A Conversation for Marbles

Lost mine...

Post 1

Santragenius V

Sorry - smiley - silly - couldn't resist it...

But, I must say, a good entry which I will duly bookmark as I have this inkling that my kids have just recently discussed this very game - and this will put me in a position to remain the ever-knowing-it-all kinda dad... smiley - biggrin

smiley - star!


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Post 2

Zarquon's Singing Fish!

It went thought my 6 year old's school like wildfire just before i decided to write the entry! I got pestered and pestered and pestered. Initially, it was quite difficult to find them locally, however eventually, I tracked down a shop .... and now we have more than you can shake a stick at!

Good lucksmiley - winkeye!

smiley - fishsmiley - musicalnote


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Post 3

Mina

Antiques fairs - toy fairs - usually have a few. My son likes them, but he hasn't got round to enjoying them as a proper game. He likes them for playing with his marble run.


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Post 4

Gwennie

Thanks for a wonderful Guide entry. smiley - hug I've always wondered how marbles are made and now I know and will be able to tell my son, Chris who has autism and loves marbles.

Chris has one of those plastic tower thingees that one constructs and he loves to watch the marbles roll down it (what a racket!). smiley - headhurts

I followed the links to the World of Marbles and have printed out the rules and instructions for the different games, so now we'll be able to do other things rather than to watch (and listen) to the marbles fall down the towers that Chris constructs. smiley - bigeyes


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Post 5

Santragenius V

Yep, the marble run's quite popular (at times) here at our home... smiley - smiley

(not that I have ever... smiley - winkeye)

smiley - star!


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Post 6

Gwennie

No...smiley - whistle...neither have I! smiley - angel


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Post 7

Zarquon's Singing Fish!

We've never had a marble run, however one of my son Kenneth's favourite tricks is to find the marble jar and then pout them all over - on the floor, in the cracks on the sofa, under the furniture - endless fun!

At present, though, they're out of favour. I've taught him some of the names and the action, though. The names he remembers, but he hasn't got the hang of 'knuckling down' yet, though.

If anyone's going to the Southwest meet <./>A676848</.>, the House of Marbles is nearby!

smiley - fishsmiley - musicalnote

smiley - fishsmiley - musicalnote


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Post 8

Mippy Mouse

One of the few things I remeber about being in Great Ormond Street Hospital when I was 4 is that they had a marble run I was very impressed I didn't want to go home! smiley - biggrin


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Post 9

Zarquon's Singing Fish!

smiley - smiley for Great Ormond Street! (and for you!)

smiley - fishsmiley - musicalnote


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Post 10

Sea Change

I made my own marble chute with toilet paper rolls, wax paper rolls, and paper towel rolls as a kid. They could be used whole in vertical drops and halves or thirds for slopes. Toothpicks worked cardboard valves to make a route splitter, and canning funnels made fun localizers, especially for vertical drops. I remember trying to make a horizontal turnstile like spinner with tinkertoys and had no luck (vertical mill paddles worked fine, as tinkertoy came out with windmill sails), the marbles would always bend straw 'paddles' and would jump the run with the wood cylinders as 'paddles'.

I was so green with envy when the plastic ones came out, because they never wore out and had the structural strength to be longer and taller. Uncle points were scored when I made some unique parts for my nephew when he got his, even though I sometimes played more with it than he did.

smiley - fullmoonsmiley - vampire


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Post 11

Santragenius V

Impressed!

smiley - star!


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Post 12

Sea Change

Someone has to be autistic enough to design aqueducts and factory product flows (not that I do this, only that I'd have no trouble concentrating on it)!

These ideas were not really original to me. Inspirations include: Sesame Street had a bit all those many years ago in which a custom made wire marble run of Rube Goldbergian proportions was shown in action it was almost 10 minutes long, old books full of Rube Goldberg contraptions I found in my grandparents' farms' bunk house, which was used as storage, and of course, there is the film of the german performance art piece "The Way Things Go".

Interestingly enough, one of the few interesting touristy things you can do in San Jose California, is to watch the gravity and chain lift operated billiard-ball run in front of the Technology Museum there. It has several aleatory physical-logic gates, so no balls path is exactly the same although they have the same start and end points. The lift for the balls has irregularly spaced shelves that only pick up one ball each and are angled so as to be more or less efficient at actually suceeding to pick the balls up from the hopper that they all fall in. No balls path is ever exactly the same.

There is a miniature version with steel ball bearings about 2 cm in diameter at the A terminal of San Jose International Airport.


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