History of Marbles

 Marbles. You have seen them, small glass marbles completely smooth.

Historians think that centuries ago cave people used rocks and small pebbles.

Round balls of clay, were found in tombs in ancient Egypt, and Aztec pyramids, for thousands of years marbles were a large form of entertainment and a popular game.

In 1815 the earliest book on marbles was published in England; according to the book, marbles were made of clay, glass, or even real marble at that time. 

In 1848 a German glassblower invented the marble scissors (a mold to make marbles) that revolutionized the process of making marbles. Then in 1890, the first machine-made marbles were made in Germany and later that year in the United States probably in Ohio.

In 1950 several changes occurred in marble making. First, in Japan, the cat's eyes marble was created by injecting colored glass into the normal marble. Then in the U.S. People found out that if you bake your marbles before they cool you will get a crackled effect.

Perhaps the biggest event in marble history occurred in 1960 when Neil Armstrong (the first man on the moon) described the Earth out of his spaceship window as a “big blue marble.”

In the 1980s magnetic marbles became a sensation because of the “Toys in Space” program.

There has been a National Marbles Tournament since 1922.

Marbles little small balls of history.