Click-clack balls

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Click-clack balls with string and ring on the finger
(starting position)

Click-clack balls is the name of a piece of play equipment that was popular with children and young people in the 1970s. The spread was so great that the game - ostensibly - was banned in schools because of the risk of injury. However, the main reason was the noise this toy made.

origin

The from Hamburg-Eimsbüttel originating former Hamburg CDU citizenship deputy and businessman Hans Joachim Prahl observed in Africa, such as children with two connected by a cord avocado seeds conducted skill games. He replaced the cores with plastic balls, added the ring to the cord and had the whole thing protected by patent in Germany . According to the company's own information, around 10 million copies were exported worldwide and 1 million were sold in Germany (as of August 1971). The games were sold for between 1.95 and three marks at a delivery price of 98 pfennigs and production costs of less than 10 pfennigs.

Play device

The play equipment consists of two equally sized plastic balls of 40 grams each with a diameter of 40 mm, which are attached to a thumb-sized ring with a cord knotted in the middle.

Game description

The task of the game of skill is to first set the balls in a pendulum motion by moving them evenly up and down, the game device being held by the ring and the balls bumping into one another rhythmically. Once a steady pendulum movement has been achieved, the player can use even stronger, sudden, jerky up and down movements to cause the balls below and above the moving hand to hit each other. At this stage of the game, it is important to stay as long as possible while maintaining a steady rhythm of movement, which is accompanied by loud click-clack noises.

Similar objects

Historical illustration from Uruguay of Indians on the Río de la Plata (Hendrick Ottsen, 1603)
  • A representation of two balls on a string can be found in South America as early as 1603.
  • A bola is used when catching animals. It consists of three balls connected with strings that are thrown while rotating.
  • The Suruchin (rope with two weights at the ends) is a striking and throwing weapon from Okinawa / Japan.
  • The game, which is widespread in the USA and is known there as ladder toss , has more fans in Germany as "ladder golf". Two balls, which are also connected with a string, are thrown at a distance of five meters onto a three-branched ladder frame . The aim of the game is to "place" the coupled balls on a rung with three throws, if possible on the top rung. With a little luck, the rotating, flying balls wrap themselves around a rung through the cord and get stuck there.

Trivia

The Spanish term for click-clack balls, Tiki-Taka , is used to describe a style of playing in football that is characterized by short passing and a high percentage of ball possession by the attacking team.

Web links

Commons : Click-Clack Balls  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Abendblatt.de: p. 7 , July 30, 1980
  2. ^ Abendblatt.de: p. 5 , September 4, 1971
  3. ^ DIE ZEIT: Clicking ban in schools: Prahls Pralli , edition 35/1971.
  4. ↑ bauanleitung.org: ladder golf