Why do/did Spray Cans Have a Marble?

[dougie_monty]

@Myron_Van_Horowitzski

The marble thingy is called a “glacket.”

That’s a “sniglet”; the definition is “The noisy ball inside a spray paint can.”

[Grateful-UnDead]

@JLRogers

This is a common misconception. In fact the “marble” or “pea” is the seed of the paint tree. Although these days they grow almost exclusively in ordered rows on factory farms there was a time when the paint tree was a common sight in North America. That which we call “paint” is actually the mesocarp, or fleshy portion, of the paint fruit, and due to the chemistry of the fruit’s development it is naturally under pressure. Humans have long drained the fruits for their paint, but it was not until 1949 that Bonnie Seymour developed the technology to lop off the stem and attach a valve to the fruit without losing pressure. Thus “spray paint” was born.

Unfortunately, due to poor husbandry our current cultivated population of paint trees suffers from an artificially-limited genetic base, and many paint shades that were once common have become rare or extinct. Luckily the paint tree is quite prone to mutation, and unculled populations tend to manifest novel colors within three generations. In order to return this majestic species one would do well to encourage its wild proliferation. As the paint tree easily finds root with even minimal nutrients and light this is best accomplished by discarding empty “spray paint” in fields, by the side of the road, in public gardens, or anywhere else they might germinate.

Ahhhh…!

I always wondered about that. Thanks for the clarification.