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Whaddaya Know About ... Industrial Uses For Marbles?


Steph

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has anyone said "slingshot fodder as window breakers"?

Well, slingshots have been mentioned for whacking squirrels.

Sue, I don't know why your link disturbs me so.

Craig, that's so cool. Must have been thrilling to talk to him.

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These are for play, but not traditional play. Do we have them yet? (Hi everyone -- this is still one of my favorite threads. :-)

FirstGiftBalls_Clay.jpg

(source)

In case that doesn't count ;), one industrial use for mibs was "oil-drum cleansing".

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Not sure if it has been said or not, but.... A sink in my bathroom is missing the drain plug, and nice big Jabo fits in there perfect, looks good, and completely stops the water from draining out! lol I have also super-glued some one inchers together in a pyramid shape and can atest to the massage usage! It works great on the back!!

God Bless!

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Gary, that's neat about the drain. I'm afraid I'd bust the massager. (don't ask)

DC, I remember that article. That would be Issue #17, Dec. 2006. I think we've managed to squeak some new uses in. Not bragging -- just saying I've been surprised once or twice.

I don't remember us mentioning hydroponics though. And it looks like there are a couple of other variations we sorta have here but not quite the same application he gives. cool.

p.s., did we have throwing marbles on the ground to make pursuers slip? I have articles where that was done but not sure if it made it here. That's another one Mike mentions.

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I have a 1990 "travel tip" sort of news article for an item called The Sea Band. Wrist bands with a marble in each one. Pressure applied to the "Nei Kuan point" was supposed to take care of motion sickness.

Ah, I see it is still around. And still has a marble, or something marble-like.

oh boy, probably need to index these someday. It's getting tuff to keep track of what's already been posted. And I know there are still more to come. I have at least one more to track down in my files to check the particulars before I post it .

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If you dry clothes on a line ... hey, it's environmentally friendly, right? ... well, if you dry your socks or stockings on a line, marbles in the toes can help them from getting wrapped around the clothes line during wind gusts. ;-)

so they say

... um, that's not the one I'm hunting for the details on ... just ran across it while hunting .... lol

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Well, I'm not finding the references, so here's the gist: using mibs in training for jobs.

The first reference I saw was would-be gem cutters practicing on glass marbles before moving to precious stones. What I wanted to look up was WHO the potential gem cutters were. I think this might have been part of a British program for injured veterans, maybe after WWII.

Another job-training use was reported in 1958. Beginning iron handlers would practice with marbles before working with metal. Apparently molten glass was a good simulation of molten metal.

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Last one in my waiting list:

mentioned in 1942 - a few marbles at the bottom of a soap dish, to hold up the soap and stop it from getting caked or glurmy. um, the "glurmy" part is mine.

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I took a silversmithing class a couple of years ago. We started working with copper because of the price of silver. If we messed up the copper it would be OK. We used "gems" the flat marbles for the gem stones, learned to set stones using flat marbles. Edna

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That's cool to see it's still considered practical! Whoever thought of it saved a lot of money. And I know that you were only doing practice work with the copper and "gems" but it might be neat if someone tried it again after they became more experienced. Copper and gem jewelry sounds sort of interesting in its own right. Very casual but interesting too.

I've remembered one more "simulation" use. But I definitely definitely need the source info for that one. It's too interesting in its original context for me to even be tempted to paraphrase it.

In the meantime ... tie dye - 1913 style! Dyes and Dyeing, by Charles E. Pellew

A couple of marble mentions and some photographs.

p. 204, p. 292, Figs. 11 & 12

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From American Machine-Made Marbles, p. 158:

"For atom bomb tests in Nevada, the government dug holes and filled them with several truckloads of Vitro marbles. Moore, when pointedly asked, was uncertain why this strange activity occurred but recalled it clearly."

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