Eston's Marble Towel Holder

During our Christmas visit to Melissa's family, her Grandpa, Eston, described an old-style towel holder that used a movable marble to capture the towel. He made several of them out of wood and marbles when he was 15 years old. Our discussion inspired him to make one of these towel holders and he recently mailed it to me. Eston made the holder based on his memory from about 70 years prior.



I was a little confused but I quickly figured it out. It works very well and I've never scene anything like it. Here's how it works...slide an edge of the towel up into the slot and let go. This will force the marble to slide up. As the marble slides up it travels into a larger track until it will roll to one edge of the towel and gravity will force the marble to slide back into the narrow slot at which point it will trap the towel. You can dry your hands or whatever and the towel will remain attached to the holder. To remove the towel from the holder, simply pull up and to the side, which will drag the marble back into the wider slot and thus release the towel. Pretty cool. You won't find one of these at Home Depot.