Marble

A marble is a small sphere of glass, alabaster, ceramic, clay, metal, crystal, steel, stone, marble, wood, or porcelain that is used in various children's games. This is also the name given to some games in which marbles are used. These games are practically universal, and although there are many variants, the essence is almost always the same: launch one or several marbles to try to get closer to others or to target holes. When a hand is won, the marbles of the other player or opposing players are usually taken.

In addition to being a game, marbles are widely used for industrial use, being mainly used inside aerosol containers and in bearings.

Other names

Marbles have a variety of alternate names. They are also known as tolonchas, bellugas, boliches, bolinchas, bolichas, balls, caicos, boles and caniques, canoes, balitas, bocce balls, bolindres, pingos, pelotitas, polkas, bolas >, piquis, polquitas, caniques, chivas, cincos, chibolas, bolillas, mosaicos, metras, bullets, garbinches >, witches, bolindronas, corote, salva, bolinchas, shots, cachinas, maras, mables, meblís, gizzards, nuggets, meters, cristals, nail balls, polka dots, among others, depending on the area and country.

History

Although the true origin of marbles is not known and they are traditional games, their origin apparently dates back to Ancient Egypt and Pre-Christian Rome. Indeed, marbles have been found present in the tomb of an Egyptian child from around the year 3000 B.C. C. In Crete, for their part, children played with marbles made from precious materials. In Ancient Rome it was a children's game whose popularity extended into the Middle Ages.

Other materials used in antiquity are the pits of olives, hazelnuts or chestnuts. Until the early 20th century, some were still made of stone.

In addition to being a playful element, marbles have also been used in crafts, as decorative objects.

In America, it is believed that the custom of marbles spread from Europe. However, there are also indications that they could have been used in pre-Columbian America. In Chile, marbles were introduced in the XIX.

In 1953, Víctor Hugo «Tito» Chiarlo, a former worker at an Argentine glass factory in San Jorge, Santa Fe Province, founded the Tinka marble factory together with Domingo Vrech, motivated by a machine that arrived at the glass factory where worked, imported from Italy. The company is the first and only one in the business in Argentina, although since the 1990s there have also been marbles imported from China and Mexico. From an initial production of 12,000 marbles a day, by 2013 the Tinka factory had 400,000 units per day.

In the middle of the XX century, in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, the game was played with large or small corozo balls, and cracking seeds, which were later replaced by glass marbles.

Types

marbles of various designs and sizes.

There are many types of marbles, and they receive different names according to the geographical area in which they are found, as well as depending on their sizes, designs and colors. Some of these types are the following:

According to your color and design

• Names according to colors of flags: for example, a "chilenite" is a colored white, blue and red a "German" is black, yellow and red, a "Italian" is white, green and red, a "bolivianite" is red, yellow and green, a "venezolana", "ecuatoriana" or "colombian", of yellow, blue and red colors, etc.
• Oil canica: glass without interior decorations and with somewhat opaque colors.
• China, mara or lechita (Honduras): white, commonly glass.
• Galaxy: black marble, usually with lentils or bright motifs inside.
• Japanese: transparent glass in whose interior there is a spiral of vivid colors.
• Martas: white with nuanced colors.
• Cat eyes: marbles of normal size but with a yellow design in the center as the eyes of a cat. This is also called the smallest bowls of glass.
• Tirito: opaque and without ornaments.
• Culin (Venezuela): opaque of a single color.
• Clover: transparent with three coloured brush strokes inside.
• Agüita (Mexico): transparent one-colored.
• Cebra (Mexico): transparent or opaque with sinuous stripes parallel to the top of the canica.
• Bombocha (Mexico): any canica larger than normal.
• Ponche (Mexico): a single color opaque in a more resistant appearance or a player's favorite song.

Additionally there are the orchards, the onyx and the lice.

According to your material

• Agüita: of transparent glass and without ornaments, can be considered the glass canica of less value.
• Milk (in Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras and Peru), milk or milk (in Argentina and Chile): those whose interior appears to be made of milky substance.
• Balin, acerito (Argentina), sphere (Colombia) or lead (Venezuela): metal or lead.
• Palomo (Chile): marble canica.

According to your size

• Normal marble; 16 millimeters in diameter.
• Dust bell (Chile), to the largest bollions.
• Polcon (Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico and Spain), tirimbola (Bolivia), polcón (Chile), terón, bolón, boloncho, bolinchón (Colombia); bolinchón (Costa Rica); bolondrón (Ecuador); chirolón o chibolón (El Salvador); canicón (Spain); chimboón o chimbombola (Guatemala); boltacha
• Pepoon (Chile) or ballad to the larger medium size marbles.
• Pepita, chiripita (Guatemala), pique (Puerto Rico), tirito o chilindrina (Chile) or pedito (Mexico), pinguis, mollejones or mullos (Colombia): the smallest marbles, approximately half the size of a normal. In Colombia they are also classified from greater to less in superpota, pota, traditional canica, sphere, umbrella and minipingua.

Games

• The entourage, the choya, Today (Mexico) Mecca (Colombia) or The bocholo (Colombia): a hole is made in the ground, it is thrown in shifts trying to enter it. The player who gets the ball introduced stays with the marbles that are less than a palm away from the hole. Players can also choose to pull their opponents off against them. In Colombia, putting a canica in the hole is called "packing" or "embocholar" the canica.

• The troya: a circle is drawn on the earth and within it the canyons are placed. Players in shifts are throwing their balls into the circle, looking to get those inside it, so as to stay with them. If a marble remains within the circle, it becomes part of the other marbles that remain to be disputed. The game ends when all marbles have been removed from the circle.

• The fourth: two or more players struggle, in turn, to become "quarters" or "girls" of their buns and must pay some of them every time the target is achieved. There is a wide variety of terms and rules that can be used.^{[chuckles]required]}

• Triangle or Triangulite: Played at least in Argentina and Guatemala. It draws a triangle (with plaster when it was in pavement or with some wand if it was on the ground) in which each of the players should place a marble inside, then it is about removing most of the marbles from it, with the care that they do not kill it to one. In Venezuela this form of game is known as the Troy.^{[chuckles]required]}

• Today: Played at least in Argentina, Guatemala and Venezuela: three small holes are made (“hoyitos”) on the earth, in which the canica must be introduced; after introducing the canica in the first hole you have the right to make fourth. In order to start killing the opponents, you have to enter the canica in each of the holes, in order and back. The name of the last mess is "comic."

Games by countries

In Argentina:

• Fair Chanta: the canica is thrown trying to make it crash with another one on the ground, without the launch touching before the ground.
• Line and Walk.
• In a piece of land, usually the square of a tree on the street becomes a hole with a bowl. From outside the square, the players throw a ball in turn. The distance to the hole determines a new shift. The player who "meaned" closer to the hole has the right to play first. Taking the ball with the inside of the index finger and the outside of the thumb (ñati), you must embody the ball in the hole, which gives you the right to a new shot. If he's right to hit another player's ball, he'll take it off and he'll take the ball. The action of hitting another ball is called "burn". Burning gives the right to another shot, even before having the hole. Thus, a player can remove all in a spin. A single hole is worth burning everyone. If another player's missing ball was his "pointer," he can pay with another bag. The court limit is called "lazo". The bounce on the edge is called "reple". A hole or burning after a refill is only valid if it was first sung "buen reple". The burning made when throwing the balls at the beginning is valid, but this does not alter the right to the shift that gives the distance of the hole. The shifts to launch from the first round are set by "cantos": "cola" last spear, "ante-cola", penultimate.

In Chile: In Chile, apart from popular games in other countries such as la cuarta or la troya, there are some others:

• The mouse.: you want to throw the marbles into a crate of sharp cardboard (e.g. a shoe box). Win the player who manages to put more marbles into the box.

In Colombia:

• The Dropper game: is a variation of Mecca which consists of throwing the marbles from above, trying to make them crash with those who are at rest on the ground.
• The Game of the Box: a square is drawn on the ground and in it the players "fall" (they bet) their marbles and by means of square shots and by shifts they take one out. If the ball that is launched stays inside the box is penalized by sending the ball to a distant point of the picture and returning the balls that he pulled from the picture in that last attempt.
• Back to Colombia: players make a tour on the ground, like a track, with different obstacles (highs, tunnels, holes, among others.) and alternating shifts they go through with marbles.
• Bone bankruptcy or the mouse: analogous to the Chilean version the mouseOnly two bricks are used, leaving a hole between them. The last one to get through it must put the fist closed between the bricks and receive as punishment shots in the knuckles with the marbles of his companions.

In Mexico: the most popular games are choya, cocol or rombo and circle.

• The coconut or rombo: While there are several variants depending on the region and the conditions of the terrain, the bases are maintained. On the ground is drawn a rombo called "cocol", and on its contour are placed marbles that are bet by the different players. As in the game the troya, the goal is to roll over marble shifts towards the cocol, trying to get the marbles inside it. Whoever manages to take out one or more marbles assumes the role of those who have “the lives”, and as such can remove their opponents by slashing their marbles against those of them, provided that they remain less than a quarter away. The game is won by the player who is not eliminated.

Additionally there are the macateta (Ecuador), the matacocha (Guatemala),^{[citation required]} la hueca and el pepe(Venezuela),^{[citation required]} among others.

In Venezuela: marbles are known as meters. The traditional game consists of making a hole in the ground (with a sheet) and at a certain distance a line; a player tries to position his target in the hole, if he succeeds, the other player passes and he will have to try to hit the target of the opposing player, also the player who lost the target will be eliminated; and so on until there is only one player left.

Colloquial Terms

Marble culture has developed a large colloquial lexicon, which varies from country to country. Only some terms used are the following:

• Ahogado: condition that adopts a canica when it falls into a penalization zone (commonly a mark on the ground) and therefore is lost by its owner, or it is penalized by it.
• Boliches: (Islas Canarias, Spain) synonymous with boliche.
• Canicas: (Peru), The largest marble is called "Bolon" and the white ones are called "Girls of milk"
• Chiras: (Mexico), when the collision happens after a rebound. If this collision wins or removes a opponent screams: "small girls" the losing opponent responds "small wins" or "snails".
• Chitar: colliding one canica with another.
• Corris: used in Colombia. Let the song run.
• Fourth or Boche: traditional measurement in the marble game, which corresponds to the distance existing from the thumb to the meñique of an extended hand. It is a variable measure that depends on the size of the player's hand that performs it.
• Manugus: used in Colombia. When a child takes all the marbles and stops playing.
• Ñati: How to take the ball with the outside of the thumb and inside of the index.
• Singer: a player's favorite song, already worn by its frequent use. In Argentina "point".
• Tinca or tinka: in Argentina it is used as an exclamation to celebrate the blow of a song.
• Tyre or Tirito:is thus called the preferred canica of a player, usually chosen as such by some characteristic that characterizes it, such as its size or hardness of the material with which it is made.
• Tranquis: used in Colombia. When a song is swallowed among others.