to mimic
natural agates. To a certain degree, almost all glass
marbles made in the United States before 1930 attempted to
imitate natural agates or gemstones. Also called immes.
IMITATION ONYX MARBLE(S):
noun. A glass toy marble manufactured to appear as
if it were a natural stone agate, a diagnostic feature
being a swirling of two different colors, one being white.
The onyx was mainstay, or bread-and-butter marble,
manufactured by the toy marble companies from the 1850s
until the early 1930s. Also called immies.
IMPERIAL JADE MARBLE:
noun. A beautiful, slightly translucent, light
green marble, with a waxy luster finish; on first
inspection you’d think the marble was opaque; a Mag-light
shined into the marble will show a golden sparkle in the
cloudy interior; manufactured by The M. F. Christensen
& Son Company from 1905 to 1917; although of a single
and uniform color, upon close inspection one can see the
slight impression of the hand-gathered process; an
extremely rare and highly desired marble by collectors.
The Oriental Jade marble, while similar, is often
purported to be this far more beautiful marble.
INCHINGS:
noun. 1. Fudging [hunching] 2. The act of rolling
the offensive marble or taw up close to a defensive marble
[laying-in or sneaking]. 3. Call to allow the shooter to
move his marble back so that he can maneuver. Counter
call, fen inchings, vence ye inchin's, no inchin. (HARDER)
INCREASE POUND: noun.
A marble game. See Games,
Increase Pound
(Play Ground, 1866)
INDIA:
noun. A marble of clear glass with an object in the
center, usually a figure of an elephant, sometimes a
Victorian lady, a turbaned Indian, etc.; term used in
Michogan. (CASSIDY.) See Figure Marbles.
INDIAN(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; manufactured in Lauscha, Germany between the
late 1890s and 1936. These types were also made in Akron,
Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company
in 1892 and 1893 by the Creighton Bros. These
marbles have two cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily
identifying that it was made from a glass cane. Normally
these are considered a sub-class of Banded Opaque
Marbles; have an opaque base, usually black in color,
but sometimes the glass is a very drank transparent blue
that it appears to be an opaque black. They have thin
stripes of colored glass upon their surface, running from
pole to pole and the stripes are irregularly spaced and
appear as if brush on the marble’s surface. Some of these
marbles are out-of-round. (See photo)
INDUSTRIAL MARBLES:
noun.
Any inexpensive ceramic or glass marble, lacking any
consideration for its appearance; when glass, usually
clear; when ceramic they can be of almost any material;
common clay, stoneware, porcelain, etc.; never glazed,
painted or decorated in any way.
The vast
majority of marbles made since the beginning of the 20th
century are for industrial purposes. The first industrial
ceramic marbles were made by The Standard Toy Marble
Company of Akron, Ohio (1893-10922) and used as
filtration marbles in water purification plants. The first
American industrial glass marbles were used as furniture
casters beginning in the 1890’s, these were large
Bullet Mold, glass marbles made by
J.H. Leighton
at one of his eight glass marble factories in the Akron
area. The M.F. Christensen & Son Company, of Akron,
Ohio (1903-1917,) made most of its glass marbles for
industrial purposes; lithography grinding balls, pump
value balls, etc. opening up a whole new market for glass
marbles. Once used
on road-side reflectors
and in signs to make them more visible at night. At
present glass marbles are used in huge numbers as inert
bodies for chemical vats in the petro-chemical industries,
where their inert character and ability to make sterilize
are highly prized; also in making fiberglass;
also found inside some spray paint cans; also made in
huger numbers of the floral industry, etc. Without the
demand for industrial marbles the manufacture of toy
marbles in the United States as a sideline would have
ceased at the beginning of WWII.
IN EARNEST:
phrase. Same as For Keeps
INNING:
noun. A players’ term; one inning represents
one turn by two or more players in a game.
INNINGS RULE:
noun. A rule used in American marbles tournament
play.
In preliminary play, the referee can limit a game to seven
innings. At the end of seven innings, if neither player
has knocked out seven marbles, the game is called to an
end and the player with the most points, marbles knocked
out, wins.
If, at the
end of seven innings the score is tied, the game will
continue until one player knocks another marble from the
ring. At the
National
Marbles Tournament, their
rules call for the players to lag if they are tied after
seven innings and the winner of the lag determines the
winner of the game. Also see Speed-Up
Rules.
IN THE CIRCLE:
noun. A marble game in which marbles are placed
inside a circle and have to be knocked out of it; term
used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
IOWA FLINT GLASS MANUFACTURING COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A very early glass factory west of the
Mississippi River; founded in 1880 by
J.H. Leighton;
collectors claim this company manufactured hand-made
marbles and claim to have found marbles that appear
identical to German swirl marbles. In 1882, Leighton
closed the factory, left Iowa with this future wife Alda
and eventually settled in Akron, Ohio where he founded
numerous glass marble factories.
IRONIES:
noun. A marble made of metal; usually a ball
bearing, but can be made of any metal material. Most often
used as a shooter marble. These marbles are prohibited in
American marble tournaments. Also, called Steelies,
ISRAEL, CLINTON F.:
proper name. A marble-worker of note; employed by
The Akro Agate Company
until 1932 when fired and hired
by The
Master Marble Company; later formed The
Master Glass Company (1942-1973,) upon the closing of
the former, purchasing the equipment and moved the
marbleworks to Bridgeport, WV. Israel was interviewed in
the 1960s by the famous mibologist, M.G. Wright,
who found him to be an unreliable source of information on
the history of the American marble industry due to his
numerous claims for deeds performed by others.
IVORY: noun. A
marble. (HARDER.) The name of a white, opaque marble. (See
photo)
Back to Index
JABO-VITRO COMPANY, THE (Jabo, Inc.):
proper name. Founded in 1987 upon mergers in the
industry and opened a new marbleworks in Reno, Ohio. Dave
McCullough is the Superintendent; the only person still
manufacturing traditional American glass marbles, where,
“like snowflakes, no two marbles are alike.”
http://www.jabovitro.com/jabovitro/index.htm
JACK(S):
proper name. A term used by players of the game of
Bowls, also called Carpet Bowls, referring
to the single, smaller, 2 1/16” target bowl used in the
game as the object or target.
JACKSON MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A small glass marble company founded
by Carol Jackson in Pennsboro, West Virginia; the company
operated for a short while after WWII. Their marbles are
commonly called West Virginia Swirls. (Marble Alan)
JASPER:
noun. A type of stone, sometimes used to make toy
marbles, the material is bit softer for shooting than some
other stone marbles; come in a wide variety of colors and
natural occurring designs. Also, a type of stoneware
marble with blue or green colored lines running through
the body of a white marble; were imported to the United
States from Germany. Also, the name of a porcelain marble
having different colors swirling though the body of the
marble, sometimes called lined crockery. (See
photo)
JASPER:
noun. A ceramic marble; stoneware, called Lined
Crockery by collectors; a variegated white-bodied
stoneware with lines of blue and green, rarely pink,
running through the body of the marble; can be glazed or
unglazed; mainly manufactured in Germany from the
mid-1850s to the 1930s; however, examples were discovered
during an archeological excavation at site of The
Standard Toy Marble Company, in Akron, Ohio.
JASPIES:
noun. A ceramic marble; same as Jasper; term used
in the historic record, found in sales catalogs before
1910, (Carskadden 2.)
JENKINS, HOWARD M.:
proper name. A glass engineer, turned marble-marker
and Superintendent for The Christensen Agate Company;
made extensive efforts to invent the machinery to automate
the production of glass marbles; USPNos.
1,488,817,
1,596,879,
Re.No. 16,007, all
titled, “Machine for Forming Spherical Bodies.”
JINX:
interjection. A heckling call intended to distract
another player from their concentration in hopes they will
miss their target.
JOHNSON & SHARP MANUFACTURING COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A manufacturer of window frames in
Ottumwa, Iowa; held numerous patents on machines to made
hollow steel balls used to make windows slide with ease;
also marketed these hollow steel balls to the toy industry
as marbles.
JONES, W.F.:
proper name. President and majority stockholder in
The Christensen Agate Company, a resident of Akron,
Ohio; also owned an automobile dealership, a radio
station, an amusement park, a bowling alley and was
involved in the dog racing rackets during the 1920s in
Akron, Ohio.
JOSEPH COAT MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term, the name given to a specific type of
hand-made, glass marbles made from canes; also
called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha, Germany
between the late 1890s and 1936. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane; its base glass is
transparent, has thin stripes of glass in a wide variety
of colors that completely surrounds the marble 360 degrees
and has clear glass upon its surface. (See photo)
JUG:
noun. An agate marble; term used in Kentucky.
(HARDER.)
JUMBO:
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
Back to Index
KAOLIN:
noun. A ceramic material used to manufacture marbles,
similar to porcelain, but fired at a lower temperature;
sometimes called chinas, or unglazed chinas,
but are not true chinas; also called chalkies,
plasters, white alleys.
KEEPS, KEEPINGS, KEEPSIES, KEEPIES:
noun. A just about any marble game can be played
for keeps, meaning the marbles won during the game
become the personal property of the player who knocks them
out of a ring, or hits them in a game of Chase-Ups, etc.
See For Keeps.
KEESLE:
noun. A taw [a shooter marble] from a schistus stone; a
British term used in1830. (HARDER.)
KEESTER:
noun. A
common clay marble with colored rings around it;
term used in Indiana and Ohio. (HARDER.) (See photo)
KELLY POOL:
noun. A marble game using numbered ceramic marbles.
These marbles were manufactured by
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company, of Akron, Ohio. (See
photo)
KENT GLASS NOVELTY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. One of J. H. Leighton’s many
ventures to manufacture glass marbles in the city of Kent,
Ohio, nearby Akron.
KEOTA GLASSWORKS, THE:
proper name. (1879-1880) One of the earliest attempts
to manufacture glass west of the Mississippi River, this
glassworks was located in Keota, Iowa; J. H. Leighton was
the Superintendent.
KICKS:
noun. The situation occurring when a taw or shooter
strikes some person or animal. --interjection. Call
made to nullify the shot or to allow the shot to roll
where it will after striking the person or animal. Counter
call, vence ye kicks, or no kicks. (HARDER) Also, A call
used to claim the following advantage: when one’s marble
hits an object, one may put the outside of his foot
against the marble and bring the other foot up sharply
against the first so as to make the marble roll.
(SACKETT). Also - interjection. 2. In the game of
chase, a call permitting the player who makes it to drive
away his opponent's shooter which he has hit: he places
one foot next to the shooter and touching it, then swings
the other foot sidewise against his first foot, imparting
through it a kick (whence the name) which drives the
shooter away (very much as in croquet) (CASSIDY)
KILL, KILLING, KILLED:
A player’s term describing the consequences, in certain
games, for a poison shooter being knocked from the
ring. The object in a game that includes the poison
shooter rules varies from simply awarding a point to the
player knocking out a poison shooter, to the owner of the
poison shooter being forced to turn over all the marbles
they’d won so far in that game; to the owner being
eliminated from the game. The purpose of increasing harsh
penalties is to repress a player’s want to lay-in
thereby gaining an advantage.
KIMMIE:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
KINEELIA:
noun. "A large shooter (20¢) of polished and machined
stone"; term used in Indiana. (CASSIDY.) See
cornelia,
cornelian.
KING: noun. A
shooter marble; term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
KING DUCK:
noun. A player’s term used in the game of Ducks
in a Hole; the first player to successfully traverse
the three holes becomes King Duck and can target
the other players’ taws. (BEARD)
KINGS: interjection.
Abbreviation of king's excuse ; term used in
Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
KING’S EXCUSE
(king's ex, king's souse, king's
cruise, king's crew): interjection. (orig.
unknown). The words uttered if an accident happens, such
as dropping the marble before shot position is taken, in
order to check the opponent's play. (HARDER.)
KINICK:
noun. "A five-cent shooter marble" as used in
Indiana. Like canick, this is a variant of knick with
epenthetic vowel intruding. The initial k was probably
reintroduced by speakers of Dutch or German background, by
one of whom this was reported. (CASSIDY.)
KINICK AND KINEELIA:
noun. A marble game in which the two marbles named
were used’ term used in Indiana CASSIDY)
KISS, KISSIE, KISSES:
verb. A players’ term describing the following
actions: 1. When two marbles touch. 2. When a shooter
marble lightly hits a target marble, as in Riding a
Snooger. 3. To determine who shoots first, the player
who kisses a target marble placed in the ring center goes
first, second closest goes second, etc.
KNEE-DROPS:
interjection. A call claiming the right to drop
one's marble from one's knee, in the game of chase; term
used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.) See Eye-Drops.
KNEE PADS:
noun. An often-used piece of equipment at The
National
Marbles Tournament to soften the effects of
kneeling on a ring made of hard concrete.
KNOCK A MAN OUT:
verb. phrase. (probably from boxing). To strike the
marble so that it rolls beyond the boundary of the ring.
(HARDER)
KNOCK OUT:
noun. A marble game.
See Games. (Play
Ground 1866)
KNOCKER:
noun. A common players’ term, usually describes a
large marble, see Boulder.
KNOCKOUT:
noun. A marble game in which marbles are thrown
against a wall to bounce back and hit others placed on the
ground. (CASSIDY)
KNUCK:
verb. (from knuckle, English dialog 1840.) To roll
or shoot a marble in a specific manner. (1829). Also -
noun. 1. A marble used as shooter or taw. 2. A marble
that is used in a game of knuckling, or in knuckling
down. 3. A game of marbles. Also -noun. plural.
knucks. A game in which the winner is given the privilege
of shooting at his opponent's knuckles. (HARDER) See
bird eggs.
KNUCKS:
noun. plural. A game in which the players try to
shoot their marbles into four small holes in the ground,
always shooting with their knuckles on the ground. The
winning player is allowed the privilege of shooting at the
loser's knuckles held on the ground. (COMBS.) See bird
eggs.
KNUCKLE:
verb. To place the knuckles on the ground in the
act of shooting a marble or taw. (HARDER)
KNUCKLE:
verb. The power to shoot a marble. (ZUGER.)
KNUCKLE:
noun. The name of a marble game; likely a generic
term used to describe just about any game where the
players shoot with their Knuckles Down.
KNUCKLE DABSTER:
noun. A piece of equipment for playing marble
games, a soft piece of material or animal skin placed on
the cold, rough ground to cushion a player’s knuckles.
From (Beard, The Outdoor Handy Book.) “Every boy
who plays marbles should posses a knuckle dabster; these
can be made from bits of soft woolen cloth, felt, or the
skin of small animals. Mole skin makes the softest and
prettiest of knuckle dabsters, but any piece of fur will
answer. Some boys wear them fastened to their hand, but
the most expert players seem to prefer to throw them down
at the spot from which they are about to shoot and then
knuckle down on the soft fur or woolen cloth. A knuckle
dabster prevents one’s knuckles from becoming sore and
raw, and adds greatly to the comfort of the player.” As
the marbles playing season stretches from February to May,
children played as soon as the snow melted. The sight of
children playing marbles on a warm winter day was often
sighted as a sign that spring was just around the corner.
At this time of year the ground was often frozen, or cold
and damp, so a knuckle dabster came in handy. Old-timers
suggested this kept their hands from getting champed. This
is primarily a late 19th century term. It seems
to disappear from the historic record in the mid-1920s
around the start of the National Marbles Championship.
KNUCKLE DOWN:
verb. A penalty when one’s shooter is stuck within
the ring, which forces the player to twist and shoot
somewhat downwards, thus making a good shot nearly
impossible. (ZUGER.) If a player’s shooter comes to rest
in the ring, close to and surrounded by a group of target
marbles, which the player may not touch or move at all, in
order to get off a shot the player is forced to contort
their hand to fit between the marbles so their knuckle
touches only the ground, “thus making a good shot nearly
impossible.”
KNUCKLE DOWN,
KNUCKS, KNUCKS DOWN, KNUCKS DOWN TIGHT:
verb. A rule used in most traditional American
marble games; knuckle down is the basic position
for a player’s hand when shooting a marble. In the
Rules of Ringer “one knuckle of the shooting hand must
remain firmly upon the ground at all times while
shooting.” It is an infraction of the rules to lift your
knuckle off the ground (called histing,)or to move
your hand forward (called hunching,) which carry
the penalty of a losing your turn, the return to the ring
of any marbles shot out and the shot not being counted. 2.
A call to begin play. 3. A marbles game played in a ring.
4. A commonly used term in the vernacular of American
English speech today, meaning get to work.
KNUCKLE DOWN AND BIRD EGGS:
interjection. A call made when the last hole is
made, or when the player comes in last, in a game of
bungums. Apparently the phrase means the player is
supposed to place his knuckles on the ground and probably
close his eyes while the other players shoot at the
unprotected knuckles or "bird eggs." See lights up and
no bird eggs. (HARDER.) This was a particularly
aggressive act of undesirable behavior performed by
adolescents and young teenage boys, as it was often the
penalty for losing. At times a larger, stronger boy held
the loser’s wrist to the ground while the winner took
shots at the losing boy’s knuckles – intending to crack
his bird eggs. (Playground
1866) Also see knucks. See
Games,
The Pot Game
KNUCKLE DOWN, BONY TIGHT:
interjection. A beginnings of a rhyming chant
intending to warn a player to keep the knuckle of his
shooting hand on the ground.
KNUCKLE IN:
verb. To hold the knuckles against an obstruction
instead of moving out in order to obtain a more favorable
position. (HARDER)
KNUCKLER:
noun. A player’s favored shooter marble, or taw,
used in more serious an important marble games.
KNUCKLE UP:
noun. A player’s term for a shooting style, the
opposite of ‘knuckle down’ where a player’s knuckle must
be in contact with the ground at all times while shooting.
To call, ‘knuckle up’ allowed a player to stand and shoot
from the hip – a shooting style more common to those games
played in a large ring, i.e.; fat which uses a 15
foot ring and Rolley Hole. Also, a call made
allowing a player to lift his shooting hand off the ground
and place it upon the back of their other hand which is in
contact with the ground (from Hilltop USA, Columbus,
Ohio.)
KNUCKLES:
noun. A marble game in which all shots must be made
with knuckles down; from California. (CASSIDY) The object,
rules and strategies of this game are unknown.
KNUCKLEY:
noun. A marble game played with an eight inch ring:
players "place the `dib' on the second joint of the
forefinger; pressing the in-bent thumb forces the `dib'
out at the required speed to rest in the ring or force the
opponent out" (CASSIDY) The object, rules and strategies
of this game are unknown.
KONNOGS:
noun. “is the penalty which the vanquished have to
suffer, and consists in the victors shooting at his closed
knuckles with his taw. The name is supposed to be derived
from the sound produced by striking the marble against the
closed hand, and caused by the hollow in the palm of the
hand while it is in that position.” (PATTEN) See
Knuckle Down and Bird Eggs.
Back to Index
LAG:
verb. Rolling a marble as near as possible to those
in a pixie; used to determine the order of play,
the closest being first, etc. (ZUGER.)
LAG:
noun. A marble game that’s played in the same
manner as Lag is used to determine the order of play for a
game, but in this game the only object is to be closest to
the line; a good game for younger children who do not yet
have the manual dexterity to Knuckle Down and play
more advanced games.
LAG:
noun. A player’s term describing a how to decide the order
of play, or who goes first in the Rules of Ringer;
Rule II- Plan of Play.
Section 1. The lag is the first operation in Ringer.
To lag, the players stand toeing the pitch line, or
knuckling down upon it, and toss or shoot their shooters
to the lag line across the ring. The player whose
shooter comes nearest the lag line, on either side, wins
the lag.
Section 2. Players must lag before each game. The
player who wins the lag shoots first, and the others
follow in order as their shooters were next nearest the
lag line. The same shooter that is used in the lag must be
used fit the game following the lag.
Section 3 On all shots, except the lag, a player
shall knuckle down so that at least one knuckle is in
contact with the ground, and he shall maintain this
position until the shooter has left his hand. Knuckling
down is permitted, but not required in lagging.
LAGGING:
verb. As used in the play of marble games, the act
of choosing turns, deciding which player goes first. In
the layout of the marbles ring in the Rules of Ringer
there exists a ten-foot diameter ring and two, ten-foot,
strait, parallel lines each intersecting the ring line at
one point, the lines being ten-feet apart. The players
step up to the pitch-line and in any fashion shoot,
roll, bowl, or toss their marble towards the lag-line.
The player whose marble comes to rest the closest to the
lag-line goes first, the second closest goes
second, etc.
LAGGER:
noun. A type of marble used in the game of Lag.
In tournament play a player cannot change or switch
shooters after lagging. Also, one who excels at lagging is
said to be a good lagger.
LAGGY:
interjection. A teasing and derogatory name used to
describe a player who comes in last in the game of Lag.
(HARDER)
LAGGY-BAG: noun. A marble
game (HARDER) The object, rules and strategies of this
game are unknown.
LAG-LINE:
noun. As used in the play of marble games, as
described in the act of lagging to decide who goes first;
The Rules of Ringer
RULE 1- EQUIPMENT
Section 3. The lag
line is a straight-line drawn tangent to the ring, and
touching it at one point. The pitch line is a
straight-line drawn tangent to the lag line [10 foot
opposite.]
LAG OUT:
noun. A marble game. (HARDER) The object, rules and
strategies of this game are unknown at this time, but a
guess would say it’s the same as the game Lag.
LANG, MATHEW:
proper name. An inventor of marble-making machinery
and injection molding, holding a grounded patent on later
which is still in use today in a wide variety of
industries. (USPO Number
449,256 and 485,282.)
Also, the owner of East End Marble Company of
Akron, Ohio founded in 1889, the second marble company in
the USA, after Samuel C. Dyke’s efforts. Lang
liberally licensed his patents to others in the marble
industry to the Dyke Bros., F.J. Brown, etc. His
marbles carry easily recognizable diagnostic trait; a mold
ridge around the equator and for those injection molded it
is sometimes possible to discern the point where the
porcelain slip was injected.
LATTICINA CORE MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term; the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between 1860 and 1936. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane. Distinguished from other
cane marbles by their core; the core of these marbles
resembles a cage of thin stripes twisting slightly and
running from pole to pole. (See photo)
LAUSCHA, GERMNAY:
proper name. A small mountain village in Germany
(formerly in the DDR, East Germany,) in the state of
Thüringia, known for generations as the center of glass
marble making in that country. The manufacture of glass
marbles began here in 1853, under a patent or license
granted by the Emperor to Elais Greiner. Also, the
birthplace of the glass Christmas tree ornament.
LAY:
noun. The spot or position in which a marble lies:
"Second shots were not from the line but from the lay";
term used in Oklahoma. (CASSIDY.)
LAYING-IN:
noun. A player’s term describing an important
strategy; where a player shoots into the center of the
ring, so the shooter comes to rest close to the target
marbles, without the intention of knocking a target marble
out of the ring, but setting themselves up in an
advantageous position and greatly increasing the chances
of scoring on their next turn. If done properly this can
be an effective and aggressive strategy. However, because
the player did not knock a target marble from the ring and
their shooter stays where it came to rest, it becomes
poison and can be targeted by the other players. If an
opponent lays-in well, leaving themselves set-up
for their next turn, the other players must target the
poison shooter and knock it out, knock it far off it’s
advantageous position, or risked being “skinned”
before their next turn. Laying-in is the more
polite term used to describe this shot and is often seeing
in press coverage for marble tournaments from the 1920s
and 1930s. Younger players, or beginners often use this
strategy of play, but they risk ridicule by advanced
players, who call the shot “Babying-In.” Also
called Sneaking,
Babying and Laying-Up; Laying-in was an
extremely important strategy used in the game of Ringer
during the height of marbles play in the United States.
Laying-in allowed the younger, less advanced players
to effectively compete with the older more advanced
players, providing them with the opportunity to become
more experienced. Even though the most advanced players
complained and lobbied tournament directors for its
removal from the Rules of Ringer, the newspapermen in
charge of the tournaments refused it’s removal, instead
making the Poison Shooter penalties increasingly
harsh. These tougher rules caused the game of Ringer to
become more suspenseful, the strategies employed by the
players to become more interesting and it became a more
appreciated spectators sport. Eventually the Rules of
Ringer were changed deleting the Laying-in and
Poison Shooter rules from the game. At which point the
object of Ringer became – to knock a 5/8” marble, resting
five feet away, out of a 10 foot circle – one of the most
difficult of children’s games. Within a generation of
dropping the Laying-in rule from Ringer, marbles
playing in the United States dropped off sharply. Imagine
the National Basketball Association changing the game of
basketball to a series of shots taken from the
three-point-line and you can begin to imagine the
long-term impact that occurred by removing Laying-in
from the most popular of marble games. Also called,
Babying-in, Babying, Roll-up.
LEHR:
noun. A glassworkers’ term used by manufacturers
and glass artists to describe a type of annealing oven,
sometimes used for hand-made glass marbles
LEIGHTON, JAMES HARVEY:
proper name. (1849-1923) Father of the American
glass marble, first to mass-produce glass marbles in the
United States. Manufactured hand-made glass marbles in
eight glass marble factories or ‘marbleworks’ located in
the greater Akron area. Operated or assisted in the
operation of numerous other glass factories and glass
supply companies in Iowa, Illinois, West Virginia and
Ohio. Received a grounded patent, US PO Number
462,083, for the
“Manufacture of Solid Glass Spheres.” Professionally
associated with Samuel C. & Actæon L. Dyke and Martin F.
Christensen, also manufacturers of toy marbles. All of
J.H. Leighton’s patented marbles have a melted pontil
making them easy to identify.
LEIGHTON, THE J.H. & COMPANY:
proper name. The first marbleworks in the USA to
produce glass marbles as an exclusive product; founded by
J. H. Leighton and his good friend Michael J. Murphy, in
1892 in Akron, Ohio. It used Leighton’s patented glass
marble making manufacturing method and was such a
successful venture it inspired Leighton to found other
glass marbleworks.
LEMONADE MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors term for a specific type of gob-fed
marble manufactured by The Akron Agate Company in
the early 1930s; made with yellow glass. (See photo)
LIGHTS UP AND NO BIRD EGGS: interjection and
phrase. A counter call to knuckle down and bird eggs
in the game of bungums. The player who rolls old lass
[comes in last] must make the call which disallows the
shots at his knuckles. (HARDER.) See Knuckle Down and
Bird Eggs
LIMEAIDE MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors term for a specific type of gob-fed
marble manufactured by The Akron Agate Company in
the early 1930s made with green glass. (See photo)
LIMESTONE MARBLE(S):
noun. Stone marbles made of limestone, ground
spherical in water powered mills (similar to flour mills,)
primarily in the Sonnenberg-Coburg region of Germany
dating back to the 18th century. Imported to
the United States in large numbers during the 19th
century; as sold in US catalogs, advertised,1,000 to a
bag, either plain or “brightly polished” (meaning
colorfully dyed;) plain in natural colors varying from
muted tans, grays, yellows, browns or olives. Dyed colors
included yellow, red, blue, green, purple and black
(Roberts.) To identify, a light hydrochloric acid (or even
vinegar) will react to the limestone showing a bubbling or
fizzing effect, called effervesce, on the surface of the
marble. If the marble is made of ceramics it will not
bubble, or pass the acid test. Limestone marbles
look similar to the marbles manufactured at
The Akron Stone
Marble Company of Boston, Ohio but these marbles
are made of shale, are gray to bluish gray and not made
from limestone.
LINESIES:
noun. A marble game in which the marbles are placed
in a line rather than in a group. (HARDER) A marbles game
where target marbles are lined up in a row and the object
is to knock the marbles off the line with a shooter
marble. In the USA the game is most often called
Picking Cherries, Picking Plums. (See
GAMES)
LINED CROCKERY MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a specific type of
variegated stoneware marbles with green or blue lines
running through a white marble, rarer with both green and
blue lines. Manufacture red by dying the clay, blue or
green, and mixing it with white clay. An old type of
European toy marble sometimes called, Dutch Marbles
(although actually made in Germany,) or Jaspers,
Jaspies, or Cloudies. Also manufactured at The
Standard Toy Marble Company in Akron, Ohio, discovered
in archeological excavations at the company site.
LITHOGRAPHY BALLS:
noun. Also called lithography grinding balls, or litho
balls; an industrial glass marble used to polish limestone
slabs in preparation for etching in the print industry;
first manufactured by The M.F. Christensen & Son
Company in Akron, Ohio in 1903.
LITTLE RING:
noun. A marble game played in a small, usually
triangular ring, and using more marbles than big ring; a
game played in Massachusetts. (CASSIDY) The object, rules
and strategies of this game are unknown.
LITTLE SOLIDS:
noun. A common marble; small glass marbles, solid
color. Used as target marbles. The marbles in Chinese
checkers sets. (FERRETTI)
LOB:
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
LOB-TAW:
noun. A very large marble; a British term used around1883.
(HARDER.)
LOFTING:
noun. As used in the play of marble games, an
advanced shooting technique where the player shoots a
marble up into the air in a graceful and predetermined
arch. It is a difficult technique to master and only used
effectively by the most advanced players. “When we played
marbles we played in a bull ring, shooting with our
knuckles on the ground on the line forming the circle. The
marbles in the center were called ducks. We did not bowl
them out but lofted on them in a most skillful
manner. The taw marble with which we shot described a
slight curve through the air, skillfully and forcefully
striking the duck.” (Hardly A Man Is Now Alive, The
Autobiography of Dan Beard, Doubleday, Inc. NY, 1939, p
92.)
LONG TAW: noun. A
marble game. (Play Ground, 1866) See Games, Long Taw
LONG TAWL:
noun. A marble game in which the objective marbles
are set at the end of a "lane" as in bowling, and shot at
from a starting line; the games as played in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY)
LOST HIS MARBLES: noun.
phrase. A popular term original to marbles but widely used
in general speech in the United States, describing one
who’s lost all their marbles in a game of Keeps and
becomes upset, distraught, crazy, crying and generally
thoroughly disappointed with the turn of events. Also, in
a question, “have you lost your marbles” or the statement
“he’s lost his marbles.” Also, in Britain a Shub,
Scragge.
LOW HIGH-DROPPERS:
interjection. A call used to claim the advantage of
kneeling while executing high droppers. SACKETT.
LUSTER:
noun. A term used in the glass marble industry for glass
marbles made primarily for the floral industry, usually a
transparent marble with a shinny iridescent surface. Also
called Oilies when used as toy marbles.
LUTZ:
noun. A collectors’ term; a type of hand-made glass marble
made from cane, contains a sparkling powdered Goldstone;
a highly desirable and very valuable marble. In a pamphlet
titled “Marbles: Identification and Price Guide” by Mel
Morrison and Carl Terison, published without a date
(1970’s?) claimed this type of marble was the product of
the famous American glass-master Nicholas Lutz. However,
this claim to Lutz is not supported in the historic record
nor in scholarly secondary sources, published biographies
of Nicholas Lutz or the companies that he helped make
famous. This type of marble appears in the German
historical record.
Back to Index
MACHINE-MADE MARBLE:
A glass or ceramic marble made by a machine. With
machine-made glass marbles, in some cases, it is possible
to see the design effects of the molten glass turning with
a constantly rotating axis, a diagnostic trait. The first
machine-made glass marble was manufactured by Martin
Frederick Christensen, of Akron, Ohio who perfected a
machine in 1902, awarded US Patent Number 802,495.
MACHINE-MADE GLASS MARBLES, FULLY AUTOMATED:
All glass toy marbles manufactured in the USA after 1930
are the result of automatic gob feeders and marble-forming
machines. They weren’t used in the rest of the world until
after World War Two. This technology was first pioneered
by and introduced at The Christensen Agate Company
late in 1927. This technology, developed under
contract with
The Hartford Empire Company who held the
patents for gob feeder technology and adapted it to make
glass marbles; upon the closing of The Christensen Agate
Company in 1930, these marble making gob feeder patents
were offered to and universally used by all other American marbleworks. Once these patents expired in the early to
mid 1950’s German, Japanese and Mexican marble
manufacturers adopted this technology. Some of this
technology may have been given to these foreign countries
as part of the post WWII rebuilding effort. Only a small
percentage of these marbles were manufactured for the
children’s toy market.
MAG-LITE:
noun. trademarked name. A small but powerful
flashlight used by collectors to discern the interior of a
glass marble. Also, a tern used by collectors to describe
a specific type of glass marble made from cane, a sub
class of Indian marbles collectors call
Mag-lites, classified within the broader category of
Banded Transparent Marbles. A Mag-lite
flashlight will illuminate the dark interior of an
Indian with a color of glass that is so dark it
appears to the naked eye to be made of opaque glass, but
is actually transparent. Because of its perceived rarity,
a Mag-light Indian holds a greater value to a
collector.
MAKE A STAND:
verb. phrase. In the game of pinks, to shoot
and hit one or both marbles, knocking them from the dump
and leaving one's shooter "standing" in their place, which
allows the next shot to be made from that pink; term as
used in Missouri. (CASSIDY)
MAN:
noun. A players’ term for a marble; the term is
more commonly used to describe a marble used on game
boards, rather than a marble used in a conventional
marbles game, like Ringer.
MANITOWOC:
noun. A local name in Twin Rivers, Wisconsin for
the marble game Big Ring. (CASSIDY.)
MANUFACTURER’S DEFECT:
noun. Some type of imperfection seen in a marble
resulting from the manufacturing process instead of the
marble being roughly handed or played with to a point of
damage. Most marble companies tried to keep these
defective marbles out of the orders they filled and
usually ended up in a reject pile.
MARB:
noun. A marble; term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
MARBELSHEAR:
noun. A German word; a German glassworker’s hand
tool used to manufacture glass marbles; sometimes called
marble scissors in English. Invented in the 1840s by the
cousin of Elias Greiner to manufacture artificial,
glass eyes; continued in commercial use to make toy
marbles until 1936.
MARBLE(S):
noun. 1. A spherical object, usually less than 3
inches and made of stone, ceramics, or glass; today used
in the United States mostly for industrial or decorative
purposes and to a much lesser degree as toys for games. 2.
The games employing small spherical objects. In pervious
times the singular ‘marble’ was used to describe the
games, as in The Akron District Marble Tournament.
Today the plural ‘marbles’ is more commonly used to
describe the games, as in The Akron District Marbles
Tournament.
MARBLE(S) BAG:
noun. A players’ apparatus to hold their marbles;
“As a rule boys carried their marble stock in calico bags
with puckering strings.”(Steele.) Also, in the
1930s some marble manufacturers sold handsomely printed
gift boxes of marbles with a fine marbles bag inside that
were printed with a company logo, or such. (See photo.)
MARBLE BOARD:
noun. A board with openings cut through it; it is
placed with slits against the floor and marbles are rolled
toward it from a given distance, the players trying to
make them go through the openings; term from Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY.) Also see Marble Rake.
MARBLE AUGER:
noun. A glass marble industry term for a
marble-forming machine; consisting of twin,
helically-grooved cylinders, this machine turns a gob, or
charge of molten glass into a sphere. Invented by Martin
Frederick Christensen of Akron, Ohio, around 1910; the
design of was stolen and patented in 1915 by Christensen’s
trusted bookkeeper Horace C. Hill, to form
The Akro Agate Company. Hill was later arrested, tried,
convicted and sentenced to prison for the theft. In 1929,
the federal courts recognized Christensen invented the
marble auger and voided the Hill patent.
MARBLES CLUB TEAM CAPTAIN:
noun. A British player’s term; a title recognizing
one member of a six-man team to act as the captain to
choose the order in which the members will play and by
performing the nose drop to decide which team goes
first. The captain whose tolley comes closest to
the line has the option of first play.
MARBLE CUTTERS:
noun. A term used to describe a German stoneworker
of the 19th century who assisted in the
production of limestone marbles; a laborer who not only
dug limestone from the earth, but then processed and cut
the stone into small cubes which were then delivered to
the marble miller for grinding into spheres.
MARBLE DAY:
noun. phrase. In County Sussex, England, Marble Day
is Good Friday. The origin of the custom of everyone
playing marbles on that day is unknown, but may have some
folk relation to the casting of dice for Christ's
garments. In this area the marble season is strictly
defined between Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; the last
day, although a Holy Day, must be spent, by both young and
old, in playing marbles, with the exception of the time
for church services. W. D. Parish, The Vicarage,
Selmeston, states in N & Q: "Is it possible that it
[marble day] was appointed as a Lenten Sport, to keep
people from more boisterous and mischievous enjoyments?"
From 1879. (HARDER.) As of this writing, Marbles Day
is still held at The Grey Hound Pub at Tinsley
Green in Sussex, where the locals call it The World
Marbles Championship. It is a joyful, intemperate
event.
MARBLE EDITOR:
noun. A term used to describe a newspaper reporter
appointed the responsibility of organizing and running a
local, city or regional marbles tournament for their
sponsoring newspaper and reporting all the news about the
marble tournament season in the newspaper. At the
Scripps Howard newspaper syndicate being a Marble
Editor was a fast track up the corporate ladder, with many
of them becoming managing editors. The best of these
Marble Editors were also responsible for organizing and
running The
National
Marbles Tournament, referred
to as The National Marbles Committee. In other
newspaper chains, being appointed the Marbles Editor was a
dreaded and thankless position.
MARBLE GAGE:
noun. A piece of equipment used by referees in
tournaments to determine the size of a marble, most often
a player’s shooter marble, but also the target marbles. A
marble gage can be made of any material from cardboard,
wood, metal, etc. having 2 or 3 holes; 3/4", 5/8” and
1/2".
MARBLE(S) HITTING THE PLAYER:
noun. A term used in marbles tournament play, a
rule. If, after taking a shot, the shooter hits the player
whose turn it is, then that player’s turn has ended. The
player may keep any target marbles knocked out during that
shot but the turn passes on to the other player. If a
target marble hits the shooting player then that target
marble is placed back where it was before being hit. Any
other target marbles knocked out of the ring on this shot
will be credited to the player but the turn is ended.
MARBLE GOLF:
noun. A marble game with the same object as golf;
players shoot marbles into a series of holes; the player
to reach the last hole in the fewest number of shots is
declared the winner. The game can be played on park trails
using natural obstacles in a manner similar to those found
at a put-put course.
MARBLE KING:
noun. A common term used to describe a champion
marbles player.
MARBLE KING, INC.:
proper name. A glass toy marble company; founded in
1949 by Berry Pink, who called himself “The Marble
King” and Sellers Peltier of the Peltier Glass
Company; establishing their marbleworks in St. Marys, West
Virginia; moving in 1958 to Paden City, West Virginia and
still doing business there; Ms.
Beri Fox is the
current President. This company is an industry’s leader in
board game marbles, also makes cats eyes and patch style
marbles; also industrial marbles.
http://www.marbleking.com
MARBLE KING TOURNAMENTS:
proper name. An independent provider of marble
tournaments, organized by Berry Pink, aka, "The Marble
King". Held in cities throughout the United States during
the late 1930s, as a promotion for the marbles he
manufactured.
MARBLE MARBLE:
noun. phrase. A stone marble made of marble,
actually Alabaster. These were made in large
numbers in the Berchtesgaden-Salzburg region of Germany in
the 18th and 19th centuries. The
source of the materials mined from Untersberg Mountian.
These marbles were milled as a cottage industry by placing
a small stone-grinding mill into a mountain brook or
stream whereby the stone would be turned into spheres.
MARBLE(S) MEDAL:
noun. Awarded to winners of marble tournaments. The
vast majority of medals were awarded in the 1920s and
1930s by the Scripps Howard Company newspapers for
winners of school, regional and city marble tournaments.
City champs were given gold medals, the runner-ups were
given silver medals and all others were made of bronze.
Many different styles were made, all have an image of a
boy shooting marbles. Other newspaper issued marble
medals, as did the Veterans of Foreign Wars from
the late 1930s through the 1960s. (See photo)
MARBLE MILL:
noun. A water-powered mill similar to a gristmill
where limestone, or shale, was ground into toy marbles.
Almost all were located in Germany. The only one in the
United States was
The Akron Stone
Marble Company
(1892-1898) located in Boston, Ohio, near Akron. (See
photo)
MARBLE MILLER:
noun. One who owns and operates a marble mill.
MARBLE MUGGINS:
noun. A popular game that used marbles,
manufactured by
The American Toy Manufacturing Company
of Salem, MA around the turn of the 20th
century. The game has a colorful lithograph pasted on
ridged cardboard, showing man with a broad, wide-open
smile. The mouth is cut out and represents a target, the
object being to shoot marbles into Muggins’ mouth.
(See photo)
MARBLE(S) PIN:
noun. Awarded to participants and or winners of
marble tournaments; come in a variety of styles with
printed designs, most showing a boy knuckling down. (See
photo)
MARBLE(S) RACK:
noun. A piece of equipment used in American
tournament play to set 13 marbles in the shape of an X in
the ring’s center; most are made of wood; sometimes called
a template. (See photo)
MARBLE RAILWAY: noun.
A toy made from wood in the 19th century and
now made in plastic, designed to use gravity to propel a
marble down a predetermined track. The first were
relatively simple but popular toys having three switchback
tracks. Today these toys can have very elaborate and
complicated tracks. The term is defined by the United
States Patent Office where dozens of marble railways were
awarded patents. (See photo)
MARBLE(S), RETRIEVING:
noun. A rule used in American marbles tournaments.
After completing their turns, players must pick up their
shooters and may pick up any target marbles knocked out of
the ring. To avoid accidentally kicking marbles, players
must walk around the ring and not through it. The penalty
for breaking this rule is: first offense – warning. If
after a warning the player walks through again and kicks a
marble the referee may impose a penalty of a forfeiture of
one point.
MARBLE SHEAR:
noun. A German glassworker’s hand tool used to
manufacture glass marbles, sometimes called marble
scissors in English; spelled marbelshear in the
German language. Invented in the 1840s by the cousin of
Elias Greiner to manufacture artificial, glass eyes;
continued in use until the 1930s. (see photo)
MARBLE TOY(S):
noun. A large number of fanciful toys were invented
to use a marble in some amusing and entertaining way. The
US Patent record shows many toys were invented that used
marbles, especially in the 19th century,
although it is unknown if most of them actually caught on
with the consuming public and only a few of them are known
to exist today. The largest category of marble toys from
the 19th century is classified in the patent
record under marble railways. Also see Down and
Out, Panama Pile Driver, Three Blind Mice.
(See photo)
MARBLE(S) TROPHY:
noun. Awarded to winners of marble tournaments; in the
past 40 years most are generic trophies, the same as
awarded in any sport with the name of the marble
tournament engraved and printed on an attached plate. The
most interesting are those awarded in the 1930s to 1960s
with a cast metal figure of a boy knuckling down at the
top of the trophy. Most of these trophies were awarded to
city marble champions. (See photo)
MARBLEWORKS:
noun. A marble factory, the term often appears in
the historic record (sometimes spelled marblewerks.) (See
photo)
MARKER:
noun. A single marble used as a target. (FERRETTI)
MARLIES:
noun. A British term for ‘marbles,’ both the toy
and the games; children’s slag
from the
Midlands area of England, notably Birmingham.
MARRIDIDDLES:
noun. Homemade marbles, usually of clay. (HARDER.)
MARSH, GILBERT C. (Stubby):
(1877 - 1949) A resident of Akron, Ohio; owned a chain of
shoe stores, Wagoner & Marsh, in Akron and Canton,
Ohio; in 1911 co-founded
The Akro Agate Company
and
served as it’s President until his death in 1949. A very
successful, but often overly aggressive businessman with a
keen marketing sense; willing to get the job done using
unorthodox, sometimes unlawful means; hired good employees
but had difficulties keeping them; prone to litigate and
always lost his court cases; married late in life; no
children; lived in an large home, Shadow Oaks, in
the same neighborhood as Akron’s rubber barons.
MASON BROTHERS & TARLIN COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A Boston, Massachusetts Company; importers
and distributors of German marbles in the later 1920s and
1930s.
MASS-PRODUCED:
noun. To make many items, marbles, at the same
time; an advanced manufacturing technique over the
hand-made method that produces one item at a time; before
1884, all marbles were made one at a time by hand, the
workers being able to produce roughly one per minute or 60
per hour. In 1884 Samuel C. Dyke invented the first device
to mass-produced toys – clay marbles. Using this device a
worker could make 800 marbles per hour. This dramatically
reduced the cost of labor per marble allowing the retail
price of a marble to become extremely inexpensive, while
at the same time enjoying a healthy profit margin.
MASTER GLASS COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass marble company located in
Bridgeport, West Viginia and founded in 1941with the
equipment purchased from the defunct marbleworks of The
Master Marble Company. The company produced Patch
marbles with a thin veneer of colored glass on an
opaque white marble, also Cats-Eyes and various
other common marbles. The company closed its doors in
1973. (MARBLE ALAN)
MASTER MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass marble company located in
Anmoore, West Virginia, founded in 1930 by formerly
disgruntled employees of
The Akro Agate Company.
Akro retaliated by bringing a patent infringement suit
against Master. The case ended up in federal court
where the judge ruled all existing marble forming
machinery to be old art related to Martin Christensen’s
inventions, thereby allowing anyone to use the technology
and vindicating Master. The company manufactured
the beautiful and colorful Sunburst marbles. The
Master Marble Company closed its doors in 1941. Their
equipment was purchased and used to start The Master
Glass Company of Bridgeport, West Virginia.
MATCH (match-play):
noun. A term used at American marbles tournaments
describing a set of games, from one to 21 games, played by
two contestants.
MEDINA GLASS NOVELTY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass marble company venture begun
by
J.H. Leighton
and partners in Medina Ohio, around 1898;
however they didn’t get past the capital stock raising
phase.
MEG:
noun.
A
small clay marble used as a target marble. Also see mib,
commie.
MEG ON A STRING:
noun. phrase. A marbles game requiring the most
advanced skill level; a series of strings are tied to a
wooden dowel with marbles, or megs, stuck to the
end of the strings with wax. The dowel is then wedged into
a fence so it sticks out, parallel to the ground, with the
strings hanging down and swinging. The object is to strike
the meg and knock it off the string. (BEARD)
MEGA MARBLES:
proper name. A trademarked company name used by the
American distributors of glass marbles made by Vacor de
Mexico in Guadalajara, Mexico, the largest
manufacturer of glass marbles in the world. These marbles
are made in sizes specific to playing foreign games, not
the traditionally played in the United States which
require different sized marbles. Mega Marbles is
located in
Wichita, Kansas;
also, the name of the glass marbles sold by the company.
MERRILL & COMPANY, THE E.H.:
proper name. A large pottery in downtown Akron,
Ohio; manufacturers of ceramic bottles for all purposes
but mostly for beer and other hard spirits; also the
largest manufacturer in the world of smoking pipes, when
the major of tobacco was smoked with a pipe; founded the
trust known as The Akron Smoking Pipe Company. The
company was located next door to where Sam Dyke founded
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company. In
Dyke’s obituary, The Akron Beacon Journal claimed
Dyke made his first marbles under contract for Merrill
& Company.
MESH BAG:
noun. A type of marble bag used for retail sales;
allows a retailer to display the marbles to consumers with
minimal packaging; an ease for the retailer. Invented by
Berry Pink in 1931 for
The Rosenthal Company
of New York City to hold Peltier marbles; cheap
plastic ones are used today. Before the 1930s all marbles
offered for sale were either sold in boxes as a group or
individually from counter display units. (See photo)
MIB(S):
noun. The Latin word for marble; a term used
extensively in the United States throughout the 19th
to mid 20th centuries for the common marble; a
target marble of any type, but rarely a shooter marble;
more often seen in the historic record than at present. In
today’s usage the term applies to any marble.
MIBBLES: noun.
Another name for marbles. (Steele.)
MIBSTER:
noun. This term combines the Latin word for marbles
mib with the word youngster to define one who plays
the games of marbles. It is widely seen in the historic
record in reference to a child who plays marbles. Today it
is used to identify anyone who plays marbles.
MIBOLOGY:
noun. The study of marbles
MIBOLOGICAL:
noun. Relating to the field of study of marbles.
MICA(S): noun. A collectors’ term for a
specific type of marble; called Glimers in the
historic record; it is a hand-made transparent glass
marble made in Germany until 1936; they can be hand-made
from cane or ‘hand-gathered. The transparent glass,
commonly clear but also found in a variety of colors,
holds small flakes of mica inside the marble that sparkle,
or glimmer in the light; the more mica in the marble the
greater the value to collectors. (See photo)
MIDGIES:
noun. plural. Another name for clay marbles
MIGGEY (miggie):
noun. Diminutive of mig. (CASSIDY)
MIGS (miggs, miggles):
noun. Another name for marbles. (Steele.)
MIGS:
noun. A marble game; same as knuckles; as played in
California; "One player puts marbles up to be shot at; the
next player does the same; marbles hit are won by the one
who hits them." (CASSIDY)
MILKY, MILKIE(S):
noun. A players’ term for a specific type of glass,
machine-made marble; a translucent or opaque, white glass
base, can have a veneer of colored stripes.
MILTON BRADLEY & COMPANY, THE (The Milton Bradley
Company):
proper name. Likely the largest purchaser of game
marbles in the USA since the American Civil War; was a
good customer The M.F. Christensen & Son Company;
their marbles are most often used as board game pieces; a
19th century game called Down and Out;
some of the more popular recent games being Aggravation
Game, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Mouse Trap, Stay Alive,
Pacman The Board Game. (See photo)
MIMB:
noun. A mib; term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
MINT:
noun. A collectors’ term identifying the graded
condition of a toy marble; a state of perfection, showing
no flaws of any kind; a term is widely used in the hobby
of antique collecting.
MINT, NEAR:
noun. A collectors’ term identifying the graded
condition of a toy marble; a state of being near perfect
and showing only a few, minor flaws.
MINT, WET:
noun. A collectors’ term identifying a marbles
condition as superior, the highest classification in the
grading system; means that the surface of the marble is
perfect and highly polished, as if the marble was wet.
MIRVIES:
noun. The name for a marble. (PATTEN)
MISHLER BROTHERS TERRACOTTA WORKS, THE:
proper name. A large pottery located in Limaville,
Ohio in the late 1890s; later, upon the pottery burning to
the ground, removed to Ravenna, Ohio. This ceramic company
manufactured clay using the patented marble-making machine
invented by Solomon Smith; this machine created the most
spherical, mass-produced ceramic marbles and it could make
hundreds of millions of marbles per year. The company
changed hands in the early 1900s and later become
The J.E. Albright Company, the last manufactures of
marbles in the USA. While these machines are still in use
making inert bodies for the chemical industry; they
stopped making marbles for the toy industry in 1942 when
they turned their production capacity over to the war
effort.
MISHLER & SONS POTTERIES:
proper name. A prolific family of expert
ceramicists; invented and patented many useful, new
ceramic products and manufacturing methods. Began
manufacturing clay marbles in the early 1890s; patented
two ceramic marble making machines. Hired Mr. Albright and
Lightcap to work in there pottery; later they bought out
the Mishlers. The Mishlers ran potteries in Magador,
Kent, Limaville and Ravenna, Ohio.
MISHLER TOY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. Located in Ravenna, Ohio around the
turn of the 20th century, this was one of the
Mishler Bros. many local potteries; manufactured marbles
and among many other ceramic toys they made a penny bank
in the shape of a frog that met with good success.
MISS:
verb. When a player fails to knock a marbles out of
the ring or hit the intended target.
MIST MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a specific type of hand-made,
glass toy marble made from canes in Germany;
described as having a clear glass base covered by a thin
layer of colored glass that appear to be streaked. Some
mist marbles also contain flecks of mica.
MOLAR:
noun. A shooter marble; term used in Wisconsin.
Evidently a phonetic variant of bowler. (CASSIDY.)
MONTGOMERY WARDS COMPANY, THE:
proper name. This company’s retail sales catalogs
dating back to the late 1890s are a tremendous resource
for researching boys’ buying trends of marbles over a
couple of generations.
MOOME:
noun. A taw made of flint; named for the moon-like
marks which developed inside it from contact with other
agates; desirable because it maintained a smooth surface;
term used in Massachusetts. See half-moon.
(CASSIDY.) This definition is unlikely to refer to a
marble actually made of the flint, but was more likely to
have been a real agate. These were often called flints
or flinties in the historic record. The moon-like
marks mentioned regularly appear on a real agate, but
rarely, if ever, appear on those exceptionally hard
marbles actually made of flint.
MOON:
noun. A players’ term describing a crescent shaped
mark of damage caused to a shooter marble by impacting
target marbles. Most often relates to a natural agate
marble, like a bullseye agate, which is beautiful
but rather soft for a stone marble. The same can happen to
a glass shooter. The damage seen is below the surface so
it does not affect the shooter marble’s ability to roll
true. Some players take pride in showing off an agate that
is covered with moons, indicating it’s seen a lot
of play. Other players would put an agate shooter with
moons into a jar of lard and leave it over night. The
oils in lard will seep into the agate and cause a moon
to become less noticeable. Another name for the crescent
shaped impact mark, from Ferretti, is a moonaggie.
Also, a
collectors’ term, a mark of damage on a glass marble in
the shape of a semi-circular chip on the surface; this
reduces the value of a marble.
MOON RING: noun. A
marble game similar to Injun, Block or Square Ring, that
uses a crescent shaped ring. (BEARD)
MOONIE:
noun.
A popular term
for a glass marble; semi-translucent, opalescent white,
pale light blue or cream yellow, with an interesting soft
luster; those with a slight yellowish/orange cast are
sometimes called a harvest moon.
MOSS AGATE:
noun. A gemstone rarely used to make shooter
marbles (see photo.)
Also, the name for a glass marble given by the
manufacturers for two distinctly different marbles; 1)
from The M.F. Christensen & Son, an onyx
type of opaque marble manufactured throughout the life of
the company; it was the company’s most beautiful and
expensive marble (see photo;)
2) from
The Akro Agate Company, a rather common
looking two color, patch marble. (see
photo)
MOVE (movies):
interjection. Only used when the marble gets behind
an obstruction. The first form is by far the more common.
(SACKETT.).
MOVIES:
interjection. A call allowing the player to move to
a more favorable position - moves, no move. (HARDER.)
MUDDIE: noun.
Another name for a clay marble (HARDER,)
MUCK:
verb. To lose one's marbles in a game of chance.
(HARDER.)
MUCKED:
verb. “To
have lost all one’s marbles.” (PATTEN)
MUDDIE(S):
noun. Another name for a clay marble (HARDER.)
MUGGY:
noun. Same as mib. (HARDER.)
MY MIBS: interjection.
A call to claim marbles; term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY.)
Back to Index
NAMED MARBLE:
adjective. A collectors’ term referring to a type
of marble that can be identified as a well known type or
style of marble; a marble that collectors have previously
named and that name is common to the hobby; a marble that
shows a series of attributes that can be identified as
belonging to a marble that is well known by other
collectors, i.e.; an Akro Agate Company’s
Corkscrew, or a Peltier Glass Company’s National
Rainbow Line (NRL,)
etc.
NATIONAL MARBLES & SPECIALTY
COMPANY, THE: proper name. A glass marble
company located in Steubenville, Ohio, founded in 1899 by
J.H. Leighton
and partners. This was the last large
effort to make hand-made glass marbles in the USA. The
company closed in 1901 due to the workforce becoming
unionized, demanding greater wages and then struck the
factory. As the profit margin on hand-made glass marbles
was minimal, the demands of the glassworkers could not be
met. (See photo)
NATIONAL MARBLES TOURNAMENT, THE:
proper name. Begun in 1923 as a newspaper promotion
for the Scripps Howard newspaper syndicate;
tournaments were held that year in 30 cities across the
USA, each one being the hometown of a Scripps newspaper.
The way the tournament was traditionally organized, each
city would hold preliminary elimination tournaments at
schools, parks, or children’s organizations like the YMCA,
Boy Scouts, etc. The winners of these tournaments would
advance to a regional tournament and those winners then
competed in city finals. Each city would send their local
champion to compete at Scripps Howard’s
National
Marbles Tournament held on the New Jersey shore, in
various resort communities, first Atlantic City, then
Ocean City, later at Wildwood, N.J., etc. The tournament
headquarters were in the Cleveland Press building
in Cleveland, Ohio. At its height in the mid 1930s as many
as seven million boys participated from upwards of 70
cities through preliminary elimination tournaments. When
World War Two broke out, the tournament was moved
temporarily to The University School (a college
prep-school located between Akron and Cleveland) and
Scripps Howard began reducing their direct involvement,
feeling their personal was more valuable covering world
news events. At which point recreation employees of
various cities took over the running of the tournament.
Scripps Howard abruptly ended their relationship with
these recreation employees, stopped their sponsorship of
the tournament and severed all ties with to the tournament
in 1960. Thereafter the tournament went into a steep
decline. Today this is a closed tournament only open to a
dozen or so, mostly tiny Appalachian, communities that
send from two to 10 children each to compete in the
tournament. (See photo)
NATIONAL MARBLES TOURNAMENT, THE:
proper name. Begun in 1948 by the Veterans of
Foreign Wars (V.F.W.) these were the largest
children’s sporting events ever held in the USA. In the
1950s hundreds of cities from every corner of the USA held
preliminary marble tournaments beginning at schools,
leading to a city champion, then to a state champion and
finally meeting to play the champs from all 48 states
(later all 50 states) at a national final held in a new
city every year, Akron, Ohio being one of them. At its
height in the late 1950s, the number of boys who annually
participated in the VFW marble tournaments was in the tens
of millions. Most local VFW chapters stopped holding
marble tournaments by the 1970s. In Akron, Ohio the last
VFW tournament was held in 1973. (See photo)
NATIONAL ONYX MARBLE:
noun. A registered name for a specific type of
marble manufactured by The M.F. Christensen & Son
Company.
NAVARRE GLASS MARBLE & SPECIALTY
COMPANY, THE: proper name. A glass marble
company founded in 1898 by
J.H. Leighton
and partners;
this company was short lived and just one of many glass
marble factories founded by Leighton. The Navarre marbleworks is the best known to collectors and many
collectors describe all of Leighton’s marbles as
originating in Navarre. The President of this company,
Emile Converse, a leader in the Navarre community was
something of a film-flam-man; sold all the company’s stock
to his neighbors and then sold the stock a second time, to
a group of businessmen in Coshocton, Ohio. Once the
Coshocton businessmen learned of the con, they demanded
restitution from the original stockholders, who’d never
seen a dime for their investment. Leighton came to the
rescue by finding a New York company that was willing to
buy all the stock and pay off all the debts in exchange
for a license to use Leighton’s new glass block patent.
However, the deal fell through when Converse refused to
sell the marbleworks’ property to the New Yorkers. This
caused horrific financial problems for the citizens of
Navarre, almost all of whom were investors in the marble
company. They not only lost their money investment in the
marble company; they owed the Coshocton businessmen an
equal amount. This was at a time when you could go to
prison for non-payment of debts. The long term impact was
to severely repress the economy for entire village of
Navarre, which wasn’t much more than a canal town with a
bunch of whore houses. As most of the homes had such large
leans against them, they could not be sold to recoup even
their initial mortgage costs. Needless to say few homes
were ever sold in Navarre. As a result the world seemed to
pass-over Navarre and left it practically intact, with all
the modern conveyances of a turn of the 20th
century town - even to this day. And, that’s way you can
still walk through the town and find
J.H. Leighton’s glass
marbles and that’s why collectors know this place.
NEIGHBORHOOD
RULES: noun. The rules used in marble games
are subject to a wide variety of modifications depending
upon where the game is being played. The children of one
neighborhood would all be familiar with the rules,
strategies, language and calls used in their neighborhood,
but in a different neighborhood the same game might be
played with other rules and calls. When a call is made to
play by neighborhood rules, it means they will use
those rules common and familiar to the children who live
in the same area and generally play together. This term
exists in the common language today.
NIB:
noun. A small marble. Usually in plural. Probably a
phonetic variant of mib. (CASSIDY.)
NIBS:
interjection. A call in marbles that gives the
shooter an advantage; a term used in Indiana. CASSIDY
NINE PINS:
noun. A miniature version of the once popular
British bowling game played with marbles on table-tops.
NINE HOLES:
noun. A marbles game;
“This
game is played as well with leaden bullets as with
marbles. They are to be
bowled along a level course, at a board
having arches cut in
it, with numbers marked over each arch; viz.,
supposing there are eight arches, they may be numbered
thus, 2 0 5 1 0 4 3 0. If the bowler strikes the side of
the arch, he loses his marble,
but receives as many
from the owner of the board as the number over the
arch through which his marble passes.” (Appleton.)
NINE-HOLES:
noun. A marble game (See
Games,
Nine-Holes) (Play Ground, 1866.) Sometimes
called Bridge Board, Nine-Men Morris and
Nine-Penny-Marl.
NIVISON-WEISKOPF COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A large printing company located in
Cincinnati, Ohio; one
of Nation’s largest produces of product labels; around
1921 they hired a well known combustion engineer and
ceramic expert, William Miller, to build them a glass
marble rolling machine, a marble auger. Printers
used huge numbers of glass marbles to polish lithography
stones before an image could be developed on the stones.
For reasons unknown, in the mid-1920s Nivison-Weiskopf
sold their marble augers to The Peltier Glass Company
of Ottawa, Illinois. These machines soon found themselves
at the center of attention in a federal patent
infringement suit brought against Peltier by
The Akro Agate Company of Akron, Ohio; Nivison-Weiskopf
played an important roll in that court case.
NO NOTHINGS:
interjection. Same as nothings. (CASSIDY)
NO OPPSIES:
interjection. A call by one player to prevent an
opponent from opposing him (Wis.). Possibly from
"opposition" or "option." (CASSIDY)
NOSE DROP:
noun. A player’s term from the English Game of
Marbles, as played at the Greyhound Pub in Tinsley Green,
Sussex, England, a means of deciding who goes first. The
players stand above a line drawn in the sand, they place
their taw to the tip of their nose, then drop it. The
player whose taw came closest to the line goes first; the
second closes goes second, etc.
NOSE-DROPS:
interjection. A call claiming the right to drop
one's marble from one's nose, in the game of chase; a term
used in Wisconsin. See eye-drops. (CASSIDY)
NO SETS: interjection.
A call to prevent an opponent from setting his marble in a
certain position; a term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
NOTHINGS:
interjection. A player’s term, which if called out
first denied all players from taking certain liberties of
the rules they may commonly use in other games, such as
Laying-in (the opposite of anythings). Also see
Fen. “Nothings in the whole game.” (SACKETT..)
NUGS:
noun. A player’s term for one’s knuckles.
NUTS:
interjection. A call like Fen intending to
stop an opponent from taking certain liberties with the
rules of a game; a term in general use in the mid 20th
century, not specific to marbles but widely used there
too. Also, acorns, chestnuts, buckeyes, etc. where
sometimes substituted for target marbles and those game
were called Nuts.
Back to Index
ODD AND EVEN (odd
or even): noun. A means of deciding who goes
first in a marbles game, with the players guessing which
hand holds one marble and which holds two marbles, or one
marble in one hand and no marble in the other. Also,
played as a game For Keeps; where the player guessing
correctly wins the marble in hand.
OHIO STONEWARE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A large ceramic works in Akron, Ohio
during business throughout the later part of the 1800s and
turn of the 20th century; known locally as the
Fountain Street Pottery.
S.C. Dyke lived next door to this pottery around the time he invented
his method of mass-producing marbles. It’s supposed that
Dyke leased an area of this pottery to make his marbles
and “Little Brown Jugs;” large numbers of these items were
unearthed in the 1980s when a new water pipe was installed
on the property.
OILIES:
noun. The name for an iridescent, glass marble that
was first produced in the late 1980’s. These are
manufactured for the floral industry, usually a 9/16”
marble, and more often today are included in a bag of toy
marbles. The term comes from the effect seen when an oil
stain spreads over a puddle of water.
OLD LASS:
noun. The last hole in a game of Bungums; term used
in the period of 1888-90. (HARDER.)
ON THE LINE:
noun. A term used in marble tournament play, a
rule. “If a marble has stopped on the ring line then a
decision must be made as to whether it is outside or
inside the circle. The referee will decide this by
observing the position of the marble in question. If the
marble is more than half out of the circle it will be
declared out; if more than half of the marble is in then
it will be declared in. If it is resting directly on the
line so that no determination can be made then it shall be
considered in the favor of the shooting player, i.e. if it
is a target marble it is out, and if it is the shooter it
will be considered in.”
ONE AND OUT:
interjection. A term used in American marbles
tournaments, called by a referee, when awarding a point to
a player for knocking one marble out of the ring and
noting the shooter marble also rolled out of the ring,
ending the player’s turn. (Two and out, awards two
points for two marbles knocked out, etc.)
ONE AND STILL SHOOTING:
interjection. A term used in American marbles
tournaments, called by a referee, awarding a point to a
player for knocking one marble out of the ring and noting
the shooter stayed in the ring, allowing that player’s
turn to continue. (Two and still shooting, awards
two points for two marbles knocked out, etc.)
ONE-EYED CAT:
noun. A marble game in which "each player put a
stipulated number of marbles in an eye-shaped ring, and
the one who got most out was winner" – game as played in
Oklahoma. From the shape of the ring. (CASSIDY) The rules
and strategies of this game are unknown.
ONESIES:
noun. Same as chalkie: a small white marble with
fine blue and red lines imprinted (Georgia.). So called
because of its value, lower than that of a twosie.
(CASSIDY)
ONE TAKES IT (two takes it, etc.):
interjection. A call allowing the player to take
possession of a marble when it is hit once, twice, etc.
(HARDER). In early versions of the
Rules of Ringer, a
player could receive a point by hitting a poison shooter,
even if they didn’t knock it out of the ring.
ONIONSKIN:
noun. A collectors’ name for a specific type of
hand-made glass marble made from a cane;
manufactured in Germany until 1936. It has patterns of
colored flakes that are elongated over the surface of the
marble reminiscent of the skin on an onion, thus the name.
A highly desired and collectable marble.
ONYX:
noun.
An old term
for a specific type of hand-made and hand-gathered glass
marble or a hand-gathered, machine-made glass marble;
first made in German in 1853; first made in the United
States in 1889 by J. H. Leighton using the
registered name American Onyx Marble. Also The
M.F. Christensen & Son Company, registered as
National Onyx Marble. Marble collectors call these
beautiful marbles ‘slags.’
OPAL MARBLE:
noun. The name of a marble that has an attractive
white opaque color.
OPAQUE:
noun. A solid, single color glass marble being,
sometimes called a Purie. These are manufactured as
Game Marbles for use in board games as playing
pieces. They are also used as tournament marbles in
American marbles tournament.
OPPSIES ON ALL:
interjection. A call which gives a player certain
rights against his opponent (Wisconsin.) See no oppsies.
(CASSIDY.)
ORIENTAL JADE MARBLE:
noun.
A beautiful, opaque green marble manufactured by The M.
F. Christensen & Son Company from 1905 to 1917;
although of a single and uniform color, upon close
inspection one can see the slight impression of the
hand-gathered process; a highly desired marble by
collectors.
OTTAWA, ILLINOIS:
proper name. A well known glass making center; home
of the Pelteir Glass Company, manufacturers of glass
marbles from 1928 to the 1970s.
OTTAWA FLINT GLASS & BOTTLE
COMPANY, THE: proper name. A glass company
founded by
J.H. Leighton
in 1882.
OXBLOOD MARBLE (oxblood glass):
noun. A collectors’ term for an important color of
glass found in some older glass marbles; an opaque
brownish red about the color of a paving brick; the term
Oxblood was never used by marble manufacturers. The
color was first used in glass marbles made by Elias
Greiner in 1850s. The first American manufacturer to use
of this glass color in marbles was The M.F. Christensen
& Son Company ; they named it the American
Cornelian, also later by
The Akro Agate Company,
and a few other marble companies produced a similar color.
Toy marble collectors perceive marbles with this color of
glass have an increased value. (See photo)
OVER DATES:
noun. A situation occurring when a player has won
more marbles than he had originally at the beginning of
play. (HARDER.) (See Games,
For Keeps)
OVERS:
interjection. A call allowing the player to shoot
again; term used in 1888; "Slips over again." (HARDER.)
See Slips.
Back to Index
PANAMA PILE DRIVER:
noun. A popular marble toy sold throughout the
first half of the 20th century. Classified as a
sand toy, and patented in 1905 and 1914, it was
made by The
Wolverine
Supply & Manufacturing Company
(1903-1950) of Pittsburgh, PA. Designed to unload marbles
from the pile driver’s elevated hopper; once set in
operation, the toy continues to operate lifting the little
man up and down the pile driver until the supply of
marbles is exhausted; a highly collectable toy.
PARROT: noun. A
collectors name for a colorful Patch type marble;
manufactured by The Vitro Agate Company of West
Virginia. See photo
PATCH MARBLE(S):
noun. The name of a common marble made with a white
base and a veneer, or thin layer, of opaque colored glass
on top; older versions may show multiple colors in the
veneer. (See photo)
PATENT, MARBLE-MAKING:
noun. Obtaining exclusive rights for a process to
manufacture marbles was extremely important and critical
to opening and staying in business. In the 1880s, when Sam
Dyke invented his first process of mass-producing a
marble, the scientific principles of sphere-making were
unknown. As such, numerous inventors tried their hand at
creating a machine, or device, that could mass-produce
spheres. And, because this new market was so lucrative and
promising a great prize awaited anyone who could first
produce a practical and perfect sphere-making machine.
There were dozens of patents filed, but only a few of them
were successful. Martin F. Christensen is created with
inventing and patenting the principles of physics required
to produce a sphere and his machine was called, “the
perfect glass ball machine.” Because so much money was at
stake the worlds greatest (and most expensive) patent
attorneys were called upon to file and at times represent
a marble machine patent in the courts. One of the first
patents filed, belonging to A.L. Dyke, ended up in court
with two former Commissioners of the US Patent Office on
opposing sides. Mortimer D. Leggett, a local man, and
possibly the most important Commissioners of the US Patent
Office (all patents are filed today based upon the systems
he created while serving in that office,) was often called
upon to assist with marble patents. See US Patents.
PATI:
noun. A marble game; same as Fat.
PAYNE, OHIO:
proper name. A small village on the far western side of
Ohio; the location of The Christensen Agate Company’s
first venture into manufacturing glass marbles
(1925-1927.) Important technological experiments where
made at this marbleworks in an attempt to manufacture a
practical gob feeder to mass-produce marbles.
Archeological excavations showed and backed up the
historical accounts of the experiments’ failures and
falling back on the industry standards of
hand-gathering. The company later moved to
Cambridge, Ohio.
PEAKS:
interjection. A call allowing the player to place
the target on a peak or mound. (HARDER)
PEEDAD:
noun. A marble of the smallest size; a term used in
Indiana. (CASSIDY)
PEENY IN THE POT:
noun. A marble game similar to Pot.
PEE WEE (peewee, pewee, peawee):
noun.
A marble game in which a series of holes were made
perpendicular to the starting line, and 4 feet apart; the
marbles were rolled successively into hole 1, hole 2, hole
3, and the peewee hole, then back again; the rules were as
in croquet (Illinois.) (CASSIDY) See the game
Purgatory. Also
any
small marble around 1/2" in diameter. Sometimes thought to
be the name-sake of Brooklyn Dodger’s Captain, Harold
Henry ‘Peewee’ Reese (see
photo,) an outstanding ball player of
diminutive size, who never missed an opportunity to
knuckle down in the ball field dirt before a game,
especially if a young boy and reporter/cameraman were
nearby. However, the term dates back much further,
reference seen in (Play Ground,
1866.) So Mr. Reese likely was nick-named after this small
marble instead of the other way around. Also, -
noun.
in marble playing, probably derived from nursery baby
talk, applied to a small child (HARDER.)
PEEWEE HOLE:
noun. The fourth hole in the series in the game of
peewee; it was placed farther away than the others
and in a difficult position to get at-for example, in a
bank of earth; term used in Ohio. (CASSIDY)
PEG:
noun. A small marble; usually in plural. (CASSIDY)
PEGGING:
verb. 1. The action of throwing marbles [Also
called Spikes.] 2. – noun. A marble game in which
one player sat with legs spread and an agate placed
between; other players stood back at distances determined
by the value of the agate and pegged at it; the sitting
player got the pegged marbles that remained between his
legs; the player who hit the agate got it; game played in
New York. See sleepers. (CASSIDY)
PEILER, KARL ERNEST:
proper name. A prolific combustion engineer (glass
furnaces) and inventor who worked for
The Hartford Empire Company; in 1925 credited for inventing and
patenting the first practical gob-feeder, a glass furnace
that automatically delivers a portion or charge of
molten glass to be manufactured into a useful form (USPNo.
1,760,254.) This patent was the base from which
The Hartford Empire Company developed a worldwide monopoly
on the manufacture of glass goods; also the foundation for
all gob-feeders used in the glass marble industry.
PELT: noun.
Collectors’ slag; a toy marble manufactured by The
Peltier Glass Company.
PELTIER GLASS COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass company in Ottawa, Illinois
that manufactured glass marbles from roughly 1928 to the
1970s. From the late 1930s to the early 1960s this was the
largest glass marble factory in the world.
PELTIER, SELLERS:
proper name. Son of Victor Peltier; co-owner of
The Peltier Glass Company; patented a number of useful
devices to manufacture glass marbles; Took the company
into the production of glass marbles; had the advantage of
being able to reuse the company’s waste glass to make
marbles; entered into a partnership with the flamboyant
Berry Pink who marketed Peltier’s marbles.
PELTIER, VICTOR:
proper name. A French glassworker and chemist;
immigrated from France to Ottawa, Illinois in 1886;
started The Novelty Glass Company; manufactured
lamp chimneys, opalescent art glass used in lamp shades,
cathedral stained glass windows; major customers, Frank
Lloyd Wright , Tiffany & Company, etc.; was
succeeded in business by his sons Joseph and Sellers.
PEPPERMINT SWIRL MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a specific type of
marble, a hand-made glass toy marble made from cane,
manufactured in Germany until 1936. It has bands or
stripes of red, white and blue under a thin clear surface
coating. (See photo)
PER:
verb. To advance a shooter marble a hambone and
three spans under certain conditions; term used in
Kentucky. (CASSIDY.)
PERSIAN TURQUOISE MARBLE:
noun. A beautiful, opaque, light blue marble
manufactured by The M. F. Christensen & Son Company
from 1905 to 1917; although of a single and uniform color,
upon close inspection one can see the slight impression of
the hand-gathered process; a highly desired marble by
collectors.
PFLUEGER. GEORGE C.:
An executive, stockholder and managing partner of
The Akro Agate Company; took over operations in 1916,
replacing Horace C. Hill as Superintendent after his
arrest and conviction of embezzlement from, The M.F.
Christensen & Son Company; formerly worked for his
Uncle at the family business, The Enterprise
Manufacturing Company of Akron Ohio, manufacturers of
Pflueger Fishing Tackle; recruited to Akro
by Stubby Marsh and Dr. George T. Rankin to be their man
in Clarksburg, VW; returning to Akron, Ohio after the 1925
re-issue of the corporation’s stock.
PHOBBO (fobbo) slips:
interjection. Perhaps a corruption of forbid? A call used
to forbid the correction of any error on the part of the
player. (HARDER.)
PICKING CHERRIES:
noun. A marbles game, in England called picking
plums, where the player(s) place target marbles in a
straight line, to be knocked off the line with a shooter;
a good game for a novice player to practice their shooting
technique while by themselves. (See
Games,
Picking Cherries)
PICKS:
interjection. A call allowing the player to clear
obstructions between the shooter and the target. Counter
call, vence ye picks. (HARDER.) Same as Clearence.
PICK UP:
noun. The one who holds the marbles for the player.
(HARDER.).
PIGS IN CLOVER:
noun. A popular maze type game that uses marbles.
Similar to the marble game called Three Blind Mice.
(See photo.)
PILE GAME, THE:
noun. A marbles game. (See
Pile Game,
Play Ground)
PIMP:
noun. A small marble. "As the glazed coating dried,
the marbles were touching each other, causing a small
blister, crater, or pimple to form... in three or four
spots"; term used in Wisconsin. Abbreviation of pimple.
(CASSIDY) Also, called the eyes on a ceramic
marble.
PINK:
noun. Any of the circular rings (about 6 inches in
diameter) used; in the game of pinks; term used in
Missouri. (CASSIDY) Also, the center circle in the game of
Fat.
PINK, IN THE:
interjection. verb phrase. A call made when
ones shooter ends up inside the center circle, called the
pink, in the game of Fat (Pati,) an
undesirable position. In some neighborhoods this was
called Poison. Also see Poison Shooter. This
phrase is part of our common modern English, but it’s
believed the meaning and origins are different; to be in
perfect condition, in health or perhaps the condition of a
product.
PINK, PINKED:
verb. A players’ term; another word for hitting a
marble, as in “Come on, Mike, pink that big one out.”
Reading Times,
May 8, 1923
PINK, BERRY:
proper name. (1900-1962) The Marble King; a
resident of New York City in later life, originally from
Passaic, NJ In 1930 while working for The Rosenthal
Company of New York City, a wholesale distributor of
toys and marbles, Pink became familiar with the Peltier
Glass Company. In 1931 he applied for a patent on a
mesh bag to hold marbles (USPNo. 1,872,640.) Over the next
few years Pink, as an employee of Rosenthal, was
marketing the majority of marbles produced at Peltier.
Around 1936 Pink ended his association with Rosenthal
and made a contractual agreement with Peltier that
supposedly involved some amount of capital stock, perhaps
a partnership. This arrangement made Pink Peltier’s
exclusive marketing agent for marbles, doing business as,
Berry Pink Enterprises. To promote his toy marbles
Pink started his own independent marble tournaments called
Marble King Marble Tournaments (1937-1952) named
after his adopted nickname; assembled and sent around the
country a marble exhibition and published a book called
The Romance of Marbles. One of Peltier’s
greatest marketing advantages was the decision to
manufacture marbles out of recycled glass, waste glass
produced in their own factory that was otherwise being
dumped. This allowed a reduction in the price of marbles,
especially the colorful toy marbles from 6 mibs for a
nickel to 20 mibs for a nickel. At the same time a child
could purchase hundreds of commies in a bag for a
nickel manufactured by The J.E.
Albrecht
Company
of Ravenna, Ohio, who reportedly was selling over a
billion marbles a year by 1939. That same year Pink became
the largest distributor of glass marbles in the United
States, selling as many as 400,000,000 annually (a figure
quoted from Pink in the press, likely an exaggeration) of
which 10% were probably toy marbles, the others used
industrially. In 1949, with commies no longer being
manufactured, the demand for glass marbles was so large
that a second marbleworks was constructed in St. Marys,
WV, christened
Marble King. That marbleworks burnt
down in 1958 and the company moved its production to an
old glass factory in Paden City, WV. The marbleworks is
still in production, a leading manufacturer of game balls
for the US board game industry and produces modest runs of
marbles for collectors. Mr. Pink died from a heart attack
at the New York Bridge and Whist Club in Manhattan,
age 62.
PINKS:
noun. A marble game in which several pinks were
drawn in line, about six feet apart, and marbles placed in
each; players who knocked these out won them; they also
tried to kill opponents by hitting their taws. (CASSIDY)
See at a clack, dake, dump up,
make a stand, all terms used in this game.
PINPRICK: noun. A
marble collectors’ term describing a small flaw on the
surface of a glass marble, a tiny hole; possibly the
result of an air bubble being caught in the glass near the
surface as it was being made. This can slightly reduce the
value of a marble to a collector.
PINTO:
noun. A mottled brown-on-white, glazed marble; term
used in Missouri; from pinto as in "pinto pony." (CASSIDY)
PIRIE:
noun. See Purey, Purie. (CASSIDY.)
PIT:
noun. A player’s term for a hole used as a target
in a marbles game; also the name of a marbles games, same
as Pot.
PITCH:
verb. To toss a marble at an object or target.
PITCH-LINE:
noun. As used in the Game of Ringer, as described
in the act of lagging, for choosing the order of
play (which player goes first.) Players stand on the
pitch-line and toss their shooter the lag-line.
In some games called the Shooting Line.
PIXIE, PIXY:
noun. (from pixy-stool, a toadstool or mushroom). A
mound in the center of the ring on which marbles are
placed. ((HARDER.)
PIXIE:
noun. A mud roll put in the center of the ring,
upon which the marbles are placed. (ZUGER.)
PIZINGS:
noun. A term used in the game of hundreds.
(HARDER.)
PLACINGS:
interjection. A call allowing the player to move
the target or his own shooter to a more favorable
position. (1876) (HARDER.)
PLASTER:
noun. A ceramic marble, made of white clay or
porcelain and resembling the look and feel of wall plaster
or plaster of paris. The value of a plaster as given by
(Beard, The Outdoor Handy Book) in 1910, “five
commies” usually represent the value of one “plaster.”
PLAY, NO:
interjection. A term used at American marbles
tournaments, a call made by the referee disqualifying a
player’s shot for hunching, histing, or nullifying
a player’s call of slips.
PLAYRIGHT MARBLE & NOVELTY COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A small, short-lived marbleworks in
Lamberton, known today as Ellenboro, West Virginia; in
operation for a short time after WWII; today the site of
The Mid-Atlantic Glass Company, once a large
manufacturer of industrial glass marbles. (MARBLE ALAN.)
PLEADS:
interjection. A call that allows the player to
remove obstacles in the path of his shooter. (1885).
(HARDER.)
PLUG:
verb. To toss the marble or taw through the air
towards the defensive marble or marbles. (HARDER.) Same as
Lofting, though not as graceful in execution.
Sometimes called Plump or Plunking.
PLUMB SHOT:
verb. Using a large marble like a Bob,
Tom-troller, Boulder, etc.; the player tosses the
Bob and must strike the target, a marble, before the
Bob hits the ground in order to score. In this shot
the Bob cannot dribble (roll) to the target
marble. Same as Bobbing. (Steele.)
PLUMP:
verb. Same as plug; seen in publications in1854 and
1890 in Kentucky. (HARDER.)
PLUMPING:
noun. The action of lofting a taw from a knocks
position so that it does not touch the ground for a
considerable distance (CASSIDY)
PLUMPING OUT:
noun. (Sense not certain, but apparently relates to
plumping the marble toward the ring). (HARDER.)
PLUM PUDDING:
noun. Same as picking the plums. A game in which
one shoots at marbles in a row. (HARDER.) (See
Games,
Picking Cherries.)
POISON:
noun. A marble game. (see
Games, Poison.)
POISON:
noun. A players’ term; a position a player might
find themselves in if their shooter ends up in the pink
(a circle, square or area designated as being poisonous to
the offending player) in a game of Fats or similar
game; a place to avoid. When a player’s shooter goes into
an area that is poison, it leaves their shooter vulnerable
to being shot out of the ring and means they can be
killed by their opponent, being knocked out or
eliminated from the game.
POISON SHOOTER:
noun. A players’ term used to describe a situation
whereas a shooter marble is left in the ring after a
player’s turn; when they failed to knock a target marble
out of the ring and their shooter came to rest inside the
ring; thereby becoming poison. This can be an
intentional situation described as Laying-In, where
a player shoots into the ring’s center, close to the
target marbles, in order to set themselves up for their
next turn. Once a shooter becomes poison the other players
may target it in hopes of knocking it out of the ring.
There
are increasingly harsh penalties for having one’s
poison shooter marble knocked from the ring, depending
upon the rules in use. These rules can be as slight as
awarding the player who hits, or kisses the poison
shooter a point; to the owner of the poison shooter
being made to give over a marble or point to the player
who knocked their shooter out of the ring; to as harsh as
the owner of the poison shooter being killed,
eliminated from the game and turning over all the marbles
or points received up to that point in the game, or in
tournament play awarding the player who knocked the
poison shooter out the win with a score of 13-0.
POKE: verb. To
thrust or shove. Same as fudge. (HARDER) Also see
Hunching.
POKIE:
noun. Same as chinie; from "porcelain"; term
used in Washington. (CASSIDY.)
POLISHED, POLISHED CHINA:
noun. A glazed porcelain marble, made in Germany
until 1936 and in the USA from 1884 to the early 1920s.
Also see Unpolished China.
POLISHED MARBLES, BRIGHTLY:
noun. A term sometimes seen in retail catalogs of
the late 19th and early 20th
centuries describing a painted or dyed ceramic or stone
marble.
PONTIL (Pontil Mark):
noun.
A glassworkers’ term; a diagnostic mark left on a
hand-made / hand-gathered marble. The mark is a result of
removing a finished marble from the end of a punty
rod. It is necessary to further process and remove the
offending mark and any protuberance left, to make the area
level and smooth with the surface and make the marbles as
perfectly spherical as possible. The two basic methods
employed to finish a pontil are by grinding smooth as
first employed by Elias Greiner in Lauscha,
Germany in the 1850s, or through melting smooth with a
flame, as described in US Patent No. 462,083,
James Harvey Leighton. Grinding gives the finest
quality finish, but is far more labor intensive than
melting a pontil. Also, as described in the US Patent
Classification Glass; “A dipstick used to gather charges
of molten glass, punty, puntil, pontile, pontee,
and ponto are local variants.” Also, sometimes the term is
inaccurately used by collectors to describe the two
cut-marks on a marble made from a glass cane.
PONTIL, BASIL:
noun.
A collectors’ term used to describe a type of pontil, or
cut-off mark seen on a hand-gathered glass marble, or
glass marble made from a cane; these are unfinished
pontils, meaning no other processing was done to improve
the resulting surface of the mark. Marbles with this type
of pontil were manufactured in Lauscha, Germany and arte
the result of using a hand-tool called
Marbelshears.
This type of
pontil-mark is interchangeable with and sometimes called a
Regular Pontil by collectors. (MARBLE ALAN) (See
photo)
PONTIL, CREASE:
noun. A collectors term sometimes used to identify the
Shear-Mark on a hand-gathered marble; a mark with thin
‘spider-like’ lines, results from the use of an automated
shearing device. As a pointil, or pontil-mark, is a
glassworkers’ term used to describe a mark left on a glass
item that is hand-made and hand-gathered, this term as
used by collectors is a confusing use of the term
“pontil.” A crease pontil is sometimes called a Pinch
Pontil by collectors and the term often used
interchangeably. (See photo)
PONTIL, FOLD:
noun. A collectors’ term sometimes used to identify the
Cut-Mark on a Gob-Feed, or totally automated marble.
As a pointil, or pontil-mark, is a glassworker’ term used
to describe a mark left on a hand-made glass item, this
term as used by collectors is a somewhat confusing use of
the term “pontil.” (See photo)
PONTIL, GOUND:
noun. A collectors’ term that identifies a hand-made and
hand-gathered glass marble with a pontil ground smooth on
a grinding wheel. These types of marbles were first made
by Elias Greiner in Lauscha, Germany and
were the first glass marbles made for commercial sale.
(See photo)
PONTIL, MELTED:
noun. A collectors’ term that identifies a hand-made and
hand-gathered glass marble with a pontil melted smooth by
a gas torch; a technique patented and exclusive to those
marbles made by
James Harvey Leighton. These were the
first glass marbles made in the USA for commercial sale.
(See photo)
PONTIL, PINCH:
(See Pontil, Crease)
PONTIL, PINPOINT:
noun. A collectors’ term that identifies a rare occurrence
of a hand-made and hand-gathered glass marble made using
the technique patented by
James Harvey Leighton (See Pontil, Melted) and manufactured with such expertise that
is did not require much of any melting by a gas torch to
render the pontil smooth and all that is left of the
pontil is a very small, almost a ‘pin-point’ size mark.
POON:
verb. To shoot at a marble from a long distance. --noun.
pooning. The act of standing at a long distance to shoot
at a marble. (HARDER.)
POP:
verb. Same as plug; term used in1890,
Kentucky. (HARDER.)
POPEYE MARBLE:
noun. A collectors term used to describe a specific
type of glass marble, a sub class of a marble they call a
corkscrew . Made by
The Akro Agate Company
who called the it a Prize Name marble, it was
marketed in a box with an image of Popeye, the
cartoon character, printed on its top.
POPPO:
noun. "A popple is a regional dialect of pebble;
hence applied to a marble." A marble. (HARDER.)
POPPY:
noun. A large marble; term used in Wisconsin; as
relates to poppo. (CASSIDY.)
POPS:
interjection. A call that requires the player who
has, without allowing the others to shoot, won all the
marbles to give other players a chance to hit his taw and
thereby regain their marbles. (HARDER.)
POT:
noun. A
player’s term
used in the games of marbles, describing a small hole in
the ground used as a target to hold the player’s ante.
When a player successfully shoots their marble into the
pot they win all the marbles in the pot. Also,
the total ante in a game of For Keeps, is ‘the
pot.’ Also called the potty.
POT GAME, THE:
noun. A marble game (See
Games,
The Pot Game)
sometimes called Pot of Gold.
POT MARBLE:
noun. Another name for a solid opaque marble; a
game board marble, Chinese checker marble. (FERRETTI)
POT OF GOLD:
noun. A marble game: a number of marbles are placed
in a hole; the player who can get his shooter into the
hole wins all the marbles in it; term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY.)
POTS:
noun. A game, and the baits thereof, in
which all the marbles are placed in a pot to which the
contestants lag. (ZUGER.)
POTSIES:
noun. A game of marbles; players aim at a hole, or
“pot” dug into the center of the marbles ring. (See
Games,
Potsies) Also spelled
Potsy, Potsies
POTTERY, POTTERIES, POTTEY:
noun. A ceramic marble, usually a target marble.
See Commies.
POTTEY (potie):
noun. Inferior marbles, usually of clay; term published in
1868; "one `stoney' was worth two `potteys' "is sometimes
called a `muggy,' as distinguished from a `pottey,' the
latter being made of a finer quality of clay." (HARDER.)
PORCELAIN MARBLE:
noun. A marble made of porcelain, see Chinas,
unpolished china.
PRACTICE SHOTS:
noun. A term used in marbles tournament play, a
rule. A player may take up to two practice shots before
the initial shot in each inning. These shots must be
performed completely outside of the ring. If at any time
his or her shooter enters the ring it will be considered a
shot.
PREDAB:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
PRESSMAN & COMPANY, THE J. (PRESSMAN TOY CORPORATION):
proper name. A toy manufacturer and toy distributor
founded in 1922 by Jack Pressman in Brooklyn, NJ; now of
New Brunswick, NJ; still a Pressman family owned
corporation. Became a major distributor of toy and game
board marbles during the late 1920s, helping to popularize
the game Chinese Checkers; obtained glass marbles
from the numerous small marbleworks in West Virginia
beginning in the 1930s; sold marbles as part of board
games and toys, also for playing the games of marbles.
Without the marketing efforts of The J. Pressman &
Company, it’s unlikely the smaller West Virginia
marbleworks would have opened or stayed in business. (See
photo)
PRESSMAN, JACK:
proper name. Founder and owner of The J. Pressman &
Company, died 1959.
PRICIPIA:
noun. A marble of fanciful design; similar to a
cornelian. (Steele.)
PRIZE NAME:
noun. The name of a marble manufactured by
The Akro Agate Company. See Popeye Marble, Corkscrew Marble.
(See photo)
PUCKERING STRINGS:
noun. Another name for the double draw strings used
to keep a marbles bag closed. (Steele.)
PUDS:
interjection. Call that requires that a marble
remain in a hole when it has been rolled in. (HARDER.)
PUGGY:
noun. A marbles game in which marbles are shot into
the Potty. (FERRETTI)
PUNCH:
verb. Same as fudge. (HARDER.) See Hunching
PURGY:
noun. The first hole in the ground in certain
marble games played with holes; term used in Georgetown,
D.C. (HARDER.)
PUNTY (Punty Rod):
noun. A glassworkers’ tool; a long iron or steel
rod with varying size, shaped and tapered ends, used to
gather molten glass upon its end from a crucible in
a glass furnace; used for various purposes, from
feeding a marble machine, or manufacturing a marble by
hand directly upon the rod’s end. Also see Pontil.
(See photo)
PURIE:
noun. An opaque glass marble of any single solid
color, also called game marbles, or game balls, as used in
Chinese Checkers as board pieces. Also, a
transparent or clear marble of any single color, also see
Clearie. Also, in some circles seems to apply to
just about any modern glass marble. Usage of the term,
along with clearie, seems to have been widely used
in the post WWII, baby-boomer era, but not so often in the
years previous to WW II. Also spelled peerie, puree,
purey, pirie, purrie.
PURGATORY:
noun. 1. A marble game played with four holes in
the ground, three in line and one to the side (see next
sense); the rules are as in croquet; game as played in
Wisconsin. 2. The fourth hole in this game. The name is
evidently symbolic: Purgatory is half-way between the
starting and finishing points of the game; its being off
to the side may be part of the symbolism. See Peewee,
3. (CASSIDY) Also called Purgy.
PUSSIED, PUSSYING:
noun. Same as Laying-in
PUSSY FINGERED:
noun. Same as Cunny Thumb.
PYRAMID:
noun. A marble game, same as The Pile Game.
Three marbles are grouped tightly together so they can
accommodate another marble resting on top of them. The
game is only practical if played on dirt, or in clay
marble ring, as the foundation marbles are unlikely to
support the top marble if played on a hard, smooth
surface. (See The Pile Game,
Games.)
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Q
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RABBIT-HOLE:
noun. A variation of the game bun-hole. (HARDER.)
RAINBOW:
noun. The name of a specific marble; the name a
specific marble given to it by its manufacturer
Marble King, Inc. to describe a patch
marble; a single color of opaque glass layered
in a thin veneer over an opaque white marble; comes
in five colors; blue, brownish purple, green, yellow and
orange; a marble manufactured with a remarkable
consistency of sameness; a seemingly deceptive name if
believed implies to a variety of colors on a single marble
but the name obviously applies to the five colors of
marbles seen together in the company’s poly bag of
marbles.
RAKE:
noun. A marbles playing apparatus; same as
marble rake. (Steele.)
RANGE OF VARIATION:
noun phrase. A glassworkers term used to describe
slight differences seen in the colors and designs of
marbles manufactured in the same run. This is what keeps
the marbles appearance interesting and helps to make each
one slightly different; an old Akron marble marketing
slogan, “like snowflakes no two marbles are a like.”
RANKIN, Dr. GEORGE T., Jr.:
(1875-1931.) A founder and stockholder in
The Akro Agate Company; a graduate of Akron High in 1892,
Akron’s Buchtel College in 1895 and the University of
Pennsylvania Medical School in 1899. Practiced medicine as
an intern at Kings
County Hospital, Brooklyn, NY; also
post
graduate studies in New York and in Europe.
Upon returning to Akron, Ohio from his medical
studies he lived in a house built by his father, a
contractor, on Union St. and his friend Stubby Marsh
moved in as a roommate, until the Doctor’s engagement. His
first marriage in 1905 to the stunningly beautiful Miss
Anna Allison Jones, of Zanesville, Ohio, the contralto
choirgirl who sang like a nightingale, ended in 1909 upon
her three years of willful absence in favor of the
Vaudeville stage in Chicago; at which time Stubby
moved back into the Doctor’s house. Upon his second
marriage to the warm and personable Maude Josephine,
Stubby moved out again and the Doctor built a new home
on Augusta Ave. for his bride.
His professional services where in high demand, his
family practice flourished, with posted hours of more than
60 hours a week, in addition to his position as
surgeon at
City Hospital and the Akron Children’s Hospital.
He was
a 32nd degree Mason, member of the Grotto,
Shire, Elks, The University Club, the Portage Country Club
and Fairlawn Golf Club; Summit County, Ohio State and
American Medical Societies; Beta Theta Pi college
fraternity and Phi Alpha Sigma medical fraternity; also,
President of the Portage Country Club in 1927 and Trustee
of the University of Akron in 1930.
Rankin
kept a good arms length away from the operations of the
marbleworks; for good reason, as it seem his friend
Stubby Marsh was sort of a shady operator.
RAVENSWOOD NOVELTY WORKS, THE:
proper name. A glass marble company founded by
Charles Turnbull in Ravenswood, West Virginia in the early
1930s. This company made some of the most beautiful of all
the West Virginia Swirls. (See photo) (MARBLE ALAN.)
REAL:
noun. Same as Realer. (Steele.)
REALER:
noun. A stone marble; “was ground from genuine
agate, and not all boys possessed them, as they cost from
fifty vents upwards, and a bag of alleys [a marble made
from Saxony stone] could be bought for that amount.
(Steele.)
REALER, BOSS:
noun. A stone marble; same as a realer only
larger. (Steele.)
REAL TAWS:
noun. A type of marble described in 1855 as being
made of pink marble, with dark red veins, also called
“blood allies” and “were preferred over all others.” (Francis.)
REAL THING:
noun. A stone marble. (Steele.)
REALIES:
noun. A players’ term for genuine agate marbles;
(letters; J.E. Albright to MG Wright, September 3, 1963.)
REFEREE:
noun. A title used in tournament play to describe
the adult who oversees match play. In all cases a
referee’s decision is final, except at The
National
Marbles Tournament where players, parents, coaches, etc.
can complain to or lobby the tournament officials to have
the ruling over-turned.
REGIMENT OF SOLDIERS, THE:
noun. A marbles game; “According
to the number of players, let each
put down two or three marbles, and having placed them in
a
straight
line, draw another
line about two yards from whore the marbles are, to
play from, which is
done by shooting
at
them in rotation: and all the
marbles knocked off
the line become the property of the player. (Appleton.)
REJECT:
noun. A marble manufacturer’s term, refers to the
condition of a marble. Sometimes in a bag of marbles you
will find a marble with some sort of imperfection.
Normally these would be tossed into the factory’s waste
pile. Often at present times collectors dig the reject
pile at old marble company sites and as such these reject
marbles are included in collectors’ collections.
RIDER:
noun. The player who has knocked from the ring all
the marbles except one, whereupon he is allowed to shoot
at opposing taws. (HARDER.)
RIDING A SNOOGER:
noun. A player’s term for shooting a snooger
(a target marble close to the ring edge, also called a
dead duck, an easy shot or edger) an advanced
technique using English so the snogger goes out of
the ring and at the same time deflecting the shooter
marble into the center of the ring, positioning it close
to the other target marbles where you can take another
turn that’s an easy shot.
RING:
noun. In the games of marbles, a ring defines the
playing area where target marbles are placed, or it can be
the target. Ring cans be square, a circle, oblong, or just
about any shape as described in the rules of various
games. Traditionally players drew their ring in the dirt
with a stick. However, they must be careful not to make
their line so deep as to check the roll of a marble. For
this reason, chalk is recommended for drawing lines if the
ground is firm enough. Today a ring is most often
inscribed with a piece of chalk on a carpet, or directly
upon the floor.
RING-BOUND:
noun phrase. A player’s term relating to a variation the
game of Fat, that caused the fame to be a less aggressive;
describs a situation where a player’s shooter is within
the confines of the center ring, the pink, and in this
version, instead of the pink being poison, the pink is a
safe area meaning their shooter cannot be knocked
out by the other players.
RING, BRITISH MARBLE:
noun. The rule governing the size of a British
marbles ring; six foot in diameter, it’s surface raised
three inches above the surrounding ground and covered with
sharp sand. These rings are made of concrete today. A
target marble is ‘out’ when it falls of the platform,
leaving not doubt about the possibilities of whether it is
in or out as is sometimes the case when played upon a flat
surface with a line designating the ring’s boundaries.
RING, DRAWING A:
verb phrase. A perfect circle can be obtained by
using a piece of string and with the helping finger of
another player. The ring is measured to reflect the rings
radius and loops are tied into each end. One player places
their finger in the loop and then presses their fingertip
to the surface. The other player puts a stick or piece of
chalk into the other loop, then drawing the string taught
circumnavigates the other player while marking the
circumference of the ring.
RINGER:
noun. A marble game with variations played almost
universally in the United States for marble tournaments.
Played with 13 marbles placed in the shape of an ‘X’ in
the ring’s center. The game and its rules were invented in
1923 by committee of educators, parks and recreation staff
and newspapermen bought together by the tournament’s
sponsor, The Scripps Howard Co. as a healthy and
wholesome alternative to the popular schoolyard game
played For Keeps, which many though a game of
chance like gambling with serious moral implications and
the game Fats, which some felt the rules and
strategies were far too aggressive. Ringer is a
variation of and a combination of many American and
British marble games known by many names like
Ring Game,
Big Ring,
Ring Taw,
Bull Ring, etc. (see
Games.)
RINGER, NEW RULES:
noun. The New Rules of Ringer is the game
played today at The
National
Marbles Tournament.
This game does not have the laying-in and poison
shooter rules. The reason for the change was to
identify the best marble shooters, rather than the best
over-all marble players. As such the basic object of the
game became, shooting a 5/8” marble, that’s five feet
away, out of a 10-foot ring; requiring exceptional long
range shooting skills. This change made game so difficult
that today a large percentage of the contestants at The
National Marbles Tournament cannot shoot 7 marbles out
of the ring to win the game in any reasonable amount of
time. So a limit of seven innings was put in place
called the Speed Up rule. At the end of seven
innings the player with the most points is declared the
winner; recorded as, 3-to-2, or 4-to-1, instead of 7-to-6
or 7-to-3, or 7-to-0. Further, this is such a difficult
game it is not uncommon for a match to end with a score of
0-to-0 with the winner being declared by lagging.
RING-MEN:
noun. The marbles that are placed in the ring.
(HARDER.) (See Man)
RINGER, ORIGINAL RULES:
noun. The Original Rules of Ringer, as
played during the first decades of the
National
Marbles Tournament; is a radically different game than the
version played today at The National Marbles Tournament.
Because this game was so heavily promoted by newspapers,
it rapidly became the dominant marbles game played and
many of the older traditional marble games like Fat,
Big Ring, Bull Ring, etc. were forgotten. The original
game of Ringer used the laying-in
and poison shooter rules, which make this
version easy for the novice, beginners and young children
to compete with older, more advanced players and it
encourages a higher level of strategic play and challenge
for those more advanced players. These exceptionally
important rules were deleted to make the New Rules of
Ringer. The original game was designed to identify the
best over-all marbles player and it’s a far more
interesting and exciting spectators sport than it’s
successor.
RINGHAMS, (little):
noun. A variation of the game ring taw ;
seen published in1892.
HARDER.)
RING TAW:
noun. A marble game where a ring is drawn, marbles placed
in its center and a line is drawn a few feet away from the
ring; the shooting is done from behind the line. See
Games,
Ring Taw
RING-TAW (ring and taw):
noun. A marbles game similar to but much older than
Ringer. Variations called, Ring and Taw, Ringhams,
Little Ringhams, Rising Taw, Spannisms, Spannums. (See
Games,
Ring Taw)
RISING TAW:
noun phrase. A marble game. (HARDER.) The object,
rules and strategies of this game are unknown at this
time.
ROLEY BOLEY:
noun. A marbles game; same as Nine Bridge.
(Steele.)
ROLL FOR IT:
noun. A marble game in which one player in a
sitting position places a single agate before him; other
players roll their marbles toward it; the player who hits
it wins it; its owner wins all marbles rolled toward it
that do not hit it; the distance of rolling is
proportioned to the value of the agate; a game played in
Massachusetts. Also see Pegging. (CASSIDY)
ROLL UP:
verb. Same as lay up. (HARDER.) See Laying-In
ROLLEY HOLE:
noun. A marble game played traditionally by adult
men in the Kentucky and Tennessee boarder region around
Standing Stone State Park in Tennessee. These men that
play Rolley Hole are the best marble players in the world.
The origins of this game date back to the Antebellum South
where plantation slaves played the game. After the Civil
War groups of former slaves founded a community called
Free Hill, Tennessee and they continued playing the game.
White tobacco farmers in the same area picked up the game
and today hold an annual tournament each September at
Standing Stone State Park. There are a few variations
of this game’s name known as Roly-Holey and Rolley Holey.
Each game has the same basic object. See
Games,
Rolley Hole.
ROLLSIES: interjection.
A defensive call to force a player to roll his shooter in
a bowling marbles game rather than throw it. (FERRETTI)
ROLY-HOLEY: noun. A
marble game somewhat like croquet: There are three holes a
yard apart and the shooting line a yard behind hole one. A
player shoots for all three holes in turn. If he makes all
three he comes back: 1-2-3-2-1. Once the circuit is
completed, he takes a hambone. Having made the
circuit twice, he takes a per. If a player shoots at an
opponent's marble and hits it (to put it into a
disadvantageous position), he gets another shot and a
span; term used in Kentucky. (CASSIDY.)
ROSENTHAL COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A corporation of New York City;
beginning in 1930, distributors of glass toy marbles made
by The Peltier Glass Company; held a patent
invented by Berry Pink, on the first mesh bag for
toy marbles, “Compartment Bag for Marbles or the Like”
USPNo. 1,872,640; employed
Pink of Passaic, NJ, who left the Rosenthal
Company in the late 1930s to form a partnership with
Peltier.
ROUGH, ROUGHING:
noun. A players’ term for conditioning a shooter
marble; it is the act of putting a slight texture on a
hard shinny marble, usually a glass marble, by rubbing it
with sandpaper or on a concrete sidewalk, sometimes
grinding it into the sidewalk with the sole of a tennis
shoe, so that the texture will allow the player a better
grip, giving greater control and greater English.
Also called Sugaring.
ROUNCE:
interjection. (perhase "May I move around once?") A
call made by a player to allow him to move to a more
convenient position in order to shoot; seen published in
1888. (HARDER.)
ROUNDANCE:
noun. Same as rounds; "If one player said vents
before his opponent said ennies, the player could exercise
roundance: he could tee up the taw or the objective
marble, smooth out ground, etc."; term used in Oklahoma.
(CASSIDY.)
ROUNDERS:
interjection. A player’s term, when a player walks
around the marbles ring to determine the most advantageous
position to take their shot. Also, in the Original Rules
of Ringer, a player who knocked a marble out of the ring
and their shooter went out of the ring too, the player got
another turn and could knuckle down anywhere around the
outside of the ring. In newer versions of Ringer, simply
states that upon a players turn they can shoot from any
point around the ring. Also known as rounce, roundance,
roundems, roundie, roundies, roundy, roundings, rounds,
roundsomes,
ROUNDEMS:
interjection. Same as rounds; term used in
Indiana.(CASSIDY.)
ROUNDERS:
interjection. Same as rounds, roundings
; term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
ROUNDIES:
interjection. Same as roundings,
roundance, etc.; term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
ROUNDINGS:
interjection. Same as rounce. Variations;
round'unce, rounance, roundance, roundsters
(HARDER.) See Rounders
ROUNDS:
noun.
The privilege of clearing away debris that might interfere
with a shot; term used in Kentucky.) - interjection. A
call demanding this privilege; term used in Kentucky.
Also, same as rounce, as seen in
HARDER.
(CASSIDY.)
ROUNDSOMES:
interjection. Same as roundems ; term used
inOhio. (CASSIDY.)
ROUNDY:
noun. A large marble; a term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY)
ROVER:
noun. Same as rider. Also see quote. J. S.
M. T., "Marbles," III (1899), 66: "Those who had completed
the course became `rovers' (like croquet) with killing
powers." (HARDER.)
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SAEGERS:
noun. A potters’ term; used in the ceramic
industry; a ceramic pot-like device used to hold upwards
of a couple hundred ceramic marbles, so they can be fired
in a large kiln. When glazing this results in the marbles
becoming stuck together requiring them to be broken apart.
See Eyes
SALT GLAZED STONEWARE: noun. A potters’
term; type of stoneware marble that is glazed by throwing
salt into the kiln when gets to working temperature. The
salt vaporizes and reacts with the silica in the clay and
forms a glaze on the surface of the ceramic item, a
marble. Marbles of this type were made in Akron, Ohio as
well as in Europe.
SAVE MY KICKS:
interjection. A call used to claim the advantage of
not taking kicks when the situation occurs in order to
take it at some later time. (SACKETT.).
SAVE MY SHOT:
interjection. A called used to claim the advantage
of giving up one’s turn in order to get two shots later,
usually on the next turn. (SACKETT.).
SCABOULDER:
noun. A players’ term for a large marble, see
Boulder.
SCRAIGIE:
noun. A marble of the least value; a china; term
used in Missouri. English Dictionary, scrap, 5, useless,
inferior. (CASSIDY.)
SCORER:
noun. A title used in American marbles tournament
play to identify a person, who keeps score of match play
for the referee. The scorer need not be an adult and in
addition to keeping score can also bring to the attention
of the referee any infraction of the rules they witness.
SCORING A POINT:
verb phrase. A rule used in American marbles
tournament play. “After a player has released their
shooter it may hit one or more target marbles. If any of
these marbles at any point travels outside the circle then
the player will be awarded one point per marble that has
left the circle.”
SCRATCH:
noun. A players term used in marble games; a line
scratched into the earth for the starting point, also
called a Pitch Line, Taw Line or Tie Line.
SCRIPPS HOWARD COMPANY, THE:
proper name. The newspaper syndicate that created,
sponsored, organized and ran The
National
Marbles Tournament from 1923 to 1960, as a newspaper
promotion. Communities with a Scripps Howard newspaper
held local tournaments and sent their champions to compete
in a national finals held each June on the New Jersey
shore. Later newspapers that subscribed to Scripps
Howard’s United Press International, wire press
service, were invited to hold marble tournaments and send
their champs to the national finals as well. Through these
newspapers’ constant promotion of their tournaments, with
front page articles and photos, the game of Ringer
quickly became the dominant marbles game played in the
United States and almost all others where quickly
forgotten. The tournament headquarters were in the
Cleveland Press Building, Cleveland, Ohio.
SCRAGGE:
verb. To lose all one's marbles in a game of chance
from 1861. (HARDER.) This is a British term similar to
he’s lost his marbles as used in the United States,
describing one who is upset, distraught or crazy. Also
seen spelled as Scraggie. See Lost his marbles.
SCRAIGIE:
noun. A marble of the least value; a china in
Missouri. English Dictionary, scrap, 5, useless, inferior.
(CASSIDY)
SCRUMPY KNUCKLES:
noun. A player’s term; a polite term for the shooting
technique also know as cunny thumb, pussy fingered, etc.;
describing a shot made with top-spin where a player holds
their shooter marble between their forefinger and
thumbnail.
SEAM:
noun. A collectors’ term describing a cut-mark on a
gob-feed marble. See Cut Mark.
SEASON OF MARBLES, MARBLES TOURNAMENT SEASON:
noun. phrase. Traditionally, when children started
playing marbles, it was a sign that spring had arrived. As
soon as the snow and ice melted and a patch of dirt was
exposed, boys would take this advantage to knuckle down
and play one of their favorite marble games. Also, when
large organized marbles tournaments began in the 1920s,
they followed this traditional season with the first
preliminary school tournaments starting as early as
February. By the time all the school and regional
tournaments were over and it was time for the city
championship it was the end of May. See newspaper article,
Games in Season.
SEN-SEN: noun. A
game in which the ring is diamond shaped and the
contestants lag to it. (ZUGER.)
SET:
noun. The number of marbles needed to play a
specific game of marbles. Also, a series of games, as in
two-out-of-three, three-out-of-five, etc.; also see
Match or Match-play.
SET:
noun. The number of marbles required to play a
marble game. (HARDER.)
SETS:
interjection. A call evidently claiming the right
to set the marl in an advantageous position; term used in
Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
SET-UP:
noun. A large marble; term used in Wisconsin.
(CASSIDY.)
SHADYSIDE GLASS NOVELTY COMPANY. THE:
proper name. A small glass
shop or studio used by
J.H. Leighton late in life in
Shadyside, Ohio. M.G. Wright explored and excavated this
site in the 1960s finding a few examples marbles and
marble shards showing that Leighton continued to make
marbles for the rest of his life. The site was wiped out
by a freak rain storm in the 1970s.
SHOOT:
verb. The act of using one’s thumb to skillfully
propel a marble with the object of hitting a target;
various techniques knows as backspin, lofting, plunking,
shooting with English, cunny thumb, etc.
SHOOT:
verb. To roll, pitch, or move a marble in the
direction of the objective; a standard game term.
Washington Irving Sketch Book. (1821) Rip Van Winkle . . .
taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles." (HARDER.)
SHOOTER:
noun. The offensive marble; a larger marble used to hit
smaller marbles; a specific size of marble, in the United
States and Western Europe a 3/4 inch marble is standard;
see the Rules of Ringer, “The
shooter shall be not more than 3/4" in diameter and not
less than ½” in diameter.”
In the rest of the world a larger 25 mm (one inch) marble
is used as a shooter. 2.) A marble shot from the hand by
force of ones thumb knuckle, in games where the object is
usually to knock a target marble out of a ring, or to hit
a target of some type. In other counties where a larger,
25 mm marble is used as a shooter, the techniques for
shooting are radically different; the Asian style
being a two handed sling off of the middle finger; the
other, sometimes called the Arabian style is a two
handed shot where the fingers of one hand tees the shooter
up, and the middle finger of the other hand flicks the
marble towards its target. Also called a Taw, Shooting
Taw.
SHOOTING LINE:
noun. Same as lag line; term used in
Oklahoma. (CASSIDY.)
SHOOTING TAW:
noun. The offensive marble; "never shooter or taw";
term used in Kentucky. (CASSIDY.)
SHOT:
noun. A standard term used in marble games
describing the act of tossing, bowling, pitching or
rolling a marble towards a target. A turn, as in “it’s
your shot.” Also marble player, as in "he’s a good shot."
See Shoot.
SHOT:
noun. 1. A marble player, as in "a good shot." 2.
Act of rolling, pitching, or moving a marble in the
direction of the objective; a standard game term.
(HARDER.)
SHOWY-HOLE (shuvvy hawle):
noun. Same as bun-hole; term published in1888.
(HARDER.)
SHUB:
verb. To lose all one's marbles in a game of
chance; term published in1875. (HARDER.)
SIDE-MEN:
noun. The name for the marbles placed into the
corners of a ring (or castle walls) in the game called
Fortifications. (See Games,
Fortifications)
SIDE-MEN:
noun. The marbles placed at the corners of a marble
square; if a player knocks two of the side-men out of the
ring on his first shot, he wins the game. (HARDER.)
SIDINGS:
interjection. A players’ term called out by a
player wanting to move their shooter to improve their lie.
“Means to move your taw from one side to the other in a
straight line when about to shoot, and is not allowable in
Bull Ring.” (Beard, The Outdoor Handy Book.)
SINGLE GATHER:
noun. A collectors’ term; first seen used in a
collectors’ identification and price guide; it is imagined
this term is intended to mean the same as hand-gathered
and hand-made, as it seems to refer to hand-made glass
marbles, but it’s definition is unclear because both terms
single gather and hand-gathered can often be
found in the same paragraphs suggesting them have
different meanings. In making a hand-gathered, hand-made
glass marble, a gathering-boy would draw from a furnace
just enough molten glass on his punty to make a single
marble.
SINKER:
noun.
A
large marble; term used in Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
see
Boulder.
SIZE:
noun. The size of a marble or marble ring is always
stated in diameter. Also as it relates to the collectable
value of a marble, generally the bigger a marble, the more
valuable; also Peewee is a half inch or less are
rare and as such more valuable. The standard size of an
American shooter marble is 3/4” and target marble 5/8”.
Also see Shooter, Peewee, Target Marble.
SKIN, SKINNING, SKINNED:
verb. A player’s term found in the historic record;
the act of knocking all the target marbles out of the ring
in one turn, sometimes without the opponent even getting a
chance to shoot; in modern times this is called a Stick.
Also, from
HARDER,
"when a boy had lost all his stakes `skinned' was the
term, . . . he staked his taw."
SKINCH:
verb. Same as fudge; term published in 1876. (HARDER.) A
regional variation of Hunching, like Grunching
is specific to Reading Pennsylvania.
SLAG(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a glass marble; but
the original name used by the companies that manufactured
these types of marbles, and always seen in the historic
record, is Onyx. These marbles are almost always
hand-gathered and can be either hand-made or machine-made.
This was the first type of glass marble made for
commercial purposes, in the 1850s, by Elias Greiner,
in Lausha Germany; these were hand-made and can be
easily identified by its ground pointil. Another
hand-made version was the first glass marble made in the
USA, in the late 1880s, by
James Harvey Leighton
and can be identified by its melted pontil. Slags,
or Onyx marbles were among the first machine-made marbles,
manufactured by The M.F. Christensen & Son Company
in 1903, in the 1910s by
The Akro Agate Company
and
the 1920s by The Christensen Agate Company, the
Peltier Glass Company and in Lauscha, Germany. In the
late 1929s a gob-feed, or totally automated,
version of this common type of glass marble was produced
by The Christensen Agate Company and the Peltier
Glass Company, under license of a patent belonging to
The Hartford Empire Company. A few examples can
also be found that were made from glass canes and are
easily identified by having two cut-off marks, one at each
pole. The term “slag” is a toxic, industrial waste, as
defined by the US Patent and Trademark Office (See photo)
SLEEPERS:
noun. The designation of one player, in the game of
pegging by right of which he could claim all marbles that
bounced out from between the legs of the seated player; it
was usually granted by the sitter to a friend; a term used
in New York. (CASSIDY)
SLIPS:
interjection. A players’ term, used in the play of
marble games, especially in tournament play, it is not
uncommon that a young player is set to shoot and their
glass marble slips out of their hand before they take
their shot. When this happens, if the player calls out the
word Slips, so that all other players and the
referee governing the play hears the call, the player may
take their turn over, as long as the marble does not roll
more than 10 inches away from their hand. If a slip
causes the marble to roll more than 10 inches away from
their hand, it is considered a shot and the end of the
player’s turn.
SMALL RING:
noun. A marble ring usually under ten feet in
diameter. (ZUGER.)
SMASHER(S):
noun. A common players’ term for a large marble,
see Boulder.
SMOKIES:
noun: a type of glass marble; “glassies with puffs
of color inside.” (FERRETTI)
SMOOCH:
verb. Same as fudge.
(HARDER.)
SMOOTHING(S):
interjection. A player’s term for leveling the dirt
smooth between your shooting position and your intended
target; in some games the player must first call
clearance, as in tournament play, if a player is
caught smoothing without first calling it, the
penalty is the loss of their turn. Counter call, no
smoothings, fen clearance.
SMUG:
verb. To grab the marbles and run when some action
is about to break up the game; from 1877 (HARDER.) See
Grabs
SNAKES:
noun. A call used to claim the advantage of taking
five steps, each about a foot long, toward opponent’s
marble. (SACKETT.).
SNEAK, SNEAKING:
noun. A player’s term, a strategy of shooting into
the center of the ring, so the shooter comes to rest close
to the target marbles; a shot taken without intending to
knock a target marble out of the ring. Instead, this
strategy calculates the player’s chances of scoring from
an advantageous position on their next turn will be
greatly increased. If done properly this can be a very
effective and aggressive strategy that is difficult to
counter. However, because the player did not knock a
target marble from the ring and their ring stays where it
came to rest until that player’s next turn, their shooter
becomes poison and can be targeted by the other
players. “Is the act of shooting for position.” (Beard,
The Outdoor Handy Book.) Also called Laying-In,
Babying, Babying-In.
SNAPPER:
noun. A marble; another name for a shooter
marble. (Steele.)
SNOOGER:
noun. Player’s slang for a target marble that comes
to rest near the ring-line, an easy shot. Also a near
miss, as in a shot that missed by a snooger; also a
missed opportunity, we got snoogered on that one.
Also see, Riding a Snooger.
SNOTTIE:
noun. Familiar form of snot agate; term used in
Illinois, Michigan and Nebraska. (CASSIDY.)
SNOW CONE:
noun. A collectors’ term for a specific type of
marble made by The Peltier Glass Company; a
transparent marble with a veneered stripe of opaque color
on the surface; the marble’s transparent base so filled
with air bubbles it looks like the sweet frozen treat on a
snow cone; transparent base glass can be clear or tinted.
(See photo.)
SNOWFLAKE MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term for a Cats-Eye marble made by
Marble King, Inc. ; has great deal of white debris (believed
to be crushed firebrick)
floating inside the body of the marble
as if a blustery snowstorm.
(See photo)
Also, a
Clearie marble apparently once made by
Marble King, Inc. in the same manner as above. (See photo.)
SNOWFLAKE MARBLE(S):
noun. The name for a specific type of hand-made
glass marble made in Germany before 1936, containing mica;
name appears in the US historic record along with the
German name Glimmer. Collectors call these marbles
Micas. (See photo.) (Also see Blizzard.)
SNOWFLAKE OBSIDIAN MARBLE(S):
noun. A naturally occurring stone, snowflake obsidian,
black with white blotches resembling snowflakes; their
attractive appearance makes them a good collectable; sold
at times as shooters in sizes 3/4" or under, but rarely if
ever used for play. (See photo)
SNUDGE:
verb. To move the hand up and forward while
shooting. (SACKETT.) See Hunching.
SOLID CORE MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term; the name given to a specific type of
hand-made, glass marbles made from canes; also
called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha, Germany
between 1860 and 1936. These marbles have two cut-off
marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that it was
made from a glass cane. Distinguished from other cane
marbles by their core; the core of these marbles are solid
piece of glass of different colors, twisting slightly and
running from pole to pole. (See photo)
SOLITAIRE:
noun. A popular board game of the 19th century
that uses 32 marbles on a design with 33 holes; the object
being to remove the marbles by jumping them until there is
only one marble left on the board; the greater object
being to plan the jumps so the last marble lands in the
center hole. Two other marble games can be played on the
same board, see Fox and Geese, German Tactics.
SOUTH AMERICAN OR ARABIAN
TWO-HANDED FLICK: noun. A player’s term
describing a marble shooting style seen in North Africa,
Middle East, India and now Latin American, specifically
Columbia and likely elsewhere in the world. Described by
Daniel C. Beard in his work, The Outdoor Handy Book,
1910. “The Arabian Way of Shooting.. . little Arabs have a
curious manner of shooting. They place their taw in the
hollow between the middle and the forefinger of the left
hand, the hand being flat on the ground with the fingers
closed. The forefinger of the right hand is then pressed
firmly on the end joint of the middle finger, which pushes
the middle finger suddenly aside, and the forefinger slips
out with sufficient force to propel the shooter very
accurately.” Also, a variant of this shooting style used
in South America; the hands held perpendicular to the
ground; the shooter held, as if teed up, between the
middle and forefinger of the left hand, with the fingers
of the hand otherwise closed. The middle finger of the
right hand is held back in a trigger position by the
thumb. The two hands come together so the marble is now
balanced on the right and left sides by both forefingers
and resting lightly on the middle finger of the left hand.
At the proper moment the shooter is flicked towards its
target by the middle finger of the right hand. A 25 mm
(one inch) shooter marble, or
boulder, is used for these shooting styles.
(See photo.)
SPACER:
noun. An arbitrary marking of distance from the
shooter or taw to the target, as in one-spacer,
two-spacer, etc.; a block of concrete sidewalk might be
one space. (HARDER.)
SPAN:
noun. (Standard English.) The distance from tip of
thumb to tip of little finger when the hand is spread; the
shooter could be advance this distance under certain
conditions; term used in Kentucky. (CASSIDY.)
SPANS, SPANNIES, SPANNERS:
noun. As used in the play of marble games. It is a
means of measurement, defined by the distance between the
tip of the thumb and the out stretched tip of the
forefinger, it’s used in those games where the object is
to place your marble as close to a target, a marble, or
hole, as possible. Spans describes an area within a
crescent drawn by pivoting your out-stretched forefinger
around your thumb, while using your thumb as an axis
planted upon the ground. This crescent defines an area
from which the player may take their next shot; instead of
being forced to shoot from the exact spot where the
shooter came to rest. A technique used in games there the
targets are holes like Rolley Hole, Knucks and
others. Also, in some games the object is simply get your
shooter close to enough to a target marble so that’s
within spans thereby winning the marble or point.
SPANS AND SNOPS:
noun.
A marble game, the object being for one player to shoot a
marble out at a distance, where it becomes a target for
the next player to hit; if a player hits the target or
comes within spans (the distance between a player’s
thumb and tip of their outstretched forefinger,) he wins a
marble. If the shot falls short of spans it becomes a
target for the first player. This was a game sometimes
played by boys walking to and from school, like Chasies.
SPANNING: noun. A
marble game; “This
is played with any kind of marble. The one agreeing
to commence, shoots his marble as far as he likes. His
opponent then shoots
in his turn, endeavoring to strike the one first shot, or
shoot it so
close that he can touch both at a span;
if he can, he wins; and
so on in succession,
until one or other wins.” (Appleton.)
SPANNISMS (spannums):
noun. A [British] marble game; esp. ring-taw.
(HARDER.)
SPARKLE: noun. A collectors’ term describing
a slight amount of damage to the surface of a glass
marble, usually cause during play or casual storage where
the marbles are bounced around. Not as serious a flaw as a
moon. If held in the light just right you can see a slight
sparkling effect. This flawed condition slightly affects
the value of the marble to a collector.
SPARKLER MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors term for a colorful and highly
desired marble manufactured by
The Akro Agate Company
in
the 1930s. (See photo)
SPEED-UP RULES:
noun. phrase.
A
rule used in American marbles tournament, in preliminary
elimination matches contestants may only be allowed six or
seven innings to knock out seven marbles from the
ring. At the end of these innings the player with the most
points wins. This same rule does not apply to the finial
and semi-final matches.
SPIKES:
noun. Same as pegging: "I get spikes on you"- I
have the right to peg at your shooter; term used in
Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
SPIN:
verb. To shoot the marble or taw so that it will
spin exactly where desired; the spin, the mark of an
expert player, causes the taw to lose momentum and remain
in the vicinity of, other objectives. -noun.
spinning. (HARDER.) See English, Stick.
SPIN CHUCK:
verb. To roll dead or fat; see Chuck.
(HARDER.)
SPINETTE:
noun. A game played with a flinger top and marbles,
similar to the game Teetotum.
SPLATTER:
verb. A player’s term; to shoot into a ring at a
tightly packed group of marbles and break them apart; a
difficult shot. Also said to ‘split the pot’; a technique
necessary when playing British Marbles.
SPLIT:
noun. A marble game from 1896 (HARDER.) The object,
rules and strategies of this game are unknown.
SPLIT THE POT:
verb phrase. See Splatter. (HARDER.)
SPOT THE EYE:
noun. A marble game in which two players take turn
trying to hit each other's agate; they aim by bringing the
agate to the eye, then moving it up and down an imaginary
line sighted from eye to objective before releasing it;
the player who hits an agate wins it; a game from
Massachusetts. (CASSIDY)
SQUARE:
noun. A player’s term; a ring in the shape of a
square; used in games like Fortification; sometimes
seen in the rules of fat, where they play in a
square with a circle in the middle; the area between the
circle and the square being the fat. See
Games,
Fat.
STAKE:
noun. A player’s term as used in games of chance like
Keeps; the number of marbles placed into the ring; a
standard betting term in various sports and games. See
Ante
STAKE ONE’S SHOOTER (taw):
verb phrase. A phrase used by players; to ante
up, or wager one’s shooter in a game of chance, when
playing For Keeps. Can be an act of desperation by
a player who’s lost all their marbles and wants to stay in
the game; a cocky tactic to lure or seduce another into
laying down more or better mibs for their ante, as
in I’ll stake my shooter, if you . . .
STAKES:
noun. 1. A situation occurring when a player has
knocked out more than half of the marbles in the ring or
square. 2. The number of marbles a player has in the ring
as his share of the staked pool in a game of chance. 3. A
situation occurring when only two marbles remain in the
ring. (HARDER.)
STANCE:
noun. Same as lag line, taw line. (HARDER.)
Also, the position a player takes when kneeling down to
shoot a marble. Because marbles where played on dirt and
before washing machines, players were normally very
careful about how they got down to shoot marbles. As an
object of fine shooting usually requires one to get as low
to the ground as practical, a number of difference stances
became popular. Some players crotch down keeping both feet
on the ground; others sacrificed one knee to the ground as
if genuflecting; others would come close to putting a knee
on the ground, but hold their weight on their non-shooting
hand; all in an effort to keep their pants from getting
dirty. Some girls, wearing skirts or dresses simply lifted
their hem delicately and put both bare knees on the dirt
to shoot. When The National Marble Tournament
changed its rings to concrete from clay in the late 1940s,
players felt no compunction against getting down on all
fours and shooting doggie style. Today this is the most
common stance used by children shooting marbles at
tournaments.
STANDARD TOY MARBLE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. (1894-1922) Akron, Ohio. Owned and
operated by Frank J. Brown and family, manufacturers of
ceramic marbles; commies, crockies, Jaspers.
Believed to be the first to manufacture and market marbles
for industrial purposes, largely as inert,
filtration objects for municipal water systems;
manufactured ceramic marbles as large as 5 inches in
diameter, likely as pump value balls.
STARTS:
noun. plural. The privilege of shooting first.
(COMBS.)
STASH:
verb. To stop or break up a game for some reason,
from 1856 (HARDER.)
STAY:
verb. Same as spin. A players’ term; to
knock a target marble from the ring and leave one’s
shooter marble at the point of contact.
STEADY KNUCKS:
interjection. Same as knuckle down; the term used
in Georgia (CASSIDY)
STEALING:
noun. A marble game played in Wisconsin (CASSIDY.)
The object, rules and strategies of this game are unknown.
STEELIE:
noun. Players’ slag for a ball bearing used as a shooter;
can be a sphere made of any metal but usually made of
steel. Also, a hollow steel marble manufactured by The
Johnson & Sharp Manufacturing Co., Ottumwa, Iowa and
marketed to the toy industry. This was actually a metal
ball used in the manufacture of wooden frame windows,
allowing the window to open and close smoothly.
Steelies are outlawed in American marble tournaments.
Also called Steels, Steely, Ironies, Brassies.
STEPS:
A variant of snakes; rarely used ((SACKETT.))
STICK:
noun. A player’s term specific to the game of
Ringer; a highly desired situation; when a player
knocks out 7 marbles on their first turn and wins the
game. In some cases this occurs before the opponent has an
opportunity to take a single shot. Heard as “he got a
stick.” Records are kept of players who have the most
sticks in a tournament. Same as Skinned.
Also -
verb. When a shooter marble shot with backspin hits
a target marble, stops spinning and comes to rest at or
near the point of impact. In use; “make it stick,”
or in past tense, “it stuck.” To stick
requires shooting with backspin, or English,
is an advanced technique that gives the player the
advantage of taking a second turn. Also called Stickie,
Sticky.
STICKIE (sticky):
noun. A marble that will remain in the ring instead
of rolling out; very valuable in certain games of chance.
(HARDER.)
STICK-IN:
noun. Same as ante. (HARDER.)
STICK ME:
interjection. A call made by a player without
marbles requesting another to lend or give him a marble so
that he may be eligible to play. (HARDER).
STICKER:
noun. An object or target marble. (FERRETTI)
STONE MARBLE(S):
noun. A marble made of stone. See Agate,
The Akron Stone
Marble Company, Bulleye Agate,
Limestone. Also called a stoney, stonie, stonedy.
STONE-GLASS (stone-glassie):
noun. 1. A marble composed of burnt or glazed clay.
2. A marble made of agate (HARDER.)
STONEWARE:
noun. A
heavy, nonporous pottery, or clay; fired at high
temperatures (up to 2,200°F, or 1,200°C) until vitrified,
or made glass-like, impervious to liquid. Because
stoneware is nonporous, it does not require glazing; if
glazed it’s applied for decorative purposes.
STONEWARE MARBLES, AKRON:
noun. Most Akron area ceramic marbleworks
manufactured stoneware marbles; called crockies by
the locals; these were glazed in colors common to the
area’s vast ceramic industry, mostly brown and blue. A
version of Dyke’s American Agates, identified on
labels and in advertisements as “fancy”; glazed in
multiple colors; some with blue-greens, a dark, almost
black, blue and an interesting and rare muted pink color;
some appear as if applied with a sponge to obtain
strikingly beautiful, abstract designs; marketed in some
sales catalogs as American Majolica Marbles; large
numbers of these were manufactured by
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company. A common motif on
some was a broad, cobalt blue band that ran around the
equator of the marble. Also see Akron Rollers. (See
photo)
STONEWARE MARBLES, DUTCH (German low country):
noun. The Flemish city of Raeren and the town of
Freechen in Germany were manufacturing centers for
stoneware marbles in the 17th and 18th
centuries. Types include; brown saltglazed and rarely ones
that appear highly polished, also bisque or unglazed
stoneware in sizes less than 3/4". (Carskadden 2.)
STONEWARE MARBLES, EARLY AMERICAN:
noun. (ca 1600s-1700s) The first marbles played
with by the children in Colonial America were stoneware,
Dutch-made (see above) and distributed. Common types
include; brown saltglazed and bisque or unglazed.
(Carskadden 2.)
STONEWARE MARBLES, GERMAN:
noun. Grossalmerode, or Gross Almerode in Lower
House and the Bavarian cities of Thiersheim and Colbrug,
Germany were major ceramic marble-making centers in the 17th
and 18th centries. Types include; brown and
gray saltglazed and bisque or unglazed; the later made
only in sizes from 1/3” to 1-1/2.” (Carskadden 2.)
STOOKIE:
noun. A marble made of clay; term published in1885.
(HARDER.)
STRAIGHTS:
interjection. A call requiring that the player
shoot from the required position without taking advantage
of "crooks" or "rounds" (HARDER.) Also -noun. A
marble game played in Wisconsin (CASSIDY.)
STRIATE:
noun. A collectors’ term; a narrow mark, or band or score
showing a structural stripe or streak inside the glass of
a marble. This can describe an imperfection in the glass,
but is not a fracture. Or, as seen in a patent it can
describe an intentional design feature of variegating
different colors of glass. Sometimes spelled striae by
collectors.
STRIPED PLASTERS:
noun. phrase. Marbles made of clay or plaster and
then painted various colors. (HARDER.) These are marbles
made of porcelain and painted with stripes of various
colors. Also called Chinas. See photo.
SULPHIDE:
noun. A collectors’ term used to describe a
specific type of marble referred to as a “figure marble”
in the historical record. These marbles have small, white
figures made of porcelain encased inside a clear glass
marble (can be translucent greens, blues, ambers, etc. but
in these colors they are very rare.) The figure is usually
an animal, like a rabbit, dog, cat, or cow, but can also
be human, a US president, a religious icon or even a
number. This charming class of marbles are normally large,
over an inch and a half, intended for babies to play with
them and are very collectable. In the early days of the
hobby some mistakenly believed the figure inside was made
of sulfur, thus the name now in use by collectors. The
material is actually porcelain, capable of being heated to
the exact same temperature as the molten glass, roughly
2000 degrees. Figure marbles were manufactured in German
from the mid 19th century until 1936. See
Figure Marble. (See photo)
SUBMARINE MARBLE(S): noun.
A collectors’ term for a rare design element present in
some hand-made and machine-made glass toy marbles, where a
thread of color existing on the marble’s surface plunges
down into the interior of the sphere. This occurrence is
perceived by collectors as increasing the financial value
of the marble. (See photo)
SUNBURST MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a very colorful and
highly desirable gob-feed marble manufactured by The
Master Marble Company
in the 1930s. (See photo)
SUGAR GAME:
noun. phrase. The game that decides the winner in matched
contests. (HARDER.) In match play, where contestants play
a set of games, i.e.; 2-out-of-3, or 3-out-of-5, and etc.
if the games are tied at 2 to 2 in a set of 3-out-of-5,
that last game is the sugar game.
SUGAR, SURGARING:
verb. A players’ term; defines the act of roughing
up a glass marble’s smooth surface to give it texture,
allowing the player to get a better grip, obtain greater
control, aim and more spin or English. Also called
roughing.
SWAG:
noun. A gentle dip or depression in the ground;
term used in Kentucky and Missouri. (CASSIDY.) I suppose
this refers to the lay of the ground where marbles are
played, such as the schoolyard, vacant lot, etc.
SWEEPING THE RING:
noun. phrase. A term used in American marbles
tournament play, a rule. “At the beginning of any game the
players may request the referee to sweep the ring free of
debris,” commonly sand. The players may also ask the
referee to clear any debris from their line of shot during
the game (see clearance.)
SWIRL:
noun. The name for a marble; a broad category that
includes German handmade marbles, usually made from canes
with bands or stripes of different colors running from
pole to pole (See Cane Marbles.) Also, a modern
machine-made marble made in West Virginia with two or more
colors winding about the marble. (See photo.)
SWIRL, BANDED OPAQUE MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term, the name given to a specific type of
hand-made, glass marbles made from canes;
manufactured in Lauscha, Germany between the late 1890s
and 1936. These types were also made in Akron, Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company in
1892 and 1893 by the Creighton Bros. These marbles
have two cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily
identifying that it was made from a glass cane; have an
opaque base, usually of white glass but sometimes of a
pastel color. They have thin stripes of colored glass upon
its surface, running from pole to pole and the stripes are
irregularly spaced and appear as if brush on the marble’s
surface. Some of these marbles are out-of-round. (See
photo)
SWIRL, BANDED TRANSLUCENT MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between the late 1890s and 1936. These types
were also made in Akron, Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company
in 1892 and 1893 by the
Creighton Bros. These marbles have two cut-off marks,
one at each pole, easily identifying that it was made from
a glass cane; its base glass is translucent, or partly
transparent, comes in a wide variety of colors and has
thin stripes of colored glass upon its surface, running
from pole to pole. (See photo)
SWIRL, BANDED TRANSPARENT MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between the late 1890s and 1936. These types
were also made in Akron, Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company
in 1892 and 1893 by the
Creighton Bros. These marbles have two cut-off marks,
one at each pole, easily identifying that it was made from
a glass cane; its base glass is transparent, comes in a
wide variety of colors and has thin stripes of colored
glass upon its surface, running from pole to pole. (See
photo)
SWIRL,
CLAMBROTH MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between the late 1890s and 1936; a sub-class
of Banded Opaque Marbles. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane; have an opaque base,
usually of white or black glass, with thin stripes of
colored glass upon its surface, running from pole to pole
and the stripes are evenly spaced. (See photo)
SWIRL,
DIVIDED CORE MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term; the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between 1860 and 1936. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane. Distinguished from other
cane marbles by their core; the core of these marbles are
separated into two or more bands or ribbons of one or more
colors of glass, twisting slightly and running from pole
to pole. (See photo)
SWIRL,
GERMAN SWIRL MARBLE(S):
noun. A general name given to a large number of
hand-made marbles from Canes; manufactured in
Lauscha, Germany between 1860 and 1936. These marbles are
subdivided by the type of core inside the marble, i.e.;
latticino, solid, divided, naked core, coreless, etc.;
also subdivisions banded transparents, banded opaque,
Indians; also Joseph Coat; also some are
classified as onyx
or slags; also micas, or
glimmers. (See photo)
SWIRL, INDIAN(S):
noun. A collectors’ term, the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; manufactured in Lauscha, Germany between the
late 1890s and 1936. These types were also made in Akron,
Oho at
The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company
in 1892 and 1893 by the Creighton Bros. These
marbles have two cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily
identifying that it was made from a glass cane. Normally
these are considered a sub-class of Banded Opaque
Marbles; have an opaque base, usually black in color,
but sometimes the glass is a very drank transparent blue
that it appears to be an opaque black. They have thin
stripes of colored glass upon their surface, running from
pole to pole and the stripes are irregularly spaced and
appear as if brush on the marble’s surface. Some of these
marbles are out-of-round. (See photo)
SWIRL, JOSEPH COAT MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term, the name given to a specific type of
hand-made, glass marbles made from canes; also
called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha, Germany
between the late 1890s and 1936. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane; its base glass is
transparent, has thin stripes of glass in a wide variety
of colors that completely surrounds the marble 360 degrees
and has clear glass upon its surface. (See photo)
SWIRL,
LATTICINA CORE MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term; the name given to a
specific type of hand-made, glass marbles made from
canes; also called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha,
Germany between 1860 and 1936. These marbles have two
cut-off marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that
it was made from a glass cane. Distinguished from other
cane marbles by their core; the core of these marbles
resembles a cage of thin stripes twisting slightly and
running from pole to pole. (See photo)
SWIRL, NAKED CORE MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term; the name given to a specific type of
hand-made, glass marbles made from canes; also
called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha, Germany
between 1860 and 1936. These marbles have two cut-off
marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that it was
made from a glass cane. Unlike similar marbles with a
slightly twisting colored core running from pole to pole,
these marbles do not have additional colored stripes or
other design features. (See photo)
SWIRL, PEPPERMINT MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a specific type of
marble, a hand-made glass toy marble made from cane,
manufactured in Germany until 1936. It has bands or
stripes of red, white and blue under a thin clear surface
coating. (See photo)
SWIRL,
SLAG(S):
noun. A collectors’ term for a glass marble; but
the original name used by the companies that manufactured
these types of marbles, and always seen in the historic
record, is Onyx. These marbles are almost always
hand-gathered and can be either hand-made or machine-made.
This was the first type of glass marble made for
commercial purposes, in the 1850s, by Elias Greiner,
in Lausha Germany; these were hand-made and can be
easily identified by its ground pointil. Another
hand-made version was the first glass marble made in the
USA, in the late 1880s, by
James Harvey Leighton
and can be identified by its melted pontil. Slags,
or Onyx marbles were among the first machine-made marbles,
manufactured by The M.F. Christensen & Son Company
in 1903, in the 1910s by
The Akro Agate Company
and
the 1920s by The Christensen Agate Company, the
Peltier Glass Company and in Lauscha, Germany. In the
late 1929s a gob-feed, or totally automated,
version of this common type of glass marble was produced
by The Christensen Agate Company and the Peltier
Glass Company, under license of a patent belonging to
The Hartford Empire Company. A few examples can
also be found that were made from glass canes and are
easily identified by having two cut-off marks, one at each
pole. The term “slag” is a toxic, industrial waste, as
defined by the US Patent and Trademark Office (See photo)
SWIRL,
SOLID CORE MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term; the name given to a specific type of
hand-made, glass marbles made from canes; also
called swirls; manufactured in Lauscha, Germany
between 1860 and 1936. These marbles have two cut-off
marks, one at each pole, easily identifying that it was
made from a glass cane. Distinguished from other cane
marbles by their core; the core of these marbles are solid
piece of glass of different colors, twisting slightly and
running from pole to pole. (See photo)
SWIRL,
WEST VIRGINIA
SWIRL MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term; a general name given to a large number
of machine-made glass marbles manufactured by one of the
many West Virginia marble companies. These marbles often
defy easy identification to which company made them, being
that they appear so similar to marbles made by other
marble companies. (See photo)
Back to
Index
TAIL:
noun. A collectors’ term, describing a design
feature that resembles a tail wrapping around a
hand-gathered, onyx marble (a slag); as in “that green
slag has a nice tail.” A well defined tail can
increase the value of a marble to a collector.
TAKE UP:
verb. To raise the marble and move it forward
unfairly. (HARDER.)
TARGET MARBLE:
noun. A players’ term for the object they attempt
to shoot from a ring; in American tournament play
regulations set the size of as target marble at 5/8".
TAW:
noun.
1709-; origin uncertain, but see W. W. Skeat, "The Origin
of Taw," Notes & Queries, 9th S., 11 [1898], 385, and also
his Etymological Dictionary [1910], who derives the term
from a schoolboy's Greek pronunciation of T or tee. See p.
6, above. Skeat admits in the Notes & Queries article that
the derivation is not conclusive. The etymology given in
Webster's New International Dictionary [2d ed.] follows
Skeat with a label of "Probably" Webster's New World
Dictionary of the American Language [Cleveland and New
York, 1953] also follows Skeat, but with the reservation
of a question mark. The listing in the American College
Dictionary indicates without reservation that the term is
taken from Scandinavian and is cognate with Icelandic taug
"string," "rope.") 1. The offensive marble, or the
shooter. 2. The line from which players shoot at the
marbles. Standard game term. -v. To shoot with a marble.
Standard game term. (HARDER.)
This term is more common in
the United Kingdom. It’s seen in the American historic
record but rarely used today in the USA.
TAWER, SURE:
noun. A situation that occurs when a player shoots
or knocks all the marbles out of the ring. (HARDER). See
Stick.
TAW LINE:
noun. A players’ term, as used in marble games, “a line
drawn for a starting point in games like Long Ring”
(Beard, The Outdoor Handy Book) sometimes also
called a Tie Line, or Pitch Line in the game
Ringer, or Scratch for Lagging, or
Tawlings, Taws. However, unlike in Lagging,
where the shooter is bowled or tossed, a taw line is most
often associated with games where the players knuckle
down to shoot from this line. Also in British
marbles, the line drawn in the sand, upon which
players drop their taws, attempting to be closest to the
line; deciding who goes first.
TAWN:
plural of taw. See quote. Gomme, Dictionary of
British Folklore (1894) "Anyone's `taw' staying within
the ring after being tawn at, the `shot' is said to be
`fat,' and the owner of the `taw' must then replace any
marbles he has knocked out of the ring. (HARDER.)
TEASE:
verb. Children at play, especially in marbles, will
say things to intimidate an opponent and gain an
advantage. They might say a player is babying-in,
if they are using the strategy called laying-in,”
in order to pressure them to stop using that advantageous
strategy.
TEETOTUM:
noun. A 19th century game played with a
finger top and marbles. See Games.
Teetotum
TEN HOLER:
noun. A game played by several players around a
U-shaped course marked by five holes; the players play
around the course first in one direction and then the
other. For a compete description see Sackett and Koch
[Kansas Folklore, University of Nebraska Press, 1961] pp
222-223. The game probably derives from golf. (SACKETT.)
TENNESSEE:
noun. A marble game played with a rectangular ring,
six feet by four feet; all shots are made from the border
line, and daked only at intersections; played for
funs; game as played in Kentucky. (CASSIDY.) The object
rules and strategies of this game are unknown.
THREE BLIND MICE, THE:
noun. A maze type game that uses marbles; a small
round wooden box with cardboard inserts arranged in
concentric circles that make up a maze; the object being
to roll three marbles, the mice, from the outer ring into
the center ring. Registered trademark, 1889. Also, the
same game was later marketed as Pigs In Clover (See
photo)
THREE-FINGER-FLAT:
noun.
A shooting style; “player shoots with the thum and first
finger while keeping his three other fingers flat on the
ground.” (FERRETTI) An inferior shooting style similar to
Cunny-Thumb and Scrumpy Knuckles.
THREE HOLE:
noun. A marbles game, see
THE POT GAME. (Strutt)
THRIBS, THRIBBLES, THRIBIES, TREBS, TRIPS:
noun. Players’ slag for three marbles.
THROWSIES:
verb. “Common sort of shooting in bowling type
games. (FERRETTI)
THURINGER (Thuringia, Thuringian, Thuringen):
proper name. The state in Germany, Thüringer,
where a majority of marbles where manufactured in glass,
stone and ceramic; see
Lauscha;
a mountainous region; the famous Black Forest -
Thuringian Forest of Upper Bavaria; formerly in the DDR,
or Communist East Germany.
TIE-ALL-TIE:
adjective. modifier.
Of a situation in which more than one player is at an
equal distance from the lag-line. (HARDER.)
TIG:
noun. One who watches the stick in a game of ducks.
(HARDER).
TIGER EYE:
noun. An agate marble; term used in Wisconsin.
Oxford English Dictionary, tiger, 13, b: "tiger's eye,
popular name for (a) a yellowish brown quartz . . . , (b)
a crystalline pottery glaze . . . (U.S.)." (CASSIDY.)
TIGER EYE, TIGEREYE MARBLE(S):
A type of stone marble made from a golden colored quarts
containing asbestos that reflects light in unusual
patterns. This semiprecious stone is mined primarily in
South Africa and was imported to Idar-Oberstein,
German to be turned into toy marbles.
See photo
TIME:
noun. Same as go. ((HARDER).) Also: A call
used to gain the advantage of having the other players
wait while the caller is interrupted, for example, by the
necessity of going to the bathroom. This obviously derives
from the practice of calling time in football and
basketball. (SACKETT.)
TIPSHARES, TIP-SHEARS:
A marble game, also called Handers. (See Games,
Tipshares or Handers)
TIPS TAKE IT:
interjection. A call that allows the player to take
the last marble in the ring if it is struck but not
knocked from the ring. (HARDER).
TOE-DROPS:
interjection. A call claiming the right to drop
one's marble from one's cocked-up toes (the heel being
kept on the ground) in the game of chase; a term used in
Wisconsin. See eye-drops. (CASSIDY.)
TOE THE LINE:
verb. phrase. To stand with one’s toes on the
pitch-line when lagging; also called taw the line.
TOLLEY:
noun. A British players’ term for a shooter
marble not to exceed 3/4" in diameter, as per the
rules of British Marbles played at Tinsley Green
by the authority of
The British Marbles Board of
Control.
TOM:
noun. A large marble; a term from Wisconsin; as in
Torn cat, Tom turkey, etc. (CASSIDY.)
TOM-TROLLER:
noun. A marble; larger than regular alleys; used to
bob, rather than as a snapper, or shooter.
(Steele.)
TOPSPIN:
verb. A players’ term used to describe the action
on a shooter marble; a less desirable action than
backspin; when shooting with topspin the shooter
marble will, after hitting a target marble, continue to
roll forward and often out of the ring, ending a player’s
turn. Topspin is a result of shooting in the style called
Cunny Thumb.
TOOSER:
noun. A players’ term for a
common clay marble,
usually made of earthenware.
TOR:
noun. Variation of taw. (HARDER.)
TOY:
noun. Variation of taw, influenced by toy. (HARDER.)
TOY MARBLE:
noun. Sometimes the word ‘toy’ is added in front of
the word ‘marble’ to differentiate between marbles that
are manufactured for industrial purposes, or to make clear
one is not talking about funerary ‘marbles,’ as in tomb
stones. Mid-Atlantic makes glass marbles, but they
do not make toy marbles, the pretty and colorful
ones sold to the children’s product market; they make
industrial marbles.
TRACKS: noun.
Variation. term, long taw. 1. The act of striking a
defensive marble so that it will roll in a desired
direction. 2. A game in which two players use one marble
each; see boss out. (HARDER)
TRACKSE:
verb. See quote. Dictionary of Americanisms:
"In case of `riders,' to shoot so as to push the one man
from the ring. If successful, the player may then shoot at
the opposing taw." -noun. tracksing. (HARDER).
TRADES: interjection.
A call entitling a player to exchange a less-valued marble
for one he has just lost-perhaps a favorite or lucky
marble; a term from Wisconsin. (CASSIDY.)
TRASITION MARBLE(S):
noun. A collectors’ term with such a confusing and
rapidly changing definition that today it identifies all
glass marbles manufactured before 1930, except those made
from canes. These expanding definitions were authored by a
collector and prolific author of identification and price
guides who used his creative imagination to explain a
marble manufacturing process that represented a
transition between hand-made and machine-made glass
marbles. However, the author neglected to mention these
definitions were just guesses and not a result of going to
their local public library, or looking to the patent
record, etc. to research how marbles were made.
TREBS:
noun. plural. Players’ slag for three marbles.
TRIPS:
noun. plural. Players’ slag for three marbles; term
used at The
National
Marbles Tournament.
TWIN RIVERS:
noun. A local name in Manitowoc for the marble game
big ring; term used in Wisconsin. See Manitowoc.
(CASSIDY.)
TWO-CENTER:
noun. A large marble; a term from Wisconsin. From
the cost; see fiver, cheapie, etc. (CASSIDY.)
TWOSER: noun. A
marble; “two for a cent,” similar to a doggie (a
brown clay marble,) but larger. (Steele.)
TWOSIE:
noun. A chiny; a glazed marble, tan, brown,
or blue mottled with white; a term used in Georgia.; a
twosie cost more than a onesie. (CASSIDY.)
Called Benningtons by collectors. (See photo)
TWO UP, THREE UP, Etc.:
noun. The number of marbles placed in a ring.
(HARDER.)
Back to Index
UNDER DATES:
noun. Less than the number of marbles that the player
originally placed in the ring to begin with. (HARDER.)
UNPLOISHED CHINA:
noun. A plain, unglazed porcelain marble. In shooter size,
considered by some to be the finest shooter marbles, as
the slight talc-like textured allows for a firm grip,
greater control in aim and the application of English.
An excellent shooter marble for young players and
beginners as it resists slipping from their hands. These
marbles made be stained with color stripes or painted with
designs, but not glazed. These were also called
plasters, chalkies, chiny or more commonly
Chinas in the historic record. They were made in
Germany until 1936 and in the United States from 1884 to
the late 1920s.
UPS:
A
call that allows the player to raise his hand from the
ground in order to shoot. (HARDER) See Hunching.
Also: The hand is held about six or eight inches off the
ground. (SACKETT)
U.S. Patent No. 432,127:
government document. This patent, applied and granted in
1890, “Apparatus for Rounding Plastic Clay Slugs,” was the
invention of Samuel Comely Dyke, of Akron, Ohio.
The patent covers both a marble making device and a
process, was first put into use in 1884 and turned out
first mass-produced toys; allowing one person to
manufacture 800 marbles per hour. Before this time all
marbles were hand-made. It was used in Akron, Ohio by
numerous marbleworks, owned by Same Dyke and later
licensed to others. It was last used in the USA by The
Standard Toy Marble Company of Akron in 1920. Soon after
the turn of the 20th century Sam Dyke’s process
of manufacturing clay marbles was adopted by the German
marble-makers in Lauscha, Germany and used there until
1936. See patent,
http://www.akronmarbles.com/us_marble_patents.htm
U.S. Patent No. 462,083:government
document. This patent, applied and granted in 1890,
“Manufacture of Solid Glass Spheres” was the invention of
James Harvey Leighton of Akron, Ohio. The patent
covers both a glass-makers’ hand-tool and a manufacturing
method of producing glass marbles. These were the first
glass marbles made in the USA for commercial sale. The
invention was first used in 1890 at
The
S.C. Dyke & Company in Akron, Ohio and the process turned out glass
marbles at a rate three times faster than the German “marbelshears.”
It was used to manufacture glass marbles in the United
States until 1908. See patent, http://www.akronmarbles.com/us_marble_patents.htm
U.S. Patent No. 802,495:
government document. This patent, application date 1902
and granted in 1905, “Machine For Making Spherical Bodies
of Balls,” was the invention of Martin Frederick
Christensen, of Akron, Ohio. It turned out the first
machine-made glass marbles and were the first
mass-produced objects that were perfectly spherical.
Called “The perfect glass ball machine” by reporters,
Christensen’s invention revolutionized the marble
industry. His later invention of the Marble Auger
in 1910, is the same machine used today and capable of
turning out a million marbles a day. See patent,
http://www.akronmarbles.com/us_marble_patents.htm
Back to Index
VACOR De MEXICO:
proper name. A marble manufacturing company located
in Guadalajara, Mexico; in business since the 1930's. They
first made ceramic marbles and later switched to glass
marbles. Today world’s largest manufacturer of glass
marbles, turning out upwards of 200 million marbles a day.
In the United States these marbles are distributed by and
called Mega Marbles. Unfortunately, this company
does not make shooter marbles sizes used for almost all
traditional American games.
VAN:
interjection. Same as fen. (HARDER.)
VAN:
interjection. The term nullifies the word or phrase
to which it is prefixed. (ZUGER.)
VAN-BURNS:
interjection. If shouted before burns, this
cry prevents a player from having a second try. (ZUGER.)
VAN-DUBBS:
interjection. Cried to annul dubbs and
effective even if cried late. (ZUGER.)
VAN-HAND’S LENGTH:
interjection. IF shouted before hand’s length, this
cry prevents that privilege. (ZUGER.)
VASELINE GLASS:
noun. A glassworkers’ term used to describe a
yellowish colored glass that appears to be about the same
color as the product called by the same name. It is used
at times to manufacture marbles.
VEN
(vence, vent, vents):
interjection. Same as fen. (HARDER.)
VENEER:
noun. A manufacturing and collectors’ term
describing a thin layer of opaque colored glass on an
other base glass, most often an opaque white marble; a
cost saving manufacturing technique requiring far less of
the more expensive colored glass (see
Marble King, Inc.
and their marbles named Patches or Rainbows
.)
VENTS:
interjection.
Same as
fen
; reported heard in Oklahoma. (CASSIDY.)
VENTURES (venture):
interjection.
Same as
fen
; reported heard in Kentucky and the Southern U. S.
(CASSIDY.)
VENTURES:
noun.
Same as fen.
Standard game term. (HARDER.)
VINCE (vinch):
interjection. Same as vence, (HARDER.) Reported
heard in Georgia. (CASSIDY.)
VITRO:
noun. Collectors’ slag for a marble manufactured by
the Vitro Agate Company, or the company itself.
VITRO AGATE COMPANY, THE:
proper name. A glass marble company founded in the
early 1930 in Parkersburg, West Virginia; the company made
mostly those marbles called Patches and then in the
mid-1950s got on the Cats-Eye band-wagon along with
all the other marble companies. One of the most
interesting and colorful marbles they made are called
Parrots by collectors (See
photo.) This company’s machines and equipment have
been bought and sold and shipped around the country a
number of times and are now at Jabo, Inc. (MARBLE ALAN.)
VODERY, JABEZ:
proper name. An early American manufacturer of
“pottery” marbles, “chinas” and carpet balls; these
marbles were hand-made in a fashion common at the time in
Germany. “In
1840 and for several years following Mr. Jabis Voder
manufactured clay marbles at East Liverpool, Ohio.” (Akron
Daily Beacon, August 3, 1888 - 4:4) Jeff Carskadden of
Zanesville, Ohio, author of numerous works in the fields
of archeology and marbles, discovered in records of
Vodery’s pottery that marbles sold and shipped. Carskadden
mentions some of his chains were painted and suggested
some of these chinas might have been made of white pipe
clay, a material Vodery used to make smoking pipes. In
those days marbles made of kaolin, pipe clay, etc. called
plasters, chalkies and chinas, by players (children)
suggest these types of marbles were available and
abundant. Daniel Beard, who grew up in Cincinnati,
Ohio in the pre-Civil War years, wrote about playing with
these types of marbles. (Carskadden 1.)
Mr. Jabez Vodery, East
Liverpool, Ohio 1847-?
Carskadden, Akron
Beacon 1888 Claim,
1840-and for several
years following Mr. Jabis Voder manufactured clay marbles
in East Liverpool O.
Back to Index
WALK:
interjection. “As in “Take a Walk.” When a player
walks through the ring in a match. He must give up one of
the marbles he has won if he does this.” (FERRETTI)
WATERS:
noun. A clear glass marble. (FERRETTI)
WEST VIRGINIA SWIRL MARBLE(S):
noun.
A collectors’ term; a general name given to a large number
of machine-made glass marbles manufactured by one of the
many West Virginia marble companies. These marbles often
defy easy identification to which company made them, being
that they appear so similar to marbles made by other
marble companies. (See photo)
WET MINT:
noun. A collectors’ term identifying the graded condition
of a toy marble; a state of perfection, showing no flaws
of any kind; having a superb polish to the glass surface,
as if the marble were wet. The origins of the term being,
when a marble is wet it almost always looks better than in
its dry condition; a term more or less unique to the hobby
of marble collecting. Also see, Mint.
WHIMSY:
noun. A glassworkers’ term used to define a simple,
playful item or object made in one’s spare time at work,
for personal use. In those marbleworks that employed
hand-gathering, occasionally a small amount of molten
glass was left over after a full run and this color was
added to another resulting in a few marbles with colors
that are radically different than those normally produced
for market. (See photo)
WILD, FOUND IN THE:
verb phrase. A collectors’ term; found in the
wild refers to a marble, or box of marbles not
obtained through a collector and unlikely to have ever
come in contact with another collector; eliminating the
possibilities that pervious owner tampered with the marble
or a box of marbles. Also a marble that comes to a
collector from a sources outside of normal channels, like
Ebay, that are frequented by other collectors. Sometimes
this also means the marbles was likely obtained at a low
cost.
WIND RULE:
noun. phrase. A term used in American marbles
tournament play, a rule. “If, during a shot and before all
marbles come to a complete stop, any marble set in motion
by the player's shot can be blown about the ring by the
wind. Target marbles blown out of the ring are credited to
that player. Any marbles not set in motion by the shot but
moved by the wind must be returned to the original spot.
If the original spot is not known the marble should be
returned to the center of the ring.”
WINNERS:
noun. Same as rider, rover; term published in 1899.
(HARDER.)
WOODIE:
noun. A wooden marble; rare; term used in Kentucky.
(CASSIDY.)
WRIGHT, MANFRED (FRED) M.:
proper name. An early mibologist and collector who
did the first in-depth historical research in the field of
toy marble making. The following is a biography he wrote
in 1979.
Born
in a Methodist Parsonage in Terre Haute, Ind., on April
22, 1915, son of Manfred Clinton and Orpha Maude Wright.
On November 20, 1941 he married Ellen Saul and they had a
son and adopted daughter. He graduated from Kendallville
High School in 1933, obtained a B.S. degree in Mechanical
Engineering from Purdue U. in 1937 and a M.S. degree in
Engineering; from I.U.P.U., Indianapolis, in 1969. He
worked as a Product Design engineer and as an Engineering
Staff Mgr. for Delco Electronics, Kokomo, Ind., where he
retired at the end of year 1976, after 38 years of
continuous employment by that firm, Mr. Wright has been
issued 19 U.S. Patents in the areas of gauging devices,
radio tuning devices,
and explosive weapons.
In 1945 he was the author of an Air Gauge Design
Manual for dimensional gauging fixtures. In 1953 he was
co‑author with J. H. Guyton of a Classified Paper Study
for the U.S. Defense Department. A classified Patent was a
by‑product of this Study. In 1953 he was a co-author of a
paper presented by W.R. Kearney, "Straight Line
Mechanisms", at the 2nd Conference on Mechanisms at Purdue
University which was later published in Machine Design
magazine. In 1973 he was co‑author with Mary Ellen Harnish
of a historical booklet entitled "Monroe Seiberling's
Mansion", published by the Howard County Historical
Society of Kokomo, Ind.
Mr. Wright’s interest in toy marbles and marble collecting
began in the late 1950s, when he purchased the toy marble
collection of Dr. Henry D. Watson
of Binghamton, New York, from his estate. He was
able to meet and interview many of the American marblemen
found in the historical record. In Akron, Ohio Mr. Wright
meet, interviewed and purchased numerous toy marbles from
Carl H. Pockrandt, who had extensive knowledge of Akron’s
toy marble industry.
WRONG SHOOTER:
noun. phrase. A term used in American marbles
tournament play, a rule. “If a player shoots with a
shooter not used in the lag, or shots with an opponent's
shooter, or a target marble, or any marble other than what
he or she started the game with, the turn is then
forfeited. Any target marble(s) that were knocked out
that turn must be returned to their previous place(s)
before the shot. If that spot cannot be found to the
satisfaction of the referee then they are returned to the
center of the ring.”
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YANK, THE:
noun. A marbles game; same as Yankee. (HARPER’S
1886)
YANKEE: noun. A
marbles game; as played in New York in 1886; the same
game, or very similar rules as Fat, Pati, Patterson.
(HARPER’S 1886.) View the game
Yankee.
YELLOW WARE MARBLES:
noun. The clay in and around Akron, Ohio can often
appear yellowish in color. As that area had an extensive
ceramics industry, the largest in the US in 1900, the
goods manufactured in his area where sometimes referred to
as yellowware due to the color of the clay. Many
common clay marbles, or commies, are therefore
yellowish in color.
YELLOWSTONE MARBLES:
noun. A marble described in 1855 as having “beautiful
spots or circles of black or brown.” (Francis.)
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ZEBRAS:
noun. “A glass marble with white and black swirls.
Common in New York City, rare elsewhere. Prized as
shooters.” (FERRETTI) A shooter marble with contrasting
colors like a zebra allows a player to easily see
the direction of spin on their shooter.
ZULU GOLF:
noun. “One of the many terms for games in which
players shoot into a series of holes dug into the
ground.” (FERRETTI)
Bibliography
Akron Daily Journal, newspaper,
Akron, Ohio (2 terms.)
Albright, J. E., personal
correspondence with
MG Wright, September 3, 1963. (1 term.)
Appleton, George S., Boy’s Own
Book of Sports, Leavitt & Allen, New York, 1848 (4
terms)
Beard, Daniel C.; The Outdoor Handy
Book, Charles Scriber’s Sons, New York, 1896 -
continues in publication to present. (20 terms)
Francis, C.S., Boys Own Book,
Extended, New York & Boston, 1855, p 9. (6 terms)
Carsadden, Jeff, Chinas,
Muskingum Valley Archeological Survey, Zanesville, Ohio,
1990. (5 terms)
Carsadden, Jeff, Colonial Period and Early 19th-Century
Children’s Toy Marbles, Muskingum Valley Archeological
Survey, Zanesville, Ohio, 1998. (4 terms)
Cassidy, Frederick; Report on a
Recent Project of Collecting, Publication of the
American Dialect Society, No. 29, April 1958, pp. 19-41.
(137 terms)
Combs, Josiah H.; More Marble Words,
Publication of the American Dialect Society, No. 23. April
1955, pp 33-34 (5 terms)
Ferretti, Fred; The Great
American Marble Book, Workingman Publishing Company,
New York, 1973 (23 terms)
Harder, Kelsie B.; The Vocabulary
of Marble Playing, Publication of the American Dialect
Society, No. 23. April 1955, pp 3-33 (144 terms)
HARPER’S 1886, Marbles As Played
In New York, Harper’s Young People, Vol. VII, March
23, 1886, p 334 (2 terms)
Marble Alan, http://www.marblealan.com/
(9 terms)
Otis, James; Games with Marbles,
Harpers Young Peoples, Vol. III.
March 21, 1882, pg 331 (1
term)
Patten, George; Marbles,
Appleton’s Journal: A Magazine of General Literature;
August 14, 1869, vol. 1, iss. 20, p. 630 (7 terms)
Play Ground, The ; Out-Door Games
for Boys,
Dick & Fitzgerald, Publishers, New York, 1866 (12 terms)
Sackett, S. J.; Marble Words From
Hays Kansas, Publication of the American Dialect
Society, No. 37, April 1962, p 1-3. (16 terms)
Steele, James L., Marble Lore,
Outing Magazine, New York, May 1901, p 203-208. (29 terms)
Roberts, A.W., Marbles and Where
They Come From, Harpers Young People, 1883 (2
term)
Runyan, Cathy C.; Knuckles Down!,
Right Brian Publishing, Kansas City, Missouri, 1985 (1
term)
Zuger, John A.; Technical Terms in
the Game of Marbles, American Speech, University of
North Dakota, 1954, pg 74,75 ( 21 terms)
1006 defined terms.
488 terms cited from published works
246 terms from the four Publications of the American
Dialect Society