Sam Dyke's Patents Explained

Akron Daily Beacon

Akron, O., July 25, 1888 - 1:3

THE FIRST MARBLES MADE IN AMERICA

       Yesterday afternoon in this city S.C. Dyke, at his factory on South Main Street, for the little toy jugs that have helped make Akron known in all parts of the country, made the first marbles ever made in America for market.

       At some potteries in this vicinity, the men have sometime made some marbles for themselves or their little folks, but these made by Mr. Dyke yesterday was the first "brownies" or "commies" so far as known ever turned out for the trade in this country, the marbles American boys play with being made by hand in Germany and brought here for next to no freight as ballast by the ship. Mr. Dyke tried his marble molding machine devised by himself and on this trial trip turned out several bushels of marbles in two hours, working at a rate that promises complete success for this new venture. Glad of it.

SAM'S FIRST PATENT US PNo. 432,127

This was the first invention to mass-produce a toy. At the time, they called this a "molding machine"  but as you will see, the energy to run the 'machine' came from good ol' fashion arm muscles.

We found pieces from a couple of these moulds, made out of plaster of pairs, at the former American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company in Akron, O. (Plaster of pairs is discussed in Sam’s second invention.) Sam first used this to make marbles in 1884 and it stayed in continuous use in the United States until the early 1920's. When the patent expired around 1908 the Germans adopted it's use (officially) and it stayed in production there presumably until Germany geared up for the WW II. The best description of this invention comes from a German ceramic technical manual, a long thesis - you'd never believe so many pages could be written about such a simple device.

‘Billions and Billions’ of commies were turned out on this "molding machine." Ceramic marbles from less that 1/2" up to 2" made of common clay (commies) plain, painted and dyed; stoneware glazed plain, fancy and hand-painted; porcelain, plain, polished, glazed, fancy and hand-painted. Those 'Benningtons' in the cardboard boxes with the "Made in Germany" label on them - those surely were made with this “molding machine.” These marbles are easily identified in collectors' collections. They are the ones that aren't perfectly spherical.

Sam's first invention is important because of its historic standing as the first in many areas and because it kept turning out commies for 50 or 60 years.

SAM'S SECOND PATENT US PNo. 463,418

This patent is extraordinarily important, though it sure doesn't look it from the drawing. It seems almost dumb and that's because it was. We do not believe it was ever put into full production, largely because Sam's first invention was so good. The reason the invention was even patented was largely to attract venture capital to incorporate The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company.

But the reason it's important has to do with "The Quest For Sphere." In the body of the text of this patent, Sam Dyke begins to express the concept of changing the rotational axis of a plastic material to form a sphere. At the time, the physical science of sphere making had yet to be defined. It would not be fully understood and expressed in the patent record until 1899 when Martin Frederick Christensen received his steel ball bearing patent. So, Sam's second patent was the technological beginnings of the quest - like a race, to be the first to invent the prefect sphere machine.

There were many contestants in this quest, or race and lots of wild contraptions in the competition, some can only be fully appreciated by a Rube Goldburg fan. One looked like a spinning Chinaman's hat, another a giant tumbling barrel, one looked like a wagon wheel turning air, another . . . well some just aren't easy to describe. Few of them were practical – some might not have worked at all, but that's a 21st century view.

Sam's second machine, and this actually looks like a machine, wasn't very practical either. Brian and I figured it had to be about 100 feet long - meaning - not many marble works could take advantage of this technology.

Sam's first invention took up very little space and was easy to use. The operator had to manipulate a cushioned board in a figure '8' pattern over the top of the molding grooves – to push and form the little plugs of clay into marbles. If you simply pushed and pulled the board in a straight back and forth direction over the grooves, you end up with footballs. (We've made a reproductions of Sam's first "molding machine" for children to make their own clay marbles - we see lots of footballs.) What the girls where doing with their figure '8' pattern was changing the rotating axis of the plug in order for it to become spherical. (Most the operators were women and children, earning 2.5 cents per hour, working 10 hour days 6 days a week, turning out 800 marbles per hour.)

Sam's second invention is similar to the first in that the grooves are straight – as if you took all the parallel grooves from the first invention and laid them end-to-end forming one long groove. But to keep from getting footballs, he messed up the straight groove by occasionally putting little 'S' curves in them. That caused a change in the axial direction – which Sam explains.

What Sam did in his second invention was the exact same thing John Early would do in 1933 with The Akro Agate Company's ‘Hill machine.’ The Hill machine was identical to Sam's second invention except the 100 feet of grooves twisted around an eight foot cylinder like a candy cane. AND Hill didn't put any little 'S' curves in his grooves, so that machine turned out a lot of rejects (just ask anyone who's dug at the old Akro Agate marbleworks.) When Hill got his patent in 1915, he still didn't understand what Sam Dyke knew in 1892. You must cause the plastic material to change its rotating axis, before you can get a SPHERE!

John Early's 1933 patent (which we will soon put on the web page) is a odd patent, in much the same way as Sam's second invention. I see this picture in my mind, of John Early getting so frustrated with the Hill machine, so angry with it's flawed operations, it's huge reject rate - that one day he just beat the machine with a tire iron. And, that improved its performance. (I’m sure that’s not what happened, but it illustrates the point.) While Early couldn't put Sam's 'S' curves into a helically grooved cylinder, he realized any flaw in the grooves would cause an axial change and thus an improvement. So he intentionally messed up the grooves, like Sam put in 'S' curves and Early got a SPHERE!

So Sam's second invention is critically important as the first step in the development of the modern marble machine AND his so-simple-it's-dumb solution of messing up the perfectly straight grooves, turns out to be the same thing we do today in all modern marble machines.

The next couple of patents we place one-line will follow the most important developments in sphere making as it relates to the toy marbles in our collections. These following patents will help to define the strengths and limits of the different machines and those features are reflected in the marbles you have in your collection. Understanding this information will not only improve your identification skills - it’s fun when you see these different effects in your marbles.

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