are these Akros?

[bonniemarbles]

    I really like these yellow & blue Popeye patches, but can't tell if they are Akro or Vitro Popeys. Also I got these two red-on-yellow marbles, both were called Akros, but did  Akro do swirls like the lg. one has?, & after working with so many Alley swirls & flames, I wonder if the smaller one is an Alley ( the description said it was a "bloodies oxblood", hadn't run that name yet...) It doesn't matter what it is to me really, as I like it as a keeper, just need clarification- thanks, Bonnie

 

 

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[Al Oregon]

Years ago, especially with the Popeye Patches, they looked similar to Vitros so the name "Vitro Popeye" popped up (pun intended).  However, it was determined that these were all Akro, so there is no Vitro Popeye.  As for the bottom two, as you noted, Akro really did not make swirls like these.  The right one could be CAC but probably is Alley.  The left one, the size throws me.  I do think Alley, however.  All very mice marbles.

[I'llhavethat1]

Those would probably be some of the better popeye patch examples I recall seeing.

[bonniemarbles]

thank you guys- I'm in love with Alleys & Akros right now, so my antennas are out big time for them-great fun!

[wvrons]

With the two yellow ones. The right is Sistersville Alley made in 1931. The left large one, I think is a messed up Akro cork that did not spin correct. That is a very common color cork in that size. I have never seen a Alley with this color combination at this size. 

[bonniemarbles]

under magnification, I can see the red goes totally like a cork, never going over itself, keeping an intact line, drunken as it is, & the colors are identical to my other red & yellow corks. What made it go wobbly, thick & thin like that, would there have been an entire batch like it or was there a hic-up in the machine- would this be called an error & generally culled out, ending  up in a discard pile, or just put in with all the rest- ( I wish sometimes we all could just sit around a table just talk as questions & ideas come to us: at least we have this way of chatting).... thanks, Bonnie

[wvrons]

It was a error. Larger size marbles are more difficult to control in many ways, pattern, and temperature. The spinner cup for corks has groves cut into the sides to help grab the glass glob in order to spin it. It spins the hot round glass glob and twist it into a corkscrew pattern then flips over and dumps it out on the marble machine for final rounding, smoothing and cooling as it travels down the machine rolls. The groves in the spinner cup just did not grab this marble good and it did not spin correct for a cork. Also temperature may have been slightly to cold or to hot ?  All this happens fast at 250 marbles per minute. Errors or mistakes happen frequently. Sometimes 10 per hour or sometimes 1000 per hour. Very few hours in any day that problems did not happen and mistakes or error marbles produced. 

Akro 5/8 size spinner cup for making corkscrews. Made of solid graphite, so the glass would not stick to it.

 

[bonniemarbles]

facinating- amazing something that looks so clunky could produce something that looks so refined & finished,, & so fast!   My "drunken cork" will always have a spot among my corks for me to remember what has gone into these marbles we treasure.