Steph

Hey! I finally figured out how to use the Wayback Machine at Archive.org! Check it out! Pete's pastel page edit: That was further back than I knew. Here's the version I remember, the one which mentions the different types - single seam, double seam or handgather: later version

I have a 1990 "travel tip" sort of news article for an item called The Sea Band. Wrist bands with a marble in each one. Pressure applied to the "Nei Kuan point" was supposed to take care of motion sickness. Ah, I see it is still around. And still has a marble, or something marble-like. oh boy, probably need to index these someday. It's getting tuff to keep track of what's already been posted. And I know there are still more to come. I have at least one more to track down in my files to check the particulars before I post it .

Oh yeah, those are some good bubbles. Pic #2 shows the holes off great! like blue swiss cheese!

Hi Craig. Here's mine which I posted once for ID. It's opaque with transparent rivulets. It has a single seam. It went from being not a CAC to being a good candidate. I've matched the blue with known CACs in hand so I feel pretty good about it. More views: (click on link for larger version) http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o151/modularforms/CAC/PaleBlueSingleSeam_B.jpg I think the LOM page which featured Ken's box is gone. The old link doesn't work. What I THINK I remember reading about his is that the box contained three types: some handgathered, some single seam, some two seam.

(click to enlarge) thanks -s

Hard to present this without speculating but I'll try to keep the speculating at a minimum. Here are some stray things I've learned about shipping of old. As you know, it was the lifeline of many nations. There appears to have been much law dedicated to definitions and profitability of all aspects of it, including ballast. Hard for me to sort through the old discussions because they get very technical very fast. Ins and outs of freights and duties and the best ways to get things from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast and vice versa, not to mention international commerce issues. Naturally the legislators, manufacturers, unions, lobbyists and reporters knew the background so they didn't have to repeat the basics for my benefit. lol But some of what I think I have learned: Trade deficits had a different meaning in the olden days than they have now. There were times when the U.S. was exporting more in volume than it imported. A ship based in the U.S. might sail full to Europe or to some remote island but it might not have anything scheduled for pickup to bring back to the U.S. If a U.S. manufacturer had to pay for shipping both ways to get their product one way, then that was not cool. Also after the manufacturer's goods were offloaded, the ship could be virtually empty and it couldn't sail that way. There would have to be something weighty loaded for the return voyage. If it could be something which the ship owner might turn into a little profit at the end of the voyage, that would be in both his interest and the interest of the manufacturer who paid for the first leg of the journey, and the interest of all the consumers having to absorb the cost of the manufacturer's goods. Basically, it was in the interest of most people to have full, profitable ships. But when one law was made to "fix" things, someone found a way to make it profitable and someone else wanted part of the pie, (edit: or someone found it oppressive), and more laws were made. and on and on. Right now I'm seeing lots of references to non-commercial ballast. Almost as if once upon a time, ballast might have been able to be "recycled" at the end of a trip, with some sort of profit to the shipper. But I don't have confirmation of that. What I do have is a few references to such things as pig iron and salt as useful ballast items with some potential commercial value. The sort of stuff warehouses might have on hand, and might export if there was room, yet wouldn't worry about if there wasn't room. No urgency. The marble chips of the type which were turned into play marbles were also useful as ballast. Sometimes that was mentioned as a non-commercial type of ballast, the type which could simply be dumped from the ship in order to make room for new cargo. Another neat factoid is that as more and more cable was laid enabling communication between different ports, the issue of empty ships became less of a problem. People at intermediate stops could be notified that there was empty space they could use if wanted. etc. So the main marble-related speculation is: did toy marbles fall into that category? The category of dually functional ballast (or other word but similar concept), valuable both for its weight and for its continuing usability at the other end of the trip. I am posting this here and now because I have another article to post soon, one which mentions ballast but isn't mostly about ballast. I'll be posting in a different thread hoping the ballast issue doesn't make it sink. (sorry that was a bad one.lol) I do care about the ballast issue, so here is where I'm discussing it. And I welcome anything else anyone knows or finds out about this sort of cheap freight concept as it might or might not have existed before 1950 or so. I don't know if/when I will be able to find out more about it. Thanks.

Dang, he's almost as cute as my cats. Bet he's almost as fun too. lol Now I want one! A marble roller I mean. Grandson is probably not an option considering I don't have kids. Hey, there's a "more options" button at the bottom of this reply window. What would that do? Nope, still no grandsons. I guess I'll settle for a marble roller.

:-) LOL. No problem. Just a glitch. I wrote the seller to tell them of our interest in the history of German machine mades and to ask for the name of the company or any information they could share. That was 3 days ago now. I haven't heard back. I wouldn't blame someone for not wanting to give out information like that. There could be many reasons to not answer, not the least of which is that I'm a stranger and they would want to protect their source for the marbles.

The 1970's June 1, 1974: the company closes. Feb. 25, 1975: Clinton Israel passes away after a brief illness.

The 1960's

The 1950's Ebay Slow for Some Things... - some of Don's boxes with Lion's club campaign ads.

The 1940's cont.

1941 -- The company reorganizes Master Glass is incorporated under the sole ownership of Clinton F. Israel

1930's cont.

1933 - 1934 -- the Worlds Fair in Chicago The big coup! Their famous House of Marbles: Several types of packaging, some famous, some less so: Steve's (n2marbles') bag: (click to enlarge) TO BE CONTINUED

Year? (if I read correctly prices are significantly higher than in the 1932 list above) (click to enlarge) . . .

1933 (click to enlarge) . . .

1932 (click pix to enlarge) . . . better detail on the Ritzy bag:

1931 This Master ad is from Jan 1931. I never would have guessed from the wording how early that was in the company's history. They have only been shipping for 3 or 4 months at this point but the ad is written as if they have an established track record of sales. "Preferred above all others by the marble-shooting 'stars' of boydom". Charming audacity! (click to enlarge)

1930 The company was founded by Akro employees Clinton Israel, Claude Grimmett and John Moulton. John Early joined them soon. It opened in May and started shipping marbles in October.

1951 During part of the year former Akro employees Akro is sold at auction on April 24, 1951. For part of the year former employees use the facilities to make some "general line items", but supposedly not marbles. The name under which they worked was the Clarksburg Glass Company. (AMMM, p. 10). Here is a May 8 news release pertaining to what the property may have been used for next. (click to enlarge)

The earliest outright "marble king" = "marble champ" reference I have is 1922. I have a very close one from 1916, which indicates the name might have been around for decades before that. I also have earlier "marble king" references for children but they're more along the lines of a pun and it's not clear what the original inspiration for the pun would have been. I would like to get my hands on the OED entry but haven't yet. Anyway, though the following are still within Pink's lifetime they are before he would have had an influence on how marbles were discussed in newspapers. in my opinion. :-) In 1920 Berry was a silk salesman. Since MFC had gone out of business, the only American company making glass marbles until something like 1925 would have been Akro. That's one of the few companies he seems never to have claimed to be responsible for. LOL. In 1930 he was an exec with the Rosenthal rubber company. When he started working for Rosenthal his options for marbles would have been severely limited. Peltier had Gropper to jobber for them. Alley didn't start making marbles until 1929 or so. So these articles are from before Pink became a force in the marble selling world. Jan. 24, 1916 April 21, 1922 May 21, 1922 Sept. 8, 1922 Have a couple more from 1923 and 1925, but still not sure about the copyright issues for 1923 and later so I am being cautious today.

didn't mean to equate smuggling and claiming something as ballast. just highlighting the potential for disconnect between the law and reality. And sure as heck wasn't saying Howdyshell was doing or trying to do anything improper. Again, highlighting the stakes. If you could within the law call something ballast and get out of paying taxes, then you would. If someone else was getting off too easy because he was doing that when you didn't think he should, then you'd try to change the law so he couldn't do it anymore. well, that's all my speculating for now. Maybe I'll hop over to the maritime museum in my local harbor and ask 'em what they know about how ballast was legally defined over the years. Or maybe I'll ask at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. :-)

PS to my post up there happy birthday Jess! :Party_fest33:

Derrick, this is the kind of thing which S-F doesn't have to put up with. This is what I referred to when I stood up for Lou for trying to do something about chronically negative voices. If you agree with Duffy then start something you consider a worthwhile thread. You dropped in to criticize. Not to be part of a solution. You reserve your best for other places. Here you criticize and stir things up. Then when things have hit fever pitch you can say how nothing has changed and this board is as contentious as ever.