Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1891 — How Marbles Are Made. [ARTICLE]

How Marbles Are Made.

Almost all the “marbles” with which boys amuse themselves in season and out of season, on pavements and in shady spots, are made at Oberstein, Germany, says the Cornbill Magazine. There ars many large agat£ quarries and mills in that neighborhood, and the refuse, is turned to good account in providing the small stone balls for experts to “knuckle down” with. The stone is broken into small cubes by blows of a light hammer. These small blocks of stone are thrown by the shovelful into the hopper of a small mill, formed of a bedstone having its surface grooved with concentric furrows; above ttys is a “runner,” which is of hard wood, having a level face on its lower surface. The upper block is made to revolve rapidly, water being delivered upon the grooves of the bedstone where the marllles are being rounded. It takes about fifteen minutes to finish a bushel of good marbles ready for the bpys’ knuckles. One mill will turn out» 160,000 per week.

In France a little more than 100 years ago it was impossible for anybody to work unless he joined the union of his particular trade and submitted to ita rules.