Steph

Is sodium polyacrilate a mineral?

Marbles #4

3 Milky Oxbloods

From what century?

lol,lol,lol.....

You made me smile Ray.

It's a mineral marble but the game is to find out what type?

Then the story behind the marble - it is one I find most interesting and it is a true story too.

Come on Steph, Galen and the mod from Canada, join in on the fun and play with me!

The mod from Canada? LOL. If you're going to call someone out, at least learn their name! rofl

I wanted to share - these are what I obtained at my show.... Like any of them?

Marble #1 - Vitro Modified Tri Lite

Unusual heavy threading and a good ecxample of a hybrid I feel

Looks like a conqueror to me.

oh no!!!!!!!

interesting idea

Hope you're having a blast!

One of the ads with 'red'. Maybe from 1912. Mentions six colors though says five. They tried to squeeze a lot in.

(click to enlarge)

Just noticed it says Dept. D where yours says Dept. B. Whatever that might mean.

I would like to just chirp in for a minute. Please be very careful if burning and smelling fumes. Many of the good old people in the plastic industry are now suffering with health issues because the quick old fashioned way to determine different plastics was to light it until it flamed, then blow it out and inhale and smell the smoke (fumes). If you have been in the industry long enough you can learn the smells of different plastics. Now we know of chemicals that are bad, yet in the old days no-one knew. Be careful please. This is why we now have equipment to smell and do analysis for us.

SNYD

Thanks for the advice!

(And thanks for your extensive help on this one, John.)

Rosin Balls, kind of catchy

yes. lol.

In those day's every toy manufacturer has his own secret recipe for a composite to make for toys.

Germany has made many toys of a certain composite,such as dolls,toy soldiers,items for doll houses etc...

Here we call it simple composition or sometimes Gutta percha.

Makes sense.

I'm not going to go on a campaign to get people to stop calling them gutta percha. It's just interesting to learn more about them whatever they're called.

Wow. What a treasure.

... and Lineol is another new word for me.

Wowza!

Yeah, I got the impression that Elastolin was associated specifically with toy soldiers. But didn't want to pull it out of consideration unless I was sure. The lab guys were asked about whether the material could be "sawdust, a glue such as casein, and clay (kaolin)" (the description of Elastolin from Wikipedia) and they said that would be in line with what their read-outs were saying.

I got back in touch with Snyd. He is sure that no polymer at all is present. A clay base in the rosin to hold the wood and fiber together is still a possibility. Not all old materials are identified with present day equipment. He gave me a nice lesson on what rosin would have meant in the old days. It could be made in different ways. Locals would use what was easy to get and workable, and probably not edible as food was scarce and valuable and not for use in making toys. So pinning down the material might require knowing where the ball was made and what local trees and clays there were.

We recently discussed some marbles which looked like this. This one was put into boiling water which softened it so that pieces could be pinched off. The pieces were sent in for laboratory tests.

The conclusion about this one, if I understand correctly, is that it is not a polymer material. Rather, it is a cellulose material with wood and some rosin. That would mean it is not gutta-percha since gutta-percha is a latex, which is a polymer emulsion. (Again if I understand correctly.)

The question now is, do you have any ideas what the name of the material might have been? Or any names at all for any old materials which you even suspect might be related. For example, the name Elastolin has been suggested. Any others?

I'm not clear on whether this mib has any clay in it. Need to double check. Maybe Snyd will weigh in.

A few wiki links for perusal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastolin

If I had them in hand, I would try to get a grip (lol) on the structure of the swirl.

In the 2nd pic, the 1st marble looks like it might be showing a vacor-like cutline. Maybe I'm imagining it, or maybe CAC's could have that kind of cut too. But those are the features I'd be focusing on for now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366069/Schoolboy-Caleb-Tenenbaum-creates-breathtaking-photos-using-clear-marble.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Life through a marble.

Nifty!

What do the others it came with look like? I think the first could be Vacor also.

Some Vacors Albert posted at LOM:

I guess China too because of the clear not being yellowish and the frit on the exterior seems too colorful as if it were not old.

Not old? Approximately how new do you have in mind?

I would have guessed relatively old even if it did turn out to be from China.

First picture, top left, probably has a name. But it's one I wouldn't want to try to give. Reddish ribbons on whitish bases shouldn't be too intimidating, but there seem to be quite a few pelt names for mibs with that general description.

I'd like our current glass artists to try to replicate those.

... just to figure out how it could have been done .....

But then that would mess with the market. So maybe it's best for it to remain a mystery.

That half red / half blue fingers-type cat is different.

(lol - don't mean to just focus on your cats. Thanks for all the eye candy! )

Wow!!! What a beaut! Awesome movement in the ribbons.

Hi glas. Thanks for putting your 2 bits in! ( :

This is what I came up with awhile back. Quoting straight from an old post. (Jill is the Jill Spencer, the Marble Queen.)

The copperhead name seems to have stuck on a marble with purple in it.

Here's one from Alan's site and a pair from Jill's.

Jill says they have a band of transparent copper glass but it's usually missing. And if it's present it's going to be fractured. They couldn't be marketed because they couldn't take a hit.

Another option is sending them to Marblealan if he's still taking new consignments.

Then you don't have to worry about pix or grading or nuthin'.

How do others grade here? Do you intentionally grade to be on the safe side like I do, super exact and maybe have to deal with someone who isn't happy with your grading even if you are in the right, or push the envelope since people seem to like the words, mint?

But since you asked ... I used to grade super safe. Few of my marbles made it to mint when I listed them. But then I got feedback from a respected buyer and learned that what I was calling NM+ he called "wet mint with a couple of subsurface sparkles". I got a little more feedback from a couple of other people who thought the marbles they received were mint. So I felt okay to upgrade a little. Then I ran out of marbles to sell.