Shamrock Marbles

Dave, I think a "lens" is being pressed in the first video. It does look like a dinner plate being weighed in the third video. "Fun"? I would suspect, that after doing this day-in-and-day-out for a month (or less), one would lose the smile off their face. --> --> The "perfect" sphere is quite a misnomer. Marbles I have made can vary 0.001" (min to max) up to 0.015" (min to max). It is all a bell curve distribution. Outliers would be "eggs" and "footballs". Real outliers are "loops" and "lozenges". The marble making equipment today is really no more advanced than 50+ years ago. They all work within the same physics framework. It is how all the variables are "adjusted" that determine the outcomes. Even "new" machines being fabricated today are based on "old" machines. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Below is a video of a Robotic Gatherer. Many things to see. Angle of punty during gather. Rotation of punty during gather. Lift of punty during gather. Acceleration, velocity and deceleration of punty during delivery. Servo shear in one video and a person manually cutting in others. Got to get me one of these!! Did you notice the "tail" being wrapped up during the gather? Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

The outside of the furnace is typically made of red brick and iron bandings for structural purposes. Would also figure the production floor to be of brick. Wheaton Village glass shop. http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g46627-d2202661-i45371288-Wheaton_Village-Millville_New_Jersey.html#last I would figure that the composition of fire brick is pretty much the same today as it was yesterday. Different manufacturers may have different formulations, but they all shot for the same performance envelope. Maybe others have thoughts. One can get "vintage fire brick" off of Ebay and possibly compare. Just need to figure when it was manufactured. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Nothing clean in that video. In that setup, there is an electric kiln. It is common to have refractory debris drop from the lid into the glass. The glory hole is heated with propane. If the gas/atmosphere mix is balanced, then the flame is clean, but one can get a reducing atmosphere. It is not uncommon for the glassworker to hit the opening of the gloryhole with the molten glass item as they move in and out. Doors and windows are open for fresh air and ventilation. Lots of stuff blowing through. Every time the train passes, dust and dirt drop from the rafters. A fleck of junk inside or on the marble surface was probably not enough to cause it to be rejected by the factory. New or old can have the same junk. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Bill, So a single cut line (single seam) mib would (or could) have been processed the same way except without the initial "nip", timing the glob drop to start falling just after a passing shear blade? Yes. If you had a singnificant volume of glass on the punty, you could get maybe 2, 3 or more marbles from the same hand gathered glob, with the first one singe a seam or nip/cut mib and the ensuing mibs full doulbe seamers? Because the glass is cooling exponentially, I would not have a problem cut one gob off a punty. The second becomes doable, but problematic. The third is probably out of the question. Whatever is remaining can be reheated. One thing that is not discussed is the formulation of the glass. I wonder what was the "working time" of Cambridge or CA glass. A glass with a longer "working time" is something you can manipulate for a longer time before having to reheat. In an earlier post, I commented about my first attempts at making marbles. I used a Spectrum Cobalt and White. Little did I know at the time, was that the cobalt was extremely hard to work with and had a very short working time. The cobalt cooled quickly and was "crunchy" as I cut it. Go to the store and buy some laffy-taffy. If you cut this with a pair of scissors, you'll know what it feels like when I cut a marble off a punty. You can watch videos of people making hard candy. They keep the candy warm so that it is pliable. Finally, the glass doesn't drop off the punty with a constant cross-section. It is not delivered like a teat on a cow udder, that you can cut into uniform tootsie-roll sections. (That's the beauty of glass flowing through a nozzle.) Due to surface tension, the gob comes off as more of a tear-drop. Watch how quickly Larry moves over to the machine. He is turning the punty, so that the gather winds-up and stays attached. Once he gets to the delivery point, Larry stops turning. Gravity takes over. The gather starts flowing down. Once the gob drop starts to separate from the punty, the cross-section quickly narrows or necks down. I'm trying to find the right spot to cut. Here's the video: Again, the ratio of the gather mass to the punty diameter have an effect on the delivery. A large glass mass to small diameter punty causes the gob to separate quickly as one lump. A very small mass to a large diameter punty will have the gob hang on due to surface tension. Somewhere in the middle is happy land. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Chris, I have a second machine (Mark II) that has larger wheels. Target diameter is 1-1/4" diameter. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Griff, Thanks. Just trying to figure timelines. Do you at least remember the color of the Camaro? LOL! I did the same with my cat and my cat did the same with me. Does Mike Art's brother have a first name? Are they the twins that people talk about or is that another pair of brothers? Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Chris, Sssshhhh! I haven't got to that part of my story yet. I laughed at Hansel's post. He new better. In fact, when I showed him that run of marbles he went straight for a Christmas Marble (red/white/green) in the middle of the gun case. If I remember right, it was the summer 2007 Buckeye show in Columbus, OH. Hard to believe it is coming up on eight years. Time to do it again! Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Chris, That was Hansel that posted. I still can't find my copy of your pamphlet. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Hansel, If your question is, "John, have your done this nip and cut into your machine?", then my answer is, "Yes. Yes, I have." Part of Alan's samples (circa 2004) were made using the nip-and-cut. You can see some of the marbles in the photo and match up color lines on either side of the nip. Somewhere buried in a box are those nips. I held onto them as an interesting artifact. Why did I do this? I was trying to figure out why some cut lines differed. What had me puzzled was a marble on page 115 of Bob Block's book (top three pictures). Top left view shows a beautiful loop and a single cut line (at 5:30). Middle right view shows the other side of the marble with a cut-line at 5:30 and a pattern disruption at 10:00. Bottom left view has what I call the nip-line. This line extends to 3:00 where the pattern disruption is in the other view. What was missing was the full on view of the other cut-line. Here is another photo of the same marble: (Photo from Marble Alan Ebay auctions. For educational purposes only.) This photo shows both the nip-line (top left) and the cut-line (top right). Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Mon, Ann and Others, Back in Post #166 and toward the end of my ramblings, I stated: "Finally, I want to point out Howard Jenkin's patent 1,596,879. This invention incorporates a shearing device unlike his previous patent. This device sits atop the machine and has two counter rotating arms with blades on the ends. (I call this the "helicopter" shear.) Above this shear is an arm with a "target" ring for the gatherer to deliver his gob. The helicopter shear makes two revolutions per forming roller set. Now use your imagination, but don't think too hard... The gathering boy has a gob at the end of his punty. He positions the punty end over the delivery ring and lowers the rod. The hot gather starts to drop and the helicopter shear "nips" the leading edge of the gob. The gob drops further and the helicopter shear severs the gob from the body of glass/punty on the next pass. Down it drops into the marble machine to be formed. One gather -- two shear marks. The "first" shear mark is smooth, because there was enough heat at the time of cut to allow it to blend in. The "second" shear mark is more pronounced (visually and with fingernail), because time had elapsed and the surface cooled." --- I used the word "nip" and what I mean is that a very small amount of glass was removed from the gather. It is more like a finger nail clipping. There are a few (or many) CA marbles that exhibit a loop (or circular) pattern on the sides with a small/smooth cut-line and a larger/rough cut-line. Here is an example: (From MarbleAlans auctions. For educational purposes only.) This marble also has quite a few features that make it very interesting. Road and Tunnel feature. Possibly unmelted silica sand particles. Guinea elements at one pole. Forget those, I want you to look at the top left view. In that view, you can see the "smooth" cut-line. Now look at the top right view. In that view, you can see the "rough" cut-line. Back to the top left view. Notice that the "smooth" cut-line is "short". Over to the top right. Notice the "rough" cut-line is "long". So long, that it goes out of view. You can see it continue past the "tunnel" in the bottom left view. The first cut-line is "smooth/short". I want to call this a nip-line. Why, because there was never enough preceding mass of material to sever and form into anything (let alone a marble). The second cut-line is "rough/long". It is this thermal witness mark, from which the gob was severed from the punty. ---- Everyone remember high school geology? Think about a side view of a rock formation and you can see the layers. Imagine a fault line running vertically and how the layers shifted. You can still follow the layers from either side of the fault line. Here are some illustrations: Now, go back up to the marble image and look at the top left view. Imagine the nip-line ("smooth/short") as the fault line. You see, the shearing mechanism severed a small amount of glass off. While doing so, it shifted the glass pattern. Left side down and right side up. Can you match the lines back up? Go look through Alan's pictures in the gallery and see if you can identify others with this "fault line" effect. http://marbleconnection.com/gallery/album/289-christensen-agates-cacs-by-marblealan-mostly/ Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Below could be an example of a CA marble that Galen eludes to if you were to believe he meant that, IMHO. (Photo from MarbleAlan Ebay auction. For educational purposes only.) I think Galen is quite familiar with this one. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Ann, The "bubbles" I am referring to is basically a single bubble near the core of the marble fragment. I was curious if you found a bubble in the plural sense. That is, a single large bubble in two or more fragments. This bubble is a bubble half (section), kind of like Mon's. 4 out of 5 guinea fragments in my possession have bubbles and the fracture planes bi-sect the bubble. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Ron, The marble in you picture could be a twin sister to Hansel's in another thread. There is a pair of fine orange lines with a black line running between. Nice! Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Griff, Thank you for your recollection of history. Was that 2002? Was that the Summer Buckeye Show? Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Chris, Great to see you! See you have the "94" in your screen name. I can't find my R&T pamphlet, so can you clarify the Road & Tunnel dates for me? Also, was this a common term in the day or did you originate the term and T.M. on your pamphlet? Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles" P.S. You must be ambidextrous, since I samples from you coming from either direction.

Ron, To my knowledge, I can't correlate the numbers to a color. My "lens" was that of a pressed glass pattern and the color desired in that pattern. In a collectibles environment, there are certain wares that hold more value that their "sisters" Say a cobalt vase may go for hundreds, but a lowly "celery" dish in the same color would go for a single Jackson. Lots of candlestick where made (readily available). They are heavy (good glass content). And a "single" goes for much cheaper than a pair at a show or on Ebay. The macros of that marble have me puzzled. Guessing that is unmelted silica? Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Ron, Yes, 632 or 652. It could be black or blueb (short for bluebell)? Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Ron, The number may refer to a Cambridge pattern and the color desired. Here is a link to a Cambridge #632 Pattern Candlestick in Peach-Blo from 1927. http://www.justglassmall.com/stores/curiocab/items/953960/item953960justglass.html Could make some tasty peach slags with these. Ya think? I don't know what pattern #658 would be. Don't have any Cambridge books in my library and #658 is coming up with nothing on Google. Just a stretch. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

LOL! I said I could be wrong! Tank levels also come into play (head pressure at the nozzle). Adjustments to machine speed could have been made. Typically the shear is synchronized mechanical with the auger. Guess the marble could have hit and folded the other way and made a yellow ring around the marble! This stuff is fun. No two marbles alike due to system variability. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

What size is that marble? Here is why I ask. The marble machine is running at a fixed speed. The shearing device is synchronized with the machine speed. The nozzle diameter at the bottom of the fore-hearth is fixed. (I don't think Pelt used a gate plate to alter flow, because it would have altered the pattern. Especially for NLR marbles.) If the temperature rises in the tank, then the viscosity of the glass drops (gets thinner). A longer but thinner stream extrudes from the nozzle. Because the time is fixed between shearing actions, actually a little bit more glass comes out than if the glass was thicker. So, sometimes I find these folded up marbles larger than intended. Say 11/16ths versus the target 5/8ths diameter. I could be wrong. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Ann, Can you see why one of the thoughtful speculations is that the exotics were really hand-gathered color compatibility tests with no production intentions? Hence, low quantities and no cullet? I mean, it seems that there are more guinea fragments than there are known complete guineas. If you were having a high failure rate, wouldn't you try to understand the reasons and mitigate the cause? But nobody has floated this as part of the sales program. (At least, not yet.) Enjoy your halves tonight! Tell me if you see any bubbles. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Mon, I see two cut-lines and one butt-crack (fold). The fold is in the middle of the white section. Like a Jabo. If you look at the Peltier patent, it is easy to see how one side can have a color and the other side not. The "bi-furcation" is because ribbon colors are added from the "left" and the "right" of the machine. Looks like the red hasn't made it down to the nozzle, yet. Steph is alluding to it with her comment about being white underneath. The red has bled over on one side. Here is a marble that I made a long time ago to describe the Jabo Butt-Crack (fold). Think of an inchworm. The gob extrudes out from the nozzle between shearing actions. When it hits and lands on the delivery chute, it folds up onto itself creating a faux third cut-line. Does that help? Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Ahhh, guinea halves! Ahhh, colors inside! Ann, I want you to work with me. Let's throw out the idea of cane constructed guineas (for now). We'll work with my paradigm that CA Guineas were hand-gathered and machine-rounded. It is early on in production at CA and all glass in the shop is batch glass made in a pot (not tank). Okay, could have been batched in a tank, but it was poured into cullet. Cobalt Blue cullet was remelted in a small monkey pot. Adjacent or close to the opening of the furnace/monkey pot is a ledge. You've sprinkled some multi-colored frit on the ledge. Get a punty rod. Heat the end of the punty so glass will stick to it. Once hot, dip the punty into the monkey pot and gather a gob of cobalt blue. Turn and lift. Take the molten gob and roll it in the frit. Bring back to the heat. Turn the punty so the gob doesn't flow off the end. Once it is hot enough, remove, get to the marble machine and present to the shears. Snip. One marble cut, now only hundreds (if not thousands) of marbles to go for the shift! Glass workers today would take that punty rod and dump it into a bucket. Maybe a bucket of water, so the glass will fracture and break off. Not back then. You've got production quotas to make and your not going to go back and heat up a new punty. With the remnant glass on the punty (cobalt and colors), you go back to the monkey pot and dive for another gather. Roll, heat and snip. NEXT!! I know. You could have a bank of punty rods setting at a pipe warmer at the ready. You may start that way, but when your buddy is kicking your a$$ using one rod, it wouldn't be long until you followed suit. Are you telling me that some of the internal colors in a guinea are from a previous gather? Yes. Why did they break? 1) Some of the frit colors had a different COE. Glass workers know that you can put incompatible COE frit on the surface of an object and get away with it (sometimes). But get it down into the matrix and you could be looking for trouble. 2) The remnant glass from the previous gather was too cool. The reheating of the over-gather many not have penetrated through the whole mass. The marble may break soon after forming. 3) Entrapped air bubble. Easy to trap an air bubble during an over-gather. This bubble in combination with one of the above would lead to failure. Ever wonder why you see so many guinea halves? ---- Now look at one of your guinea halves closely. Look right at the edge. Notice how the colored frit dips into the base glass. This is because the base glass was molten (soft) and the frit was colder (hard). The frit pushes into the surface. ___________ (Surface) U U U U (Frit) This makes the periphery of the color blotch very distinct (not fuzzy). Dudley Giberson describes this in his book, "A Glassblower's Companion." Hope this make sense. Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"

Ann, Yes, I would agree that CA Slag/SO/ST seams are more closed (if not completely touching), than those of their German counter parts. Craig has shared some CA halves and you can see the wild color and pattern deep in the core of the marble. People have back-lit CA Striped Transparents and you can see swirl activity deep in the matrix. What I'd like to see is a deconstructed German marble. My hunch is that the colors are more topical to economize on color expense (like Marble Kings). Sincerely, John McCormick "Shamrock Marbles"