Carrom Board Winnipeg

[Sebastian Thorndike]

Whatmakes pichenotte and carrom so widely appealing is that each can be played with just the flick of a finger. For two or more players in singles or teams, they are quick to set up and easy to play on the MDF board, which is marked in two colors to clearly differentiate the games. Taking careful aim, you flick small wooden rings in pichenotte, or a resin striker disc in carrom, propelling them across the board and into one of four mesh corner pockets to score points.

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If you are wondering what that costs today, you get the board immediately and pay a nickel for forty five weeks for a total of $2.25 which is the equivalent of $77 today. Based on the coupon, it looks like the deal began in 1904 but extended to the next year. As for today, good luck finding an actual physical paper to subscribe to, let alone getting a game board at a discounted rate.

Julius Clark also tried to save humankind from another broken fingernail according to the patent of the Crokinole Cue of 1916. This cue too used a coil device to create propulsion of disks for both crokinole and carrom.

Overall I do think it curious that these improvements all come from the mid-west of the US with Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, and Iowa represented. I am also curious how much force all these different devices provide for moving pieces across a relatively shot distance. Perhaps users were warned vis-a-vis the Red Rider BB Gun that they would shoot their eye out which we know from the Eisenhowers can actually occur playing crokinole (see my Facebook post).

The whole cue progression in the patent world is similar to the develop of crokinole game boards in the US in the 1890s and early 1900s. Overall, American entrepreneurs and inventors overcomplicated crokinole and carrom by adding as many games and pieces as possible to a set. The cue patents attest to this trend. To their credit, the cues attached to these sets were simple pieces of wood. The cues were primarily added to play carrom but they probably migrated rather naturally to the crokinole side as well. Here are some examples of cues included with American game sets:

In the end, I think Canadian practicality and pragmatism won the day and people fastened cues from pieces of wood or borrowed the idea from carrom/combination sets. They needed an extension to shoot their pieces. And while cue patents arose, people eschewed them and their coils, springs, pencils and pretense.

Mikkelsen certainly realized his mistake as he watched Gabel find success. Although, he still supplied the cabinetry, he knew he erred in his business strategy. He acknowledged the need to advertise. When he applied this strategy to his new game making venture, he unwittingly established a legacy of producing the most visually pleasing crokinole advertisements and boards ever created.

Why the owl moniker? Other companies used interesting graphics, but they were usually associated with game play; the Carrom Company incorporated designs on their crokinole boards to designate quadrants and scoring rings. The owls on the No. 1 board played no such role and were soley there to enhance the beauty of the board and to demark it from its competitors. It was only fitting that the remarkable owls surround the crokinole playing surface since the game was the main feature of these boards. When viewing the No. 1, the owls and crokinole center command your attention and makes it one of the most striking models ever produced.

He gets a lot of mileage out of the owl. There are four located on the crokinole side of the No. 1 board, and a more crudely designed owl is stenciled on both styles of boards. Owls appear on the rule books and in many of the ads. Although he changed his ways and adopted advertising, he did hold unto his belief by making the boards aesthetically pleasing, so they could sell themselves as well.

However, it was short-lived. By the fall catalog of 1911 and through the spring catalog of 1913, the Owl Boards suddenly changed their names. There were two boards for sale called the Perfection Reversible Combination Game Board and the Monarch Combination Game Board. Based on the images, these were clearly Owl Boards No. 1 and No. 2. The write-ups were essentially the same and the owl imagery was noticeable in the illustrations. On a positive note, the boards were cheaper.

What happened? Did Mikkelsen sell the rights? His factory suffered a fire with a total loss in May of 1911. A devastating fire, it caused $100,000 in damage, destroying a piano manufacturer who shared the building and killed a fireman. By June he and the piano company found a new building with 30,000 square feet of space and leased it for 5 years at $35,000.

Did he decide to sell rights to Sears and his remaining stock and focus on his cabinetry production? This part of the story is not clear. Mikkelsen boards last appear in the Sears Catalog spring 1913, the last owl-style board, under its new name, is advertised. The fall of 1913,introduces Carrom Company boards, the illustrations clearly show the classic board line. Once again the company and board names are not mentioned specifically. Owl flew the coop.

The end of the owl trail is not the end of Mikkelsen. He continues with cabinetry making with such items like a cabinet for soiled towels which appears in an ad from 1915. He takes out a patent in 1918 for a door catch. There may be more examples of his endeavors. Edward died in 1926 in Chicago and is buried in the Mount Olive Cemetery of that city.

As a crokinole fanatic, I find that most boards, even the most utilitarian examples offer something in craftsmanship or artistry. While many mass produced boards started losing artistic touches to maximize game choice and probably profits, Mikkelsen created a board that commanded attention while offering variety. Mikkelsen did learn from his prior partner that advertising is important and was able to hitch his star to the Amazon-like Sears, but he also created a board that could truly sell itself. When crokinole board makers today use striking graphics and consider the artistry of their craft, they are following in the steps of Mikkelsen.

*A special thanks goes out to Rick Crandall whose research on John Gabel allowed me to see a glimpse of Edward Mikkelsen. Check out his work on slot and music machines at Sources for other information in this article will be shared upon request. Boards and rule books in images are my own.

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