A marble is a small spherical toy usually made from glass, clay, or agate. These balls vary in size. Most commonly, they are about ½ inch (1.25 cm) across, but they may range from less than ¼ inch (0.635 cm) to over 3 inches (7.75 cm), while some art glass marbles for display purposes are over 12 inches (30 cm) wide. Marbles can be used for a class of children's games, and are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors.

History

Marbles are often mentioned in Roman literature, and there are many examples of marbles from ancient Egypt. They were commonly made of clay, stone or glass.

Ceramic marbles entered inexpensive mass production in the 1870s.

A German glassblower invented Marble Scissors, a device for making marbles, in 1. They entered mass production in the early 20th century when World War I cut off their importation from Europe, causing American industry to be applied to the task, producing a mechanized method of glass marble production which became the most common system in the world. Glass marbles, too, became the most popular variety, and have remained so to this day.

In some developing countries, children use steel, minerals or large rocks as a less pricy marble substitute.

Gameplay

One version of the game involves drawing a circle in sand, and players will take turns knocking other players' marbles out of the circle with their own marble. This game is called ringer. Other versions involve shooting marbles at target marbles or into holes in the ground (such as rolly or rolley hole). A larger-scale game of marbles might involve taking turns trying to hit an opponent's marble to win. A useful strategy is to throw a marble so that it lands in a protected, or difficult location if it should miss the target. As with many children's games, new rules are devised all the time, and each group is likely to have its own version, often customized to the environment.

India

One such specialized game is called gaipar, popular in India Bengal. Each player contributes four marbles, which are positioned on the edge of a rectangle. One special marble (the gai) is placed in the center. Players take turns to hit the marbles on the rectangle with a bigger marble (often called a boulder or matris). The marbles hit by the matris must be propelled out of the rectangle. If they are hit but remain within the rectangle, the player plays one more marble as a forfeit which is placed within the rectangle. The aim of the game is to hit the central gai and take it out of the rectangle. This is not easy when there are marbles on the periphery. If a player can take out the gai, he wins all the marbles. However, other players then get a chance to hit the gai-taker's boulder and, if successful, all the marbles change ownership.