Steph

In the photo it looks like there is a significant amount of green in that base. Is that accurate in hand?

Welllll ... I found it. But not in the couch. While taking a breather, I searched for the rest of the set to show my husband what this whole escapade was about. I found the set where I remembered putting it three years earlier -- in a shelf, in its original mailer, which also contained an open Chinese Checkers box full of Japanese pinchers which I had acquired at the same time from the same seller. And nestled on the edge of the green row of pinchers was the missing green fiber optic marble. I never did drop it in the couch after all. I dropped it back into the mailer. I only imagined that it dropped into the side of the couch and I only imagined that I saw it dropping further down as I reached for it. At least that's what I'm telling myself. My husband assures me there is no such thing as poltergeists who find lost marbles and return them to their mailers while I am not looking.

What's the craziest thing you've done to retrieve a lost marble? Three years ago I got a set of peewee fiber optic marbles in various colors. What's the first thing I do? Drop one down the side of the couch. And I couldn't find it again when I felt around for it. I didn't have enough room at the time to turn the couch up on its end to try to get it out, so for three years I've been conscious of needing to get that marble out if we ever decided to get rid of the couch. Wellll .... Sunday was the day of reckoning. Time to send the couch to the dump. So time to get the marble out. So I stripped the couch down to the skeleton. Just to find a tiny round bit of fiber optic glass.

cub scouts, marbles and kitties ... does it get better than that?

grrrr ... can't figure out how to turn on the flash .... ..... one of these days ........

I would not guess Vacor for those. If I remember correctly, Vacors are in clear with a single color ribbon. Well, Vacors do have varieties with three colors of ribbons. Still I don't remember any such as yours.

When you said the white glowed I was mildly hopeful for Christensen. However, the glowing one's white isn't as pure as the white on the non-glowing ones and supposedly Christensen has a very bright white. So my general guess now would be Alley for all. Don't trust that guess though. It's a shaky one. I did just get back from checking my Alley box though and I have some white or near-white which glows green.

Ah, thanks.

So not to beat a dead horse, but I'm still not sure what fluoresces. The white base turns green? The clear areas turn green? I'll step back now to get out of the way for someone who might have answers, not questions.

Green? Now I'm a little confused. Is the base green? Or is the base white and turns green?

Only the small one fluoresces? Which color fluoresces?

That would mean they kept the same design gift box for more than 15 years. Maybe more than 20 counting the time from when the design first appeared to the time when Rainbows were available. That doesn't mesh with the feeling I get from Berry Pink. I'd think he wanted something fresh and modern. Yes, the Big Value box appears to have been available for that long. I would imagine that the exception rather than the rule. Also, the Big Value box was still advertised as being for sale throughout all those years. Well, I have my answer. I was curious whether anyone thought it plausible that the boxes might originally have been stocked with Marble Kings. Now I know some do. If I find any ads from after Rainbows started being made maybe I'll add them.

From Pic magazine, July 25, 1939, Champion boxes. Here is a price list is from 1940 or early 1941. It's part of a flyer which quotes a 1940 article and speaks of plans for a 1941 tournament. I think the No. 25 Marble King gift box would be what one of the Champion boxes switched to.

Found this while I was tooling around looking for Berry Pink stuff. Not the same one but still fun.

When I started typing this post, I didn't remember any dates. But while looking for a box which someone got empty and wanted to fill properly, I found some dates. So anyway, yes, it was my thought that they all predate the mid-1950's or whenever it was that Marble King started making Rainbows. (Howdyshell in his interview in AMMM said they started veneering in 1956 or 1957.) If I got one with Marble Kings in it, I wouldn't remove them. However, I would suspect they were backfilled. If a lot are found that way, my guess would be that this was because so few people have known what was supposed to go in them. I could see people changing the Pelts out because they just didn't know that Berry Pink was jobbering for Peltier when these boxes were made. The 1953 ad I linked to above doesn't list them. AMMM shows a 1954 ad which looks like the 1953 ad. I think maybe I've seen a 1955 ad which looks roughly the same. Not sure where I would have that one. Probably a paper copy which I have stored in a box. Gotta index that box. It's the one filled with goodies from George. Okay, next post will have some dated material showing the Champion version at least. Think I might also have something which says Marble King on it. Not sure. Gonna take a minute to look. Be right back.

"flower" ... new marble word to me Thanks for the eye candy.

I'm not inclined to believe that happened. However, I'm interested in whether others think it's likely, so thanks. Here is the kind of packaging which I think all three of those makers might be able to be found in: Marble King ad from 1953 with Alleys Peltier and MK did share marbles during the poly bag years, so I would be intrigued but not completely surprised to see MKs in a poly bag with Champion or Champion Jr. on it. I would be surprised to find MKs in leftover Champion or Champion Jr. mesh bags.

That's adorable! Nice find.

Ah. Well, still interesting!

Fun clay.

I got the 3 minute figure from a newspaper article I was uncomfortable linking. But judge it based on the times it was from. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=18920131&id=1KMhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QZgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5665,3749224

Three November 1941 articles archived at Joemarbles.com, from Hobbies: The Magazine For Collectors. Old Glass Marbles, by Thelma Shull Marble Collecting, by Violet Bramer Smith Notes On Marble History, by Mrs. Mary Metzerott

Summary: The Akro technology was stolen from M.F. Christensen by Horace Hill in 1912. Hill had the audacity to try to patent the stolen machinery. His application was turned back once for not being sufficiently different from MFC's. He tweaked it and tried again and was finally granted a patent but not a very broad patent. He only got credit for a small change. Almost all the elements of the mechanical creation of spheres, both glass and otherwise, were already well-established. So in 1927, the court ultimately said that Peltier's machine did not fall into the narrow zone which Hill's patent covered. Peltier was using M.F. Christensen technology possibly with Peltier's own tweaks, not the tweaks introduced by Hill.

These aren't the first or best articles I've seen but they'll start the thread. 1975 (Enjoying the candle swirls)