Steph

Thank you. I never would have guessed the stripeys were so early. Winnie said that she had a for sure pre-WWII box of marbles with them, but still I couldn't wrap my head around it. These days my memory is not serving me very well but I will try to make a place for this.

Wow. Way to nail down a date. Gorgeous pictures too.

Fun find!

Awww. Good job.

Like why did they pay Christensen so much for his patent? 0_o And how did I get the idea that he made such great bearings so efficiently? Oh well, he got the money, we got the marbles, and I had a magical bike ride beside my lake.

Zounds!

I know ball bearings existed before his patent. But I thought his process was considered a quantum leap up from the older versions. More reliably round, lower cost, and possibly better physical integrity. Do you have reason to believe that his improvement/variation was not employed in manufacturing ball bearings?

The money he made from the ball bearing patent allowed him to retire from his previous profession and start his marble business. Now that would have been an interesting series of thoughts and discussions ... following how Martin came up with the idea of going into marbles and making the marbles in a way that no one else had ever done before.

I am riding my bike home tonight, alongside Lake Michigan. At night, it is like a time machine and I think about the people who lived and worked beside this massive body of water 100 or more years ago. But since I am going by bike I tried to conjure up a circa 1900 version ... and I thought of the circa 1900 ball bearings somewhere in the bike .... And I heard myself say, "Thank you, Mr. Christensen." Because M. F. Christensen revolutionized the manufacture of ball bearings before he applied his genius to the rounding of glass. Okay, not so funny. Lol. But it amused me. 😜

Fun river finds. Nice imperial display! Welcome to our happy band!

Thinking Akro corkscrew here.

I am trying to make out whether this marble has seams like a Peltier or if it's a swirl that just happened to fold this way. If it is a swirl and if it is vintage then I will say Alley.

One vote for Peltier.

I would be a wild plum tree in some slightly remote location where whoever knew my location felt that I was their own secret treasure.

They were called imitation agates.