Smart Business Magazine, March 2015

March 2015 Smart Business Akron Canton 19 Samuel Dyke an Akron entrepreneur invented machinery that enabled the mass production of marbles in 1884 Previously marbles were all handmade which meant they were expensive Dykes invention revolutionized how marbles and eventually other toys were manufactured which dramatically drove down prices That allowed many children to buy toys who formerly could not afford them There are some 800 different games of marbles played in the U S but most people only play a game called ringer This is a tournament game in which the object is to be the first to knock seven marbles out of the ring The Scripps Howard news service in 1923 ran daily articles promoting local school marble tournaments on the front page of its newspapers from January until mid June hyping the ringer game and publishing the rules Cohill says That one game was played in every school house in the U S for 30 40 year he says which is how ringer became the most common game of marbles and most other games were ignored The American Toy Marble Museum a state chartered nonprofit organization curates the worlds largest publicly held collection of toy marbles It sees some 30000 to 40000 visitors annually The museum was formed in 1991 It was originally a traveling exhibit until 2002 when the museum was given its current home on the Lock 3 grounds While unearthing the artifacts at the Lock 3 site looters would show up nightly and take whatever they could Cohill says he had to strike deals with several of them in order buy back what was taken so it could be held for posterity Dykes American Marble Toy Manufacturing Co was the largest toy company operating in the U S during the 19th century It was located on what is now Lock 3 in downtown Akron and employed some 350 people who together produced 1 million clay marbles each day The factory burned down in 1904 Children referred to clay marbles like the ones made at Dykes factory as commies because they were common among the many varieties of marbles available At one point some 34 toy marble manufacturers were operating in greater Akron each of which produced its own style of marble Cohill says this was an interesting factor when children would play marbles for keeps Playing for keeps means all marbles won are taken by the winner Playing for fun means marbles are returned to the original owner after the game During the excavation at Lock 3 Americas oldest figurine of a Santa Claus was discovered This priceless artifact produced by the Dykes toy company is an image based on the traditional German concept of Santa It is said to be the oldest 3 D representation of Santa in existence U N I Q U E LY A K R O N C A N TO N