Marbles

     These small spherical toys are often from glass, clay (crock marbles or commies, short for common), steel, plastic, or agate (a type of rock). If they were steel (actually ball bearings, they were called a "steely". In my youth clay marbles were extremely rare and plastic marbles had not yet been invented. 

     Marbles vary in size; they are: peewee ones, ones you might call a normal size, shooters and then giant ones that used to be called "boulders". The three smallest sizes of marbles are about 1/2 inch diameter, 9/16 of an inch diameter and 5/8 of an inch diameter. The 1/2 inch marbles are slightly smaller than a Chinese checker marble and are not used in official games. The 9/16 of an inch marble is used most often for Chinese checkers. The 5/8 of an inch size is the kind most used in marble games and as decoration. 

     In official marble competitive the 3/4 inch marble is known as a "shooter." Each player needs only two or three shooters for competitions. Outside the North America, 1-inch marbles are sometimes used as shooters. Large marbles are uncommon in competition unless the players have made modifications to the rules. 

     Marbles over an inch in size are not are not allowed in standard games. Marbles larger than 2 inches are rarely used in official games. They are usually made by artists who specialize in marble art. The large size lends itself to elaborate designs. You can get involved in this hobby by visiting HERE. 

     Marbles are made using many techniques, but they are either hand-made or machine-made. Marbles were originally made by hand and were fashioned by grinding. Glass marbles can be fashioned through the production of glass rods which are stacked together to form the desired pattern, cutting the rod into marble-sized pieces using marble scissors, and rounding the still-malleable molten glass. 

     One mechanical technique is dropping globules of molten glass into a groove made by two interlocking parallel screws. As the screws rotate, the marble travels along them, gradually being shaped into a sphere as it cools. Color is added to the main batch glass and to additional glass streams that are combined with the main stream in a variety of ways. Cat's-eye marbles have colored glass veins injected into a transparent main stream. Applying more expensive colored glass to the surface of cheaper transparent or white glass is also a common technique.

     Currently, the world's largest manufacturer of playing marbles is Vacor de Mexico. Founded in 1934, the company now makes 90 percent of the world's marbles. Over 12 million are produced daily. 

 

There are many different types of marble games: 

Knuckles down, or when I was a kid, knuckles down tight, where the knuckles have to be on the ground. 

Quitsies and no quitsies...a player can stop the game any time with no consequences. 

Keepsies...players keep all the marbles they win. This was always played back when I was a kid. Big winners would walk around the playground showing off their large bag of marbles. One snobbish rich girl relished flaunting a shoe box full of marbles which she did not win because she never played; her parents bought them for her. We despised her. 

Elephant stomps allows a player to stomp their marble level with the ground surface, making it very difficult for other players to hit. 

Bombies allows a player to take one or two steps while holding thier marble and, while closing one eye, will line up over one of the opponent's marble and drop the marble trying to hit the one on the ground. 

Leaning tops is when a shooter leans in on their off hand for leverage over an indentation on any type of surface or obstacle.