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] . . .”
