Magic 8 Ball ~ Vintage

DescriptionThe Magic 8-Ball is a hollow plastic sphere resembling an oversized, black-and-white 8-ball. Inside, a cylindrical reservoir contains a white, plastic icosahedron floating in alcohol dyed dark blue. Each of the die’s 20 faces has an affirmative, negative, or non-committal statement printed in raised letters. These messages are read through a window on the ball’s bottom.An 8-ball was used as a Fortune Telling device in a Three Stooges short in 1940, and was called a “magic ball”. While Magic 8-Ball did not exist in its current form until 1950, the functional component was invented by Albert C. Carter, inspired by a spirit writing device used by his mother, Mary, a Cincinnati clairvoyant. In 1944, Carter filed for a patent for a cylindrical device, assigning it in 1946 to Bookman, Levinson, and another partner in what came to be Alabe Crafts, Inc. (Albert and Abe). Alabe marketed and sold it as a cylinder called The Syco-Seer. Carter died before the patent was granted in 1948. Bookman made improvements to it and in 1948, it was encased in an iridescent crystal ball. The revamped product caught the attention of Chicago’s Brunswick Billiards. In 1950 they commissioned Alabe Crafts to make a version in the form of a traditional black-and-white 8-ball.To use the ball, it must be held with the window initially facing down. After “asking the ball” a yes-no question, the user then turns the ball so that the window faces up, setting in motion the liquid and die inside. When the die floats to the top and one face presses against the window, the raised letters displace the blue liquid to reveal the message as white letters on a blue background. Although many users shake the ball before turning it upright, the instructions warn against doing so to avoid white bubbles, which interfere with the performance of the ball itself.Vintage Magic 8 Ball – Good Condition