TheVacorFan

That's closer to an asteroid than to a marble XD

Thank you for the clarification

Thank you Yup, they're awesome. I've got some Opaques too, if you wanna see those, just let me know

Only £10.60? Very nice score! So, you think they were made by Hopf but how do you distinguish them from Veiligglas?

3rd group size around 1"

2nd group size around 7/8"

Any contributions are appreciated. These are my examples below. 1st group size 5/8"

That doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'd name that thread "Hopf vs Veiligglas - information about Wirepulls" or something similar.

Should I post my Wirepulls? I have quite a few (and a good variety of sizes, from 5/8" to ~1"), so maybe we can have a decent sample size to analyse...

Sorry to quote such an old post, but I have a question: Now that new info has come to light, (see https://marbleconnection.com/topic/39712-hopfs-wirepulls-and-more-looking-for-information/ for more) who were the marbles in the nets above made by - Veiligglas or H.E. Hopf? The tag has "West Germany" on it, so was only the packaging made in West Germany (and the marbles made somewhere else)? If they are Veiligglas and were sold by Shackman, then I wonder who sold H.E. Hopf marbles...

Looks German, nice one!

Do these have any distinguishable features from the Veligglas Wirepulls? I recently bought an old lot from Austria - in it, there were a couple Wirepulls, but now that we know those might've been manufactured by Spielwaren Hopf, I'm suspecting there are at least a few in my collection.

I must add, that the murmelwelt.de site was last updated back in 2022, so I think my chances of finding out any more from the owner of this site are slim.

Hi! Firstly, a big "Thank you!" to Aiko, who made this research possible. Secondly, here's my translation of the aformentioned text: The next station on the guide along the factory site is the glass marble production. The machine, which the owner designed himself, is one of a kind - a monstrosity made of bricks and iron, that spits out colourful marbles. After a mixture of old glass, sand and soda is fed into the giant machine, everything seems to go by itself. The mixture is melted at a high temperature and forms into a thick mush. On the other end of the machine, the finished glass is pressed out, like a tube of toothpaste. This clear glass is drizzled with coloured glass, which is dispensed from a different opening. This glass paste is cut into bonbon-sized pieces, which fall onto a set of rollers. They roll on the spiral-shaped surface and, already formed into round balls by the rollers, drop onto a second set of rollers, which help them cool. These finished marbles then drop into a metal bucket. The coloured glass, that was drizzled onto the clear glass before cutting, and, while still soft, twirled into the marble because of the movement of the rollers, can now be seen as a streak inside of the marble. In the past, marbles used to be laborously made by hand, piece by piece. Only in the mid 19th century was the first step to a quicker production taken: Christian Greiner, a german glassblower, invented the Murmelschere (marble scissors). With these scissors, at the ends of which were, instead of a cutting surface, two half sphere shaped molds, you could just cut the glass rod and file the cut marks smooth. But only the first fully automatic and electricity powered machines, like in Dörfles-Esbach, made the glass marble-production worthwhile. Despite that, business is declining and the machines stand still for most of the year: If kids dont play with marbles anymore, even the most beautiful ones are useless. Thirdly, I sent an e-mail to the owner of the site https://murmelwelt.de/ concerning the marble-machine from Dörfles-Esbach and its whereabouts. I'm not sure that I'll receive a reply, but I'll let you know if I do. The site https://www.murmelmuseum.info/page-1 mentions that the museum owns a machine from Dörfles-Esbach in this text, roundabout line 28. My aim is to find out, if this aforementioned machine is the same as was used by Spielwaren Hopf.

Awesome posts... Quite a bit going on since my last visit...