Shamrock Marbles

The “Watermelon” (Bullseye) and the Green/White/Yellow Patch (Spectrum) marbles are mine without a doubt. Need better angles of the others to rule completely out. The colors, patterns and cut lines tell a tale. I can explain how I got two cut lines on some of my marbles. 😉

Yes, some are and some are not. -John

Well…. Hand-gathered and machine-formed marbles are predominantly single-shear marbles. Christensen Agate (CAC) existed at the period were both Hand-gathering and Hearth-fed marbles were made. Many Guineas and “Exotics” exhibit true single-shear marks. -John

Like fine Champagne. Lovely mib! (Something went wrong with my Apple.)

Three and five. Courtesy of Larry Zengel.

Ron, I believe you are seeing the poly bag deteriorating from oxidation. The outside of the bag gets handled and the oxidized plastic dust gets knocked off. The dust inside the bag is contained, with nowhere to go. Newer polymers have additives to reduce oxidation. Vintage plastic, not so much. I suspect the differences one will find between marble companies is based on who was their supplier and the purchase price or quality of the bagging material. Those vintage bags are on a slow death march, but they will still outlast us both! -John

Scott may you Rest In Peace and rejoice in your reunion with your daughter, Heather Lynn.

Yes, sweet examples. That board of marbles would be nice to have!

Additionally... The website "The Glass Marble" is Bruce Troeh's. Bruce has been a perennial demonstration artist at Moon Marble's Marble Crazy. Bruce T. basically added the detail design from Craig Snider (Spara50) to his website. You can see an email exchange at the bottom of that page. The genesis for the plans (I believe) came from some details shared by Leroy Johnson, but Craig fleshed it out into a complete DIY Instruction Kit and shared it. I am open to any correction by Craig (or others). John

If you are inclined to build this machine, one can currently find substitute gearmotors at Grainger or McMaster-Carr. These will not be identical 1:1 replacements nor will they be cheap. Grainger 52JE35 McMaster-Carr 6142K49 The MC unit is beefier than the GR unit.

These make my heart skip a beat. I enjoy the simplicity of a white opaque glass with a colorful transparent glass. Simplicity at its finest. -John

A fantastic "Toe Breaker"!!! John "Shamrock Marbles"

Great job!! Such enthusiasm and knowledge!!! Much appreciated. John "Shamrock Marbles"

You only gave yourself 3 hours to ponder. 😃 Anyhow, I will let Ron speak for himself, but I think he is trying to convey that the marble didn’t completely spin/rotate on multiple axis. The whole concept of a marble forming machine is to rotate the glass gob on multiple axis as it cools. If the gob doesn’t do this, you can get multiple varieties of errors, of which, a rams head is one. -John Shamrock Marbles

No, that was not my plan. It should be understood that the patent does not describe how the invention shall be effectively used. It wouldn’t take a great leap think that the operators/maintenance people would alternate the spinning cup direction periodically, so as not to wear out the gears or spinning cup. You could effectively double the mechanism life if properly switched. Think about rotating your tires. The motor direction could be easily changed using a reversing motor starter, which was common technology at that time. -John Shamrock Marbles

Here is the other ensuing patent (US1828229): There are a few things to note here: 1) Gone is the "reversing" cup claim as stated in the prior art. 2) The mechanism is much simpler and less prone to drive failure. 3) Spinning Cup speed is constant, unidirectional and not dynamically changing during operation. 4) The Pitch Diameters of the Pulleys (Item 12) are adjustable and can deliver a range of rotational speeds. 5) The "Inventor" is no other than Gilbert C. Marsh. The President of the Gilbert-Marsh Shoe Store!! 6) The marble machine silhouette is the machine used at Akro. -John Shamrock Marbles

Ahh, the Freese and Eyelash discussion! As Akroorka has so stated, the eyelash marks are the result of dulled/scarred shear-knives. The clearance between the opposing knives comes into play. May I also add that glass and environment temperature are also a factor (another discussion?). Slags were very early. There is a post on this site that discusses Akro Slags. In fact, it had an excerpt from a trade publication describing how these marbles were made. In a nutshell, they were hand-gathered out of a pot and hand delivered to a pneumatic shearing mechanism made by Miller. John Shamrock Marbles

Down the "Rabbit Hole"... A few things to consider: 1) Not all ideas and inventions are submitted for a patent. 2) Not all patent applications that are submitted are ultimately granted protection. 3) A patent can undergo numerous changes between the initial application to being finally granted protection. 4) The patent you see has the minimum information needed to convince an examiner and enough to defend the idea. (Notice there are no dimensions, references to speeds, etc.) 5) The patent doesn't restrict the assignee or the end user from future improvements. 6) Not all subsequent improvements are re-applied for protection. 7) Not all subsequent improvements that are applied for protection are granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. *** US Patent 1,828,216 patent application date was 08/29/1928. The patent was awarded on 10/20/1931 with an expiration date of 10/20/1948. So, it took 3-years for the patent to be processed before being awarded. It would be very interesting to see the correspondence between the Hartford-Empire Corporation and the USPTO. Additionally, how the machine was actually running may have been significantly different than when the patent was granted!! *** The concept of patent 1,828,216 was to provide a regular sized gob of glass that has defined streaks of color to imitate natural rock (think "agate"). "To this end, it is desirable that the streaks or striations of glass of a secondary color, or secondary colors, shall be clearly distinct visually from the glass of the base color and that the lines of demarcation between the glass of the base color and glass of a secondary color, or secondary colors, shall extend more or less irregularly for substantial distances close to or at the surface of the article to be formed, thus causing the finished article to closely resemble the natural rock that is to be imitated." So, the concept of the spinning cup was to twist the column of glass hanging from the nozzle. They designed and built a mechanism that could: 1) Run at a constant velocity in one direction, 2) Run at a variable velocity in one direction, and 3) Run at a variable velocity with a reverse in direction. *** Along with this spinning cup mechanism, there was a mechanism that varied the flow of secondary glass to provide uneven thicknesses of the streaks. I want you to look at and think about the surface decorations on Akro Oxblood Lemonade, Akro Silver Oxblood marbles and Akro Oxblood Egg Yolk marbles. These are early (no pun intended) marbles and they are NOT consistent "corks" like "Snakes", "Tightlines" or later Akro "Corks". You can see in some samples how the stream reverses direction as you follow the color from pole-to-pole. But you can also see how the color decorations change in width (say from thick-to-thin and back again). *** The design shown in patent 1,828,216 has some weaknesses that probably became apparent right at the start and after continued use. To me, the dual friction wheels are truly an Achilles' heel in this mechanism. This device is prone to wear and would stop driving consistently. If the spinning cup quits "turning", you start to get "patches". *** There is another later patent that addresses this mechanism with a "better" drive system. It is this newer patent that I believe was used to make true corks. John Shamrock Marbles

The patent describes a mechanism that was used to alter the rotational velocity of the spinning cup, plus how it could be adjusted to reverse directions. If you synchronized the dwell between reversing directions with the shearing mechanism, you would get a cork in one direction. then the next cork would be the other direction. If you sychronized the reversal between each shearing action, then you would get a chevron (rams head) decoration. -John

I believe the "Dan" marble is a Dan Ambrose creation. I give this about a 90% certainty, but a 100% ID on the Stardust. -John

The "Star" marble is from Robert Livezey of Stardust Glass Studios. The "two" dots were to represent 200"2". I believe Rob did some study under John Hamon-Miller in Hannibal, MO. The original Stardust was in Chicagoland. Later he moved to Wingo, KY. Hope this helps. -John

A loss to the community. Met him for the first time in Amana. He had a passion that can't be replaced. -John

Great illustrations! What would be nice to know if the illustration and the furnace geometry were to scale. I speculate, no. What is not explicitly stated in the text is the exact location where colored glass is added. I would not expect this to be divulged, since it could be a matter of trade secrecy. What we do have from 25 is: "and could be put in different places in the flow-tank of clear glass." This tells us that the location placements were selected to give different results. -- One thing that has to be considered in the furnace are convection currents. These currents "mix" the glass and can alter planned outcomes. Depending on the furnace geometry (length, width and depth), heat source locations, refractory design, etc., there can be multiple loops. In other words, when you place glass in the furnace at far end away from the nozzle, it doesn't travel in a straight-line. I speculate the fill-in slabs are placed to alter convection currents. Probably determined from experimentation. Great stuff! -John