The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-04-11

a. ~ every year. lnas
oSo@ Q woulde give every oh1ld
of the marble-playinR
. age about fifty mar
bles a wear, and yet in spite of
this a marble two seasons old is
not common, md that dates back
four years is old enough to pass as an
antiquity, and is kept BY its owner for
luck,'' like continental dimes, Peter Bar
low knives and relics of by-gone days.
No one can tell you what becomes of the
marbles, but I can tell you how marbles are
made.
They are all made in Germany. and mar
BILE grinding, moulding, glazing aud paint
ingf form one of the chief industries in a
large part of the Thuringen woods. The
work is largely done by the peasant wood
landers in their homes.
The commonest Of all marbles are the
brownies" About 600, 000,0 600 Of them are
imported every year. They are not mad
from clay, as most boys suppose. but from
a peculiar sort of sandstone which is found
here in these German woods. Throughout
the district there are large numbers OF
auarries md mills. These are owned by
the marble capitalists. The stone is cut
into small squares BY machinery. These
are then distributed BY the miller to the
workmen, who take them by the CARLOAD
to their homes.
The process of grinding is primitive i'll
the extreme. Each workman has a ma
chine about as large AZ q sewing machine.
A. treadle which is worked by the foot fur
nishes the power. The machine consists Of
two disks, one of which rests on top of the
otler like pancakes on . plate. The W
disk is made of iron and is Rrooved with
U-shnped burrows, which start at the center
and 60 out to the edge as the spokes OF, a
wheel extend from the hub to the rim.
the center. In the center there is a round
hole precisely the size of the marble which
is to be made from the quare piece OF
stone.
These grooves are filled with the small
squares of stone. Then the upper disk.
which is made of wood, is pressed hard
down upon the lower and the treadle be-
gins to work. At each pressure of the foot
the wooden disk revolves. With each rev.
olution the edges of the stones wear of
until the squares become round, and at
length the finished marble drops through
kept wet during the grinding By a flow OF
water into the projecting edge of the iron
disk, There are different disks for differ
emit sized marbles. q
China marbles are moulded from clay in
factories where they are baked and glazed
just as china is moulded, baked and glazed
in the New Jersey factories. These facto-
ries, however, are small affairs for the most
part, and the work is lone by hand and
foot power. The clay ia moulded in a foot
power press which looks very much like q
grinding. machine and has two wooden
disks which come together but do not re-
volve. Each disk is filled with seml-round
mould. When the disks come together
the halves of the holes ft tightly, form
ing a perfectly round mould The
clay is fitted into the holes of the lower
disk. Then the upper one is drawn down,
and when the pressure ID removed the
marbles are found lying in the cups on the
lower disk ready for the baking. The
pressure is SO great that the clay which
does not find room in the moulds is
squeezed out at this sides, where it may be
scraped together and used over again.
After the marbles are dried, baked and
ers. Painting, like marble-arinding, is
done at the house of the workmen. The
painters machine is a foot-powsr c%ontriv-
ance which looks like a turner's lathe set
on end. In the end is a small cup into
which the marble fits. When the treadle ia
pressed this cup revolves. The painter dips
his fine brush in paint and holds it to the
marble. One revolution paints q blue
equator on the little globe. Another brush
and a second revolution paints a red tropio
of Capricorn. Other intermediate latitnd-
inal lines are traced both north and south
of the equator. Then the marble is turned
half way around and the process is re-
peated. When it is finished the lines lun
at right angles in the style familiar to all
boys. Then the marbles are sent back to
the factory to be glazed for a SECOND time,
after which they are ready for the market.
Imitation aRates are painted by hand
and are dried in the open air. TIL paint is
Gaubed on without much method.
Glass "alleys'' are made entirely in fac
tories. The transparent glass is drawn
out and pulled into a strand many feet
long Ly W worklnen, very much as mo-
lasses candy is pulled. The longer the
strand is pulled the thinner it becomes.
When it ia an inch and a half or two inches
thick it is allowed to cool and it iB then
broken into pieces about two feet in length.
On the sides of his strands of red, blue,
yellow and green, as thick as a wheat straw,
are fastened and the whole is then returned
to the furnaces to be heated over again.
When it is sufficiently hot to be twisted the
strand is taken out. The colored and the
transparent glass now dhers together.
Two worklnen take the strand in tongs
by each end and begin twisting and stretch
ing it until it is of the thickness of the
marble. One man twists to the right and
the other to the left. This is continued
until the small strands form q vari-colored
rope i'll the center of the big Transparent
strand, like a twisted piece of wire run
through the center of q twig of elder. The
glass is then heated for the third time and
when it reaches the melting point it is
dropped into a series OF moulds like those
used for bullets just as a bit of melting
scaling wax might be dropped into a hole.
AS the colored strands form the center of
the Transparent strand. SO in the finished
marble they make a cone shaped axis run
ming from side to side as a pin is run through
a pea.
Some glass marbles contain small china
figures. In making these, the moulds are
half filled with Transparent glass, Then
the figure is dropped into it and after that
the moulds are filled VI with the transpar-
emit glass.
Real aRates are made from agate which is
found in Oberstein, near tho Rhine. The,
are ground round as lapidaries grind pre-
cious stones. In spite of the fact that they
Z. are made from pieces of stone which arr
not suitable for the manufacture of Jew,
elry, they are very expensive. They cost
from Is to rs cents each. Once in a Will,
u perfect agate il found in a lot. Such
marble generally commands n fancy price