what am I looking at?

[Delmonico911]

I have no idea on make or color

[Jose]

Hi, can you tell us the size of the marble?

[Delmonico911]

no problem, it is 5/8”

[Al Oregon]

Possibility of Jabo

[Jose]

I will have to respectfully disagree based on the first picture and the way the green part enters the open "C" section. Most of my Jabo's have a tight "C" this one seems loose. Please correct me and teach me if I'm wrong. 

[Steph]

Maybe Ravenswood?

[wvrons]

It is a Jabo.  Three companies produced the majority of the C or S pattern. That C or S can be wide open, half open or closed together. The more it closes together on a Jabo, people call it the Jabo butt crack. The three companies were Cairo Novelty, Alley later St.Marys site, and Jabo. It is caused from a short length hot glass stream from the furnace to the shear. The stream hits the shear plate and folds over on itself. If the glass stream is longer, it twist as it falls. The longer the glass stream the more twist. The length can be to long and get cold, so there is a limit. The short stream is less problems. 

Your three marbles above, the far right clear base with purple and white is a Alley swirl from the St.Marys location. 

The C or S pattern will change during production. Depends on the glass stream temperature, a little cold and the hot glass stream will get larger diameter, which will make it more open. The glass stream is larger and stiffer, it will not fold together as well. If the stream is a little hot, it may get thinner and softer so it will fold over more easy, it will close up more. Many things can affect the size of the hot glass stream. A rush of cold air comes across the stream and it will cool the glass. Maybe one minute or ten minutes. Most of the marble machines are not totally enclosed. Usually big doors to be opened. The open doors help with heat and fumes. There is not near the control of what the hot glass does as most people think. With swirl type marbles it is impossible to keep the same exact swirl pattern for any good length of time.  Maybe a wide open C for 10-20 minutes, then a half open C for 10-20 minutes, then a closed C for 10-20 minutes or a hour. This is for 250 a minute 24hrs. a day.  There are always problems usually every hour or sometimes every ten minutes. Every problem will change the pattern on the final marble. The marbles pattern is made coming though and out of the furnace, then the fall to the shear, through the shear and onto the machine rolls. When the red hot glass glob hits into the roll groove, the pattern is 98% done. The machine rolls just make the marble round.  The marbles pattern will not change at all after it passes across the first couple machine roll groves. The remainder of the machine rolls is to allow for cooling and hardening of the marble. The marbles still have to be cooled slow(anneal)for 8-16 hours, to prevent annealing fractures.

Not all swirl makers made the C or S pattern.  But you can find a few of this pattern in all swirl makes. Cairo, later Alleys and Jabo did the vast majority. Like Akro made the vast majority of corkscrews. But other companies had a few happen by mistake. I have a few perfect Jabo corkscrews also know as Jorkscrews.    

[Jose]

Al Oregon, My deepest apologies you were right and I learned something new Thanks to Ron. I really would like to see one of those machines in action but I live in Cali so that won't happen any time soon. Thanks again for the Lesson

[lstmmrbls]

there are several youtube videos of marble machines at work. I believe Jabo is shut down for good?