Suddenly, Marbles Are Everywhere!

Cool post. Ive only found a handful of marbles and just a few of the clay ones. I do love finding them though! I hope to get on a marble hot streak too. They sure are fun to see in the plug in contrast to the dirt.

Dan B. said:

The clear marbles with the air bubbles in them might be railroad marbles. Here is an interesting link.

http://www.railroadiana.org/hw/pgMarbles.php

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I think you're right - the green tinted ones probably are the "railroad" marbles. They definitely have the indentations from straw or hay from the forming process that the articles I've found all describe for the older ones.

Unfortunately, the railroadiana.org link you provided seems to have been debunked pretty strongly by other websites. The other sites all seem to suggest that they are simply raw materials for fiberglass and other glass manufacturing, rather than designed and used for moving freight:

Ohio Metal Detecting: Railroad Marbles

Sea Glass Journal: Railroad, Industrial Marbles

To me, the raw material idea makes much more sense, for all the reasons given in the two articles linked above. And for our area, it makes perfect sense with Owens Corning and Libbey-Owens-Ford (LOF) being huge manufacturers in the "Glass City" of Toledo. The marbles were likely often transported by rail, in open topped hopper cars, so they occasionally "escaped".

Plus here's a pair of old 1942 photos at the Owens Corning fiberglass manufacturing plant in Toledo, Ohio listed on the Library of Congress website showing buckets full of the marbles waiting to be used:

https://www.loc.gov/item/2017690633/

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017690588/

And a modern fiberglass marble manufacturer's website:

CYC E-Glass Marbles for Manufacturing High Quality Glass Fiber & Glass Wool

I found my two at a former home site which is well away from any current or former railroad tracks, so I guess they hold a little bit of a mystery. Did children at the home find them on local tracks and bring them home to add to their marble collection? To use them as "shooters" perhaps? Did a family member work at Owens Corning or LOF and bring them home for the kids to use? I'll never know, but it's sure fun to think about!

Interestingly, I remember finding several "marbles" very similar to these while walking the railroad tracks behind my Grandparent's house in Southern New Jersey growing up in the late 70s. Those ones were a bit larger and more uncolored/clear glass if my memory serves correctly - but they had the same kind of imperfections (bubbles, "straw marks", etc). Sure enough, the Ohio Metal Detecting page linked above lists "CNJ Southern Division, South Jersey, NJ" as a location where these marbles have been found!

Anyway, here's another shot of my two farm field finds that better shows the "straw marks" on the outer surface:

Where do you keep your marbles?

That's intersting and pretty cool too!

The marble in your first pic and the one next to it top left of your group pic were made by the Vitro Agate Company in West Virginia Probably late 40's early 50's. The center marble in the group pic probably is a painted china marble. Here is a site that is good for identifying American glass marbles.
http://www.joemarbles.com/default.htm

MrLostAndFound said:

Where do you keep your marbles?

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Good question! Since I found them in such short order, I really didn't have a spot to put them other than on my finds bench! In fact, when I found the first one, I ended up just giving it to my youngest daughter - she kept asking about it, so I knew she was fascinated...she was absolutely thrilled and awestruck when I gave it to her, you'd think I had given her a gold coin!! I really talked it up, too..."Now remember, Boo Boo, promise to take good care of that and try not to lose it - that's a very special marble. It belonged to another little boy or girl once a long time ago, but we can give it a new home here." With great reverence, she says "Ok, Daddy...I promise", and off she went and literally used that marble as a prop with her fairies for about an hour or more! I honestly didn't think about it again until I found all these other ones in the next several weeks - I wanted to take the group shot photo for this thread, but I figured there was no way she was going to know where that marble was...she is four, after all! I was floored to find that she knew exactly where it was and had put it in a "special spot" with a few of her other multicolored "superballs". Daddy's girl!!

Anyways, I really didn't think I'd find many more of them - it was only one marble in 2 years of detecting...heck, they were rarer than V nickels!! But once the marbles started coming out of the woodwork, I started thinking about a way to display them - for now I'll just put them in this old Hermelique canning jar that I've got...minus the one I already gave to my littlest It's small, but it should give me enough room for the next few years...although at this rate, I might fill it this year

sandgroper said:

That's intersting and pretty cool too!

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Thanks sandgroper! Glad you enjoyed it - I never would have imagined how fun they could be to find, with a pretty interesting history and avid collectors!

Scooterjim said:

The marble in your first pic and the one next to it top left of your group pic were made by the Vitro Agate Company in West Virginia Probably late 40's early 50's. The center marble in the group pic probably is a painted china marble. Here is a site that is good for identifying American glass marbles.
http://www.joemarbles.com/default.htm

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Thanks very much for the info, Scooterjim, and great web resource - I bookmarked that one! Just want to confirm, by the center marble you mean the giant shooter with the bullseye markings might be a "painted china" marble? I had assumed it was "just" clay - the surface features and consistency match the smaller clay marbles, and it has the same coolness when touched. At the same time, I realize that "china", "porcelain", etc all start with clay - is a "clay" marble different from a "china" marble, or are they the same thing?

Stiffwrists said:

Cool post. Ive only found a handful of marbles and just a few of the clay ones. I do love finding them though! I hope to get on a marble hot streak too. They sure are fun to see in the plug in contrast to the dirt.

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Thanks SW! I absolutely agree - great fun, and that color contrast in a plug is a cool surprise. I've had two now that happen to be embedded in the side of the plug as I flipped it! Kind of reminded me of the old Dio song, "Rainbow in the Dark", seeing those color swirls against the dark earth!

Congrats..

Love finding marbles!

I've found more than a few water hunting myself.. Some of them are frosted like beach glass..

Jamflicker has got to have a five gallon bucket full by now..

Picture is of one season of eyeball finds from the water..

<°)))>{

AirmetTango said:

Thanks SW! I absolutely agree - great fun, and that color contrast in a plug is a cool surprise. I've had two now that happen to be embedded in the side of the plug as I flipped it! Kind of reminded me of the old Dio song, "Rainbow in the Dark", seeing those color swirls against the dark earth!

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Haha.

Ice Scratcher said:

Congrats..

Love finding marbles!

I've found more than a few water hunting myself.. Some of them are frosted like beach glass..

Jamflicker has got to have a five gallon bucket full by now..

Picture is of one season of eyeball finds from the water..

<°)))>{

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Nice photo! Haha on 5 gallon bucket. I could easily fill a gallon milk jug though.

Those are some nice marbles Congrats

China marbles are porcelain. That is a bullseye china probably made in Germany in the 1840's They predate the German glass marbles that started in the late 1800. There where a few made in America in the early 1800's That's probably a $20.00 marble, a $100.00 in very good condition. I display mine in a golf ball display. Here is a good site for handmade non glass marbles. Carefull though marble collecting can be as addictive as metal detecting. http://www.marblealan.com/

I use glass marbles as practice ammo for my slingshot, cheaper than metal ammo, and the detector doesn't pick them up.

I have several hundred in my backyard shooting range!