How Marbles are Made
They are now
manufactured in immense quantities in Saxony for exportation
to the United States, India, and China. The common marble is
manufactured of hard stone quarried near Coburg, Saxony, and
the process is practically the same as that used by nature
in grinding out the little round pebbles originally used by
the children of long ago.
Nature,
though constantly busy, is slow. We do not want to wait a
thousand or maybe a million years for her to get our marbles
ready. Our fingers might be too old to shoot with them, so
we adopt nature's principles, but make more haste. In place
of frost man uses a hammer to break the stone into
fragments.
The hammer
breaks the hard stone into small squares, or, more properly,
cubical shaped blocks. These are placed on a large millstone
one hundred or two hundred at a time. The millstone has
several grooves cut in it in the form of rings, one ring
inside another, or, as your Geometry would put it, in the
form of concentric circles. Over this a block of oak of the
same size as the lower stone rests on the small square
fragments and is kept turning while water flows upon the
bottom stone.
Power is
supplied by a water-wheel, and when the machinery is set in
motion the little cubes are compelled, by the pressure and
motion of the upper piece, to roll over and over in their
circular tracks, and round and round and round they travel
like circus horses in a ring. In fifteen minutes' time the
mill does what nature takes years to accomplish, and the
little blocks of stone are turned into small stone balls.
These are the unfinished marbles and need smoothing.
One such
mill can turn out two thousand marbles a week, and if there
are four or five sets of millstones running, eight thousand
or ten thousand a week can be manufactured.
In another
part of the establishment the water-wheel turns a number of
wooden barrel-shaped receptacles, something like the copper
ones used for making candy in this country. Inside the
wooden casks are hard stone cylinders. These revolving
cylinders smooth the marbles, which are compelled by the
motion of the machinery to keep up a constant rubbing
against each other and against the stone cylinder. When they
are smooth enough the dust made by the last process is
emptied from the casks and fine emery powder substituted.
This gives finish and polish to the marble.
Common Marbles
The small,
gray marbles are what the Western boys call "commies" or
"combos." They are often painted bright colors, but the
paint soon wears off and they look like little dried clay
balls. They are not much valued, and five " commies "
usually represent the value of one " plaster."
The Century
Dictionary gives an "alley" as one of the definitions of a
marble. On what ground it bases this information I am unable
to state. "Agate," "meg," "duck" or "real" would be just as
good a definition. " Meg " or " duck " would be better,
inasmuch as, in different sections of the country, both of
these terms are used to define marbles of any description;
while "alley " in almost all parts of the country means a
particular kind of marble.
The Alley
In some
parts of Ohio and Kentucky the marble designated by the
latter name is a small, hard sphere with a yellowish-white
ground, streaked with wavy lines of bluish green. These are
not the same as the " Croton alley " or “Jasper " of New
York. The latter, I believe, are made of glazed and unglazed
china marbled with blue, and are generally larger marbles
than the so-called alleys of the West.
The China and Plaster
In
Cincinnati and the adjoining cities of Covington and
Newport, Ky., a china is what its name implies-china. This
term, when I was a boy, was used only to designate a glazed
china; the unglazed ones we called plasters, from their
resemblance to that substance.
Both of the
latter marbles are decorated with lines of various colors,
sometimes crossing each other, forming plaids, and again
arranged in circles and called bull's eyes. They are made in
wooden molds and are dried, baked, and painted like any
other chinaware.
The Bumbo and Peawee
"Bumbo," "bumboozer"
or "bowler" are names applied to very large marbles of any
description. A " peawee " is the name used for any very
small marble.
Crystals
is a general name applied in many parts
of the country to all glass marbles, including "opals,"
"glimmers," "bloods," "rubies," etc. They are all very
beautiful, but their beauty is only skin deep, and when used
much they become dull and full of nicks. Some of these glass
marbles are called "agates " in the East, and hence the
genuine agate is called a " real," to distinguish it from
the counterfeit glass one. Glass marbles are made by melting
the glass and pressing the hot substance in polished metal
molds, the halves of which fit so neatly that no trace of a
seam or line is visible on the glass to mark where the parts
of the mold join.
The "Lucky Taw"
Our lucky
taw, or the marble we used when a skilful shot was required,
was carefully selected for its, weight and symmetry, and was
generally an agate or real:" Agates are beautiful gems of
agate or carnelian, varying in color from a smoky gray to a
blood red, or variegated with mottlings or stripes of
different colors. Agates are made into marbles at Oberstein.
The workmen are very skilful. The stone is first broken into
fragments of the proper size, and then, by means of a
hammer, clipped into rude balls; these balls are then worn
down on the face of a large grindstone, and are managed with
great dexterity by the workmen, who in a few minutes bring
them into perfect spheres, after which they are polished by
hand on lapidary wheels.
Cunny Thumb or Scrumpy
Knuckled
If Little
Lord Fauntleroy played marbles, any boy could tell you how
he would shoot. He would hold his hand vertically; place his
taw or shooter against his thumb-nail and his first finger.
He would shoot "cunny thumb style," or “scrumpy knuckled."
The thumb would flip out weakly (Fig. 5), and the marble
would roll on its way.
Tom Sawyer would lay the back of his fist on the ground or
on his mole-skin " knuckle dabster," hold his taw between
the first and second joints of the second finger and the
first joint of the thumb, the three smaller fingers closed
and the first finger partially open (Fig. 6). From this
animated ballista the marble would shoot through the air for
four or five feet, alighting on one of the ducks in the
middle of the ring, sending it flying outside, while the taw
would spin in the spot vacated by the duck. Tom or Huck Finn
would display as much skill with his taw as an expert
billiard player would with the ivory balls.
A Southern Way
Down in
Dixie I have frequently seen grown men, white and black,
playing marbles, and one or two of the expert players held
their taw on their second finger, holding the second finger
back with their thumb; then suddenly removing the thumb and
straightening out the finger, they sent the marble, like a
bullet, straight to the mark. This manner of shooting must
require much practice, and I doubt if it is more accurate
than the one just described as Tom's method. Some boys,
skilful in the game, squeeze the marble they shoot with
between the thumb and the forefinger, wetting it with their
mouth to make it slip quickly.
The Arabian Way of
Shooting
The 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.
There are
innumerable games of marbles in vogue in different sections
of the country. I have watched the boys play in every State
east of the Mississippi River, and between the Gulf of
Mexico and the Great Northern Lakes, and will describe the
most popular games.
|