Ric

Jolly Green Giant

A very nice group!

Wow, a warrior, for sure. You almost have to respect a marble that takes such a beating. Somebody had all kinds of fun with that one. Here's another I just couldn't part with. Does anyone have an idea about the relative rarity of various types of bricks . . . Akro, MFC, Black, Green, etc?

Too bad too, It was a killer in its day (11/16").

More Heatons . . .

No doubt, Bob, I am a confirmed nerd. Here's an appropriate application of the conservation of momentum: And it works remarkably well, with one or two marbles.

Those are nice, Bill. The first two are killer. Do you still have that little jobber box full?

Newton's Cradle, I have only seen the steel balls too, but any balls of sufficient mass would work. I actually have an old marble bagatelle that utilizes the same principle to shoot one marble at a time from the top of stack.

Well, I learned something else new: If you highlight text in a post you wish to respond to, a quote button shows up and when you click on it, it includes only the highlighted text in your response. This is much easier than the old system where you would get the entire post in the quote box and then have to delete the parts you didn't need. As for haircuts . . . You are my kind of guy, Bob. I do pay for haircuts, but only once a year ($5). Because, I don't really give a bleep what my hair looks like either. Now, having said that, I suppose you've still saved $75 more than me over the past 25 years.

Hi Al, Do you happen to know where the Gropper bags with Cairos sold?

Bob, When I post a "direct" photobucket link into the input area and press return, the image shows up. Then I can add more text or whatever before posting. Maybe it's a browser thing - I use Firefox. And I do remember when WYS was not WYG - yeah, I guess I'm not exactly young anymore. As for spacing . . . just type, type, type until you want a new paragraph and then hit 'enter' to add a line between them. Are you still running CP/M-80 or something? lol.

I have seen those somewhere before. I assume it says Alox somewhere on the packaging? I've seen one of the machines they used to make the laces. They were sort of a marvel back in the day.

As is Francis.

Alox marbles are tough, since they bought a lot of marbles from others even early on. I seem to recall that when the factory building and contents were auctioned off there were a lot of old bags and headers sold but not many (if any) marbles. So some of these bags were likely back-filled by others. There are also reproduction headers around. And if I remember right, there is some small difference in the Alox Mfg - St. Louis line that you can use to tell them apart - sorry I don't remember the details.

Hi Winnie, Those are nice Rainbos - I like the clear-based ones too. I think I have heard them referred to as Fruit Cocktails but I could be wrong. If I am, I am sure someone will let me know.

Perhaps it was Eugénie and simply misspelled in some places? Have you ever seen her name spelled any other way?

Nice pic, Bob. It is other-worldly. As for a preview, I think the post input box is pretty much WYSIWYG.

It's Darwin Day tomorrow. This is probably one of the more well known pages from his notebooks. If you are interested in his life and work, Darwin Online is the place to go.

. . . a dandy marble, for sure.

I have no pics but I have seen similarly packaged cat's eyes in a Dollar General store within the last year or so, and I have a similar bag (from K-Mart, I think) buried in a box around here somewhere (probably 1970s). Both contain Asian cat eyes, so it seems like this sort of packaging has been around for quite a good while.

If you are referring to old German swirls, here are some pics from a google search:

Excellent article. Do you know the year of publication?

And a nice little hand-faceted agate too - just for fun. And an FYI: Apparently you can just paste a link to a picture in the message and the pic will show - no need to go through the 'insert other media' tab.

Dang job-stealing technology!

I found this (5/8") together with a bunch of old agates, German swirls and clays. I think it is polished natural yellow limestone with manganese banding (Gartley and Carskadden, p. 105 & Fig. 53). According to the authors, it appears the stone "was being used for marble making in the second and third decades of the 19th century, and perhaps even later." They also claim, " . . . not many of these marbles are found on archaeological sites or in private collections". Does anyone have a feel for how common they are? Does anyone else have examples to share? Thanks for any input!