How marbles are made

The other day whilst rummaging in the attic I came across two small boxes. On opening them, I found a collection of pretty marbles of various sizes. They belonged to my son when he was young and, ah, what delightful memories they evoked! How are marbles made? We often see small children playing games with them. I am always fascinated by their various colours — the attractive whirls and swirls visible inside that ball of glass. The making of glass marbles is fully automated. Amazingly, full sets of marbles are completed in just a fraction of the time it once took to make a single marble. Game marbles were once rolled by hand out of clay. Today, large amounts of glass are melted during a single step in an immense furnace. The glass is heated to a temperature of 1,500 degrees Centigrade, creating a flowing stream of molten glass. Once melted, the glass slides down a flat opening, nicknamed ‘Gob-Feeder’. Once the glass has passed through the feeder, it moves into a grooved machine mechanism. Over there, once inside the machine, the glass is coloured. A wheeled edge moves the glass in a semi-circular motion into a groove machine part. The heated glass orbs are then separated. They then enter the rolling process before the glass hardens. After being rolled into round shapes, they are culled to allow the shape to set. This is the final step before the packaging and shipment of a bag of marbles. Just like any other art, marble making is considered a work of artistic expression. In fact, individual artists still practise the art of glass blowing, and sell intricately detailed marbles of all sizes to both collectors and marble fans around the world. The process of glass blowing a single marble takes much longer to complete than the professionally manufactured marbles found at discount stores. Artisans use the old-fashioned tongs to mould the hot glass and place the creation into a kiln for curing. The glass blown marbles are often adorned with objects or animal displays suspended into the marble’s centre. Did you know that marbles have been discovered in excavated tombs, dating as far back as 3,000 BC? The game of marbles is a popular pastime among many children. In the north of England, the objects and the game are called ‘taws’. There are various games using marbles. One game involves drawing a circle in sand and the players take turns to knock other players’ marbles out of the circle with their own marble. Other versions entail shooting marbles at target marbles or into holes in the ground. A larger-scale game of marbles involves taking turns trying to hit an opponent’s marble to win. If you haven’t played with marbles because you are so busy playing your video/computer games, you are missing a simple way of having fun that people have indulged in for centuries. How about getting some marbles for yourself and trying to hit one marble with another?