Glass marbles, the most common version of the object today, only came into existence relatively recently in the history of the object. This made Germany the center of marble manufacturing for several centuries. Soon the mills began 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. The word marble is derived from the German term "for the rock," and has come to mean any small, round sphere used as such. Around 1600, water-powered stone mills in Germany began producing more polished versions from the marble and alabaster quarries nearby, especially in the regions near Coburg and Oberstein. Most of the marbles used in medieval and Elizabethan times were made from clay. Unfortunately, youngsters playing marble games came to be seen as delinquents, and efforts were made to restrict their marble-playing activities. Marbles and marble games for children continued to be a popular form of entertainment well through the Middle Ages. One of the most famous is the Hopewell burial sites in Ohio. In North America, objects of stone and clay that appear to be marbles have been unearthed from several sites. Both Greek and Roman youths played games with small balls made from clay, and marbles were discovered in the tomb of the young Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen. The antecedent of the marble was probably the nut, polished by youngsters in ancient times into a smooth surface for playing games. Small, round objects made from stone have been unearthed in the excavations of ancient cultures all around the globe.
Marbles are also melted down to make fiberglass, used in automotive bodies and draperies. Marbles have numerous industrial uses as well -they are the noise inside a can of spray paint and the translucent letters and numbers on a road sign. Their origins as recreational objects appear to date back several thousand years, and it is also believed that the primitive games played with marbles eventually evolved into the sports that we now know as bowling, billiards, and pinball. They are usually less than an inch (2.54 cm) in diameter and often brightly colored or otherwise decorated. Marbles are small, round, spherical objects made from glass or stone and most commonly used in children's games.
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