Steelies

[Steph]

I'm looking at that super cool 1933 ad posted here, and once again I probably haven't registered everything on it, because once again I got sidetracked by something fun.

Here are the Steelies from that ad. The box says "Solid Steel Balls", so this would be ball bearings, right? Check out that size! 11/16". These would break some glass! [edit: the 1933 date has been questioned. Any help clarifying and/or verifying the date would be appreciated. In any case the actual date would be close to 1933. Possibly a little before.]

While I'm in the neighborhood, and in case anyone opened this thread in the hopes of finding some of the old hollow steelies with the x's in them, you can find some of those here, Steelies: Handmade Or Machine-made? Yes, it was a silly question! lol. But it's a great thread. Check out the patent John McCormick shows in Post #7 and Craig game set in Post #10.

[Steph]

More solid steelies. Cannonball brand. "Steelee Shooters" and "Steel Marbles":

Source of the Steelee Shooters. The 2nd pic is obviously from ebay but I don't know the seller.

edit: I've been presuming those were solid Steelies. Maybe someone will correct or confirm.

[Steph]

Pachinko balls are peewee sized steelies used for the Japanese game. They come with all sorts of decorations. Here's one example.

. (source)

Wikipedia entry on Pachinko

[Steph]

This one inch hollow steelie was attributed to the Wolverine Toy Company. (source)

Another eBay seller once said their hollow steelies were made by the Hopkins company of Minnesota.

[Steph]

Here's a neat little "article" about when "steelies" appear to have been a new-ish concept. At least using ball bearings as marbles may have been a new idea. Makes sense 'coz it wasn't long before that when Martin Christensen invented his steel ball machine which made ball bearings affordable for things like bicycles, and for boys. (Martin sold his ball bearing machine patent to investors in January 1900.)

[Steph]

Here is the thread which prompted me to fish out the article above:

Go Steelies

Check out the list of patents for "jingle bell" style spheres.

[Al Oregon]

Besides the two Steelie bags that Steph shows, which I have. Here are two others that I also have. They are all solid ball bearing types.

[bubba1]

lol....i'm glad this popped to the top! i've got one of those Pachinko balls and have been wondering what the heck it was.

[godown]

Was just poking around looking to help some one out with there bag and came up with this 🙂 From the Official Gazette of the US patent office 1955

[Steph]

Nice bump!   We have a date!

 

 

 P.s., I couldn't remember where I had stashed that 1902 clipping.  So double bonus points for bumping this thread! 

[godown]

Thanks Steph 🙂