Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/469

 �lie Trench Marble

^llfci-S; Play ed •.

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��AN exceedingly interesting marble game can be played by using the trench system of laterals.

The device is mounted on a board 9" X 20", preferably of soft pine, an inch thick. This has strips on one end and along the two sides which project an inch above the surface of the board. Between these strips are nine zig-zag walls, each an inch in width, or in height, which are arranged ^" apart.

The detail drawing shows one of these strips in per- spective. Each section, be- tween the bends, is lyi" in length, except the first section, which is ^". The chance element of the game is provided for by forming openings, at odd intervals, through the zig-zag walls. No two strips are alike in this particular.

Use heavy block tin, or No. 18 gage galvanized iron. After cutting each strip lY/ wide and iiK" long, make the seven cross marks where the bends are to be, as shown, and then cut out openings at the places indicated. Then, at each corner, cut a

����„„ . ., rflSTENINS TIPS

OPENINGS

VltW OF STRIP BETWEEN LATERALS 3S &'«0

��Strip Indicating Details of the Second Wall on the Playing Board

��triangular tip, or point, as shown. Lay out the board, showing where each wall is to be placed, and with a hammer drive the tips into the board, after the wall is put in position. In this manner eight lateral trenches are formed which lead to the main trench at the oppo- site end of the board.

The knuckles of the hand must not pass beyond the end on the board in shooting. The player may select any lateral in shooting, the object being to win the highest number. The device not only cultivates accuracy in shooting, but develops the element of speed.

When a marble is shot into a particular lateral it may or it may not follow along that course from end to end. Probably, if the marble should be allowed to roll by gravity along each lateral, it would not deviate. But the marble must be shot, and the result is that in passing the bends in the lateral it is thrown violently in the direction of the communi- cating trenches. For in- stance, player A made his shot into the lateral 5; at the second bend it was di- verted to trench 10, and a little further on to lateral 25, only to be thrown back again into 10. The player B started in lateral 40, but the marble ended in the main trench at 15.

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