The word marble is derived from the German term "for the rock," and has come to mean any small, round sphere used as such. This made Germany the center of marble manufacturing for several centuries. Mills were grinding out versions from agate, limestone, brass, and gemstone, and these large operations could grind a marble into shape at the rate of about 800 an hour.
Glass marbles, the most common version of the object today, only came into existence relatively recently in the history of the object. It is debated whether they originated in Venice, where glassblowing had become a well-developed industry since the ninth century, or back in Germany. Historians point to 1846 as the invention of marbelschere (marble scissors) by a glass factory employee in Germany. This tool resembled a pair of tongs with a small cup on one end and a slicing device on the other.
Marble manufacturing migrated to American shores in the later decades of the 19th century. In 1900 Martin Frederick Christensen received a patent for a machine that made near-perfect spheres of steel ball bearings. The first machine-made marbles were manufactured in a barn behind Christensen's house in Ohio, which eventually led to a prosperous manufacturing facility. By 1910 the 33 workers at the M.F. Christensen and Son plant were producing 10,000 marbles a day. The furnaces were fired by natural gas, however, and the onset of World War I brought rationing of the resource and spelled the fiscal end of Christensen's operation.
Akro Agate Company, founded in 1911 and originally based in Akron, Ohio, became the next major marble manufacturer. Further refinements in marble-making machinery came during the 1920s, and Akro Agate enjoyed a position as the major marble manufacturer during the subsequent decades. But the popularity of marbles as toys waned as more sophisticated gadgets entered the children's toy market. Many of the American marble manufacturing firms countered this by diversifying operations into industrial glass production, such as making automobile windshields.
Today, marbles are still produced in record numbers, but most are made in Third World factories. One such operation, Vacor de Mexico, located in Guadalajara, produces about 12 million marbles a day, which are then shipped to 35 different countries.
Modern marbles are made from a combination of sand, soda lime, silica, and several other ingredients added for pigment or decoration. These other additives range from aluminum hydrate to zinc oxide. The primary component, sand, is essentially loose, granular particles of disintegrated rock. Another compound used in marble manufacturing is silica, a white or colorless crystalline found in agate, flint, quartz, and other rocks. Some marbles are also made from cullet, or scrap glass.
Good Question, I learned something today.