What do We Mean by “The Old Moon in the New Moon’s Arms”?
“Earth-shine,” in astronomy, is the name given to the faint light visible on the part of the moon not illuminated by the sun, due to the illumination of that portion by the light which the earth reflects on her. It is most conspicuous when the illuminated part of the disc is at its smallest, as soon after new moon. This phenomenon is popularly described as “the old moon in the new moon’s arms.”
The Story in a Bowling Alley[27]
From the “stone age” onward the probabilities are that man has always had some kind of bowling game.
Bowling, as we know today, is an indoor adaptation of, and an improvement upon, the old Dutch game of “nine-pins.” This game was brought from Holland by those colonists who settled Manhattan Island in 1623.
Washington Irving, in his story, “Rip Van Winkle,” refers to the old Dutch fairy tale, that the rolling thunder on the mountain tops of the Catskill was the noise made by the rolling balls as the elfs and gnomes engaged in their favorite pastimes of bowling.
That little section of New York City known as Bowling Green is the original spot which, in 1732, Peter Bayard, Peter Jay and John Chambers leased for eleven years and enclosed for a bowling green.
With the influx of German immigrants, who brought with them a game similar to the Dutch game, additional popularity was given to the sport.
Loop the Loop Return
The game was originally played on the bare ground. The Germans used a board about a foot wide on which to roll the ball, and then improved on this by using cohesive mineral substances solidly packed together. At an early date, the Dutch had covered the alley with a roof, and later enclosed it in a rough shed, to protect it and make play possible in any kind of weather. But, great as these improvements were over the crudeness of previous centuries, they are not worthy of comparison with a modern bowling academy.
In the best hard-wood section of the United States, one of the large bowling equipment manufacturers owns about thirty thousand acres of maple. From this raw material is gathered the chief stock that goes into bowling alleys and the pins.
The company has its own logging crews that cut the timber and pile it on flat cars, whence it is transported over a private railroad until it arrives at the company sawmills. Here the raw material enters upon the manufacturing process.
The rough stock-strips for the alley “bed,” “leveling strips,” “return chute,” “post” and “kick-backs” are sawed out of certain of the logs. They are then shipped to a factory where they are seasoned, being kiln dried. The stock is next cut to the required sizes.
The bed stock is cut into strips, planed on all sides, and tongued and grooved on the widest sides. When finished, the strips measure 3 x 1 inch. Part of the bed stock, however, is hard pine, shipped from the Southern states in the rough boards. This is finished similar to the maple strips.
The “kick-backs” are the two partitions, shaped somewhat like a ship’s rudder, which form the two pit sides. Each consists of two facings of the best maple with a core of hard but resilient wood in the middle. They are built in this way to make the pins that fly side-wise spring back on the bed and knock down other standing pins, and also to withstand the exceedingly rough usage to which they are subject by the flying pins and rolling balls.
The cushion forms the rear end of the pit. The frame is stoutly constructed, and the face thickly upholstered with scrap leather and a heavy but pliable covering. It swings on hinges which suspend it from the cross bar, running from each of the kick-backs across the pit end at the top. The cushion diminishes the force of the rolling balls and flying pins, permitting them to fall gently into the pit.
The “gutters” are the concave boards that extend the complete length of the alley, from the foul line to the pit, on both sides of the bed. The purpose is to take care of the misdirected balls that roll off the bed before reaching the pit.
The “return chute,” or “loop-the-loop return,” is the railway along which the balls travel in their return from the pit to the bowler. It is usually placed on the right-hand side of the alley, or between a pair of alleys.
At the pit end, the chute is solidly constructed with a concave flanged surface placed on the top of the kick-back. It conforms to the downward curve of the latter, but the rail work begins at the top of the incline and extends back to the newel post at the bowler’s end of the alley. The flanges easily accommodate the balls when placed on the chute by the pin boy.
The newel post is not made of a solid block, but is built up, being veneered on the inside, as well as on the outside, to make it impervious to atmospheric changes. The top contains a sponge cup to moisten the fingers of the bowler.
Cross-Section of Bowling Bed Showing Steel Clamp
The rails form a semicircle at the post, with the ends of the arc pointing down the alley. A tightly stretched leather strap extends horizontally from the upper end of the arc back to the post, where it is fastened with a swivel screw. Half way up, from the points of the arc, a second rail, i. e., the “receiver,” is built, with sufficient space between it and the strap to allow the passage of the largest size ball. With the momentum gained by rolling down the incline of the kick-back, the ball rolls back on the inside of the curve until it strikes the strap, where its course is stopped, and it drops on the receiver, ready again for use by the bowler.
In beginning the construction of an alley, the mechanic lays the leveling strips on which the bed is to rest. These are set at right angles to the direction in which the bed is to lie, and must be spirit-leveled for accuracy, and firmly fastened to the foundation. A strip of cork carpet is then laid the full width of the alley and extending the entire length of the bed. This is to reduce to a minimum the sound of the balls dropping on and rolling down the bed.
On the leveling strips at the extreme side of where the bed is to lie, a 3 x 1-inch maple strip is laid, widest side downward, with its finished one-inch edge nearest to the gutter. One end of this strip marks the extreme end of the approach. The other end of the strip is continued by adding other strips the full length of the bed. When these have been carefully squared to the exact direction the alley is to run, they are fastened to the leveling strips.
The next strip, also of maple, is tongued into the lower one, but its continuous length extends only about five feet beyond the foul line, or about eighteen feet from the approach end.
A bowling bed cannot be laid as an ordinary floor. It is built upon its side and when finished resembles a wooden wall about seventy-five feet long four inches high and three inches wide.
The approach end of the bed, approximately eighteen feet long, is constructed of maple, with each alternate strip of the 3 x 1-inch bed stock about eighteen inches shorter. The pit end of the bed is similarly constructed for a distance of about six feet. The space between is filled in with the pine strips of the same dimensions, and the alternate long and short strips at the inner ends of the approach and pit ends form mortices into which the pine dovetails.
Pit End Section of Bowling Alleys
The wear on the bed occurs where the bowler walks and drops the ball and where the ball strikes the pins; hence the hard maple. The interior is filled with pine, which is softer, because it retains a higher polish and prevents the rolling ball from bumping; thus throwing it from its proper course.
The bed is thus built up for its continuous length, strip by strip, the tongue of one strip fitting into the groove of the other, and both nailed firmly together, until the proper width (while being built, the height) is attained. When the bed is finished, the strips are clamped with steel clamps, the turned-up ends of which firmly grip the sides of the bed, thus preventing warping or spreading. While the bed is still in this upright position, a one-inch slot is cut across where the foul line is to rest, and holes are bored through the bed. A black composition strip, i. e., the “foul-line,” is inserted in the slot and bolted through the holes to the bottom of the bed.
At the pit end, circular slots are cut and holes bored for the purpose of countersinking and fastening the “pin spots.” The latter are of the same substance as the foul-line and all are sunk flush with the surface of the bed.
This—clamping and fastening—explains the necessity for building the bed on its side.
It is now ready to be placed into position. It is merely toppled over, face side upward, clamped side underneath. So exact has it been built, according to specifications and alignment, and the mass is so heavy, that the dead weight makes it lie where it falls and only the slightest adjustment is necessary.
The height of the leveling strips, plus the height of the bed, lift its surface about six inches from the foundation floor. At the pins end of the bed, this forms one of the sides and the bottom of the pit. The bottom is floored with maple and covered with a specially prepared pit mat, durable, yet soft, so as not to damage the balls and pins falling upon it. The back and sides of the pit are formed by the kick-backs, braces and cushion.
After the kick-backs are placed in position, the gutters are laid, and then the return chute railway is laid, between and slightly above them. At the approach end of the bed the newel post is firmly fastened to the foundation, and the floor that is laid above the latter and flush with the surface of the bed serves to brace the post, making it immovable. The curved end of the chute and the receiver are then added.
The bed is then planed its entire length, sandpapered, shellaced and polished. The remainder of the woodwork is finished in its natural color except the gutters, which are stained mahogany and shellaced. They are thus stained, not only for artistic effect, but to clearly define the outer edges of the bed—a matter of great importance to the bowler when trying to knock down the two outer pins in the third row.
In making the pins, the best selected logs are sawed into blocks about 2 x 1 feet. These are placed in a lathe and gouged out, forming the pin in the rough. They are next turned down to size and selected for quality and weight, after which they are kiln dried and receive a final turning to perfect their formation, then smoothed and finished.
Backus Automatic Pin Setters
The Backus pin-setter is almost human in its operation. The old way was to hire boys to set up the pins on the spots and return the ball via the return chute. The pin-setter relieves the boy of the major and most time-consuming part of this work. A frame holding the machine is set up over the spots. It is placed so high that it does not interfere with either the flying pins or the rolling balls.
As the pins are knocked off into the gutters, or the pit, the pin boy picks them up and lays them flat on their sides into the pockets at the top of the machine. When a “frame” is rolled those pins standing on the alley remain there and the machine is lowered by a balance weight controlled by a lever. As it descends the pins are automatically set on end, and when they rest on the spots on the alley the machine releases them and springs up to its original position.
Wooden balls for bowling were never satisfactory. They wore out too easily and never retained perfect rotundity. Fortunes were spent in experimenting with other materials until at last the famous “mineralite” ball was perfected.
Its composition is a trade secret, but its chief ingredient is rubber.
First the composition is rolled into sheets. These are then molded and later vulcanized, being subject to terrific pressure. The balls are then smoothed and polished.
As it is impossible to make a perfectly round ball and have the weight equally distributed, the ball can not roll true; an ingenious device overcomes the difficulty. The ball is set in a basin of mercury, where it floats. Naturally, the heavier side of the ball swings to the bottom. On the top, diametrically opposite to the center of weight, a chalk mark is placed on the ball and it is then lifted out of the mercury.
Diametrically opposite to the chalk mark a small hole is punched into the ball to indicate the weightiest point. Directly beneath this is stamped the trademark of the firm.
Having ascertained the proper distance apart the finger holes are to be bored, the ball is weighed to determine the excess of its proposed weight when finished.
The holes are then machine bored at the respective points, sufficiently deep to reduce the weight to exact specifications.