Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880s - 1930s.

[treasurefiend]

Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

The school is gone and now the whole place is a forest preserve. I went hunting this place for the first time with 2 friends. I found this marble while digging for an iffy coin signal. I never found what was giving me the signal but atleast I pulled something from the hole. It has seen a whole lot of marble games, it has pings all over it and is dull looking so for the pix I dripped some water on it so you can see the cool swirls inside. I found it down about 7 inches, enjoy.

Oh yea, any idea on the aprox age? Thanks...

 

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[mistergee]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

Nice mib...how did you find that place in a preserve

 

[treasurefiend]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

Nice mib...how did you find that place in a preserve

My buddy was driving around one day and saw some MD'rs walking into the woods. So he went home and started looking at old areal photos from the 30's and saw a big building, he then went to the library and found out that a school used to be there back in the day. He told me about this place last month and we were gonna go sooner but 2 weeks ago I was in the hospital for 6 days. Today was the first chance we both had to hunt so we called another buddy to join us.

Here is the link to the coins I found, 1918d SLQ and a 1907 V-Nickel and some wheaties. My bud found a 1906 Barber dime and my other buddy found a 1915 Buffalo nickel and some wheaties.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,199777.0.html

 

[Marbleguy]

Between 1915 and 1930

See if it lights up under a blacklight. If it glows I'd date it to around 1915. Go back and dig some more around where you found the marble. There are undoughtably more marbles there. I often find buried marbles together in groups. Found one group of 27,another group of 16 and a group of 32. Plus smaller groups of a dozen or less.

 

[crazyjarhead]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

That's a pretty green one

 

[duffytrash]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

with the matrix of the swirl mostly on a transparent base i would say that it is a ravenswood novelty...they made marbnles in ravenswood wv in 31-44 and again from 47-55...its a machine made marble so prob not made in the early 20s.....some marbles were handgathed and rounded by a machine but they have certain traits that that marble does not display.....christensen in cambridge oh. howard jenkins invented the machine and was used there from 27-33...these are significant names and dates in marble history...glass marbles were made before that but all show traits that this un dont display...lawrence alley also made marbles throughout wv in the 30s to the late 50s but the machine he made put the swirls on the outside of the marble some on a clear base but also on an opaque base....theres similarities on all wv marbles because the glass usually came from the same places....its easy to see the difference in hand....i say ravenswood from the mid 30s to mid 40s...nice find!!!!

 

[Marbleguy]

Always test for fluorescence

All antique marbles or glass related to them should be hit with a UV blacklight to see if they fluoresce. My bet is the marble was made by Akro Agate. Good way to get info on what marble(s) you've got is websearch antique childrens' marbles on Ebay. This morning I excavated what I thought was a really big marble. It fluoresced brilliantly. Websearched it and found it was part of an old table lamp. You can buy LED UV flashlights on the web for twenty bucks.

 

[duffytrash]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

thats whats fun about marbles...theres always room for discussion....akro slags ive seen always surface on the glass someplace....not sayin its not an akro....its pretty beat up.....not all old marbles will react to black light...depends on the ammount of uranium or other element thats in em...the color of the glow matters too...green glows to bright orange to yellow are different elements in the glass...jabo inc marbles of today glow brightly when uved...the burmese cullet they used from fenton glows nice....i like a good glower but marble collectors disagree about the glowin glass can help to id a marble...its true that some old marbles glow but not all do....

 

[Marbleguy]

Reminds me of when I first websearched antique marbles

Oh gosh,I thought people who collect these marbles must be nuts. Everything I read from them said they were into the teensiest marble-idiosyncrosies. I could'nt believ the battles going on online over what marble's are what. Finnally dawned on me that everyone who finds,sees and holds these old marbles comprehends what they really mean. They are all small artworks from a forgotten era of humanity's history. A time we will never see again. A time when men slaved,sweating over vats of molten glass to make marbles to sell to children for a penny apiece.
Marbles that today often sell for hundreds of dollars. The conception springs to mind the old Twilight Zone episode 'Last Stop at Willougby'. These things we excavate whether children's marbles or other artifacts take us back thru time to a different world. A time pretty much before technology. We look around us at what our world has become today and cry for those long lost days. I haunt museums,antique shops and have spent years digging for artifacts in the ghost town of Trona,Ca for that reason.

 

[MEinWV]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

Hey Guy! Those are some great thoughts and observations. How true!

You can actually come to WV and see the operations for yourself. The modern man is still working with vats of molten glass, using many of the very same tools that the glass workers used back in earlier times. At Marble King and also at Wismack(stained glass), both located in Paden City, WV. It is amazing to see the transformation of the hot glass into the finished product.

A funny thing about Paden City is that almost anywhere you stick a shovel into the ground, you find marbles. Some folks would even get loads of reject marbles and scrap glass dumped on their properties for filling holes and low spots. One person I worked with said that when they went to till the soil in their yard to put in a garden, the soil was loaded with marbles. Back in the "olden days" they say that during parades they threw marbles to the children instead of candy.

Now, marbles are just like baseball cards! Mothers (God love em) are responsible for throwing away millions of them over the years. Another reason to do some screening in old refuse dumps.

HH

 

[MEinWV]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

Hey T Fiend, That is a cool mib you found! You know those old school yards must be loaded with old marbles. If you keep working that spot you may find more of them.

Good luck , HH

 

[duffytrash]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

right your are meinwv...im 6 miles from paden city and dig there occasionally at the south end of town at the marble dump........the cops got my autograph one day and asked me to get outta town by sunset and dont come back...lolol...but sneak in every few months...10 years ago or so..down at st marys when they put the new bridge [below mcdonalds]i dug there bout everyday for a coupla weeks.. when they moved that statue it was sittin on marbles....the supervisor told us we could get em out if we wanted...we had an hour...i had one 5 gallon bucket but i filled my s-10 pickup with 35 bucketfulls.......i sold bout all of em over the years...prob 3/4 of em were good......i kept some of the better stuff and a few years ago i was able to sell enough to get my wife a new car....marbles are kewl and fun to discuss and sell and trade at marble shows...ive studied marbles and have been to all14 marble factories in the state....you can learn to id em so easier than others but its a great hobby......you canfigure that each company made millions of marbles in a week and they had to put em someplace so many were given away and sold very cheaply for fill....most of the dumps are on private property so if you can convince the landowners youre in like flint...but many unscruplious diggers have left their property in shambles so most dumps are closed....to everybody....

 

[MEinWV]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

Hey Duff, As many times as I have been to the south end, I have never had trouble with the cops. Last October when my friend stopped for a week of digging, a cop did stop and talk with us for a while. When he was assured that we had the proper permission he was OK with us.
We always park in that last pull off spot because they don't want us parking anywhere else. Also, now that we have gone from one end of the ditch to the other, we will probably not be going back up in there anymore, as getting permission is almost impossible now. If I go back I will just go down by the tunnel and just do some surface hunting.

HH

 

[duffytrash]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

kewl!!!! up to the head of the run there -is my favorite spot is...under those concrete slabs.....if you go out to the sandbar if the rivers down enough you can get some gud uns.....maybe welol meet up there someday!!!

 

[MEinWV]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

Oh yes, the concrete slabs! That's the forbidden zone!

Out on the bar is about the last place there is.

We'll have to meet out there next summer when the water is low!

HH

 

[allen]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

that is a great looking green colored marble !!

 

[silvercop]

Re: Marble from an old school that was in use from the 1880's - 1930's.

nice greenie