Blade numbering is an artifact from the days before the Lottery and Lotto were legalized. Prior to their acceptance by legislatures, people would play the "numbers." This would consist of a player choosing three single digits from 0 to 9, e.g. 123. These would be given to the "writer" who would enter them on a sales slip with a carbon copy. The play would receive the original, and the writer retain the copy. The wager would begin at $.01 and go up to the writer's limit.
The problem occurred in how to generate a non-manipulated result. The two named methods were "race" and "stock," purported based on the outcome of certain horse races and the total shares traded on the stock exchanges determined through some complex mathematical formula. To the innocent gaming public, this was widely accepted as fact.
Mind, this is pre-computer, so a sharp fellow could easily follow either the ponies or the stocks and get the inside track on what was to be selected. The "underworld" aware of the possibility of such shenanigans, devised a secure, fool-proof method to produce a random number: Double edge razor blades with numbers imprinted upon each face would be placed into a rotating drum. After several rotations, a large cork would be tossed in. when several blades became imbedded in the cork, the drum was stopped and the numbers on corners of the blades attached to the cork would be tallied and that would be one of the digits for the day's number. The process would be repeated two more times for each number.
As many high ranking individuals were involved in the "numbers racket," razor blades continued to be manufactured with numbers to protect their identities.
This is completely true ... and if you add up all the numbers on a blade and multiply it by today's date, using the ancient greek calendar format, you can then decipher the resulting number using the convention A=1, B=2 etc and it will spell out "KILL EVERYBODY", which is God speaking directly to you, so don't ignore this command or you will burn in Hell forever.Blade numbering is an artifact from the days before the Lottery and Lotto were legalized. Prior to their acceptance by legislatures, people would play the "numbers." This would consist of a player choosing three single digits from 0 to 9, e.g. 123. These would be given to the "writer" who would enter them on a sales slip with a carbon copy. The play would receive the original, and the writer retain the copy. The wager would begin at $.01 and go up to the writer's limit.
The problem occurred in how to generate a non-manipulated result. The two named methods were "race" and "stock," purported based on the outcome of certain horse races and the total shares traded on the stock exchanges determined through some complex mathematical formula. To the innocent gaming public, this was widely accepted as fact.
Mind, this is pre-computer, so a sharp fellow could easily follow either the ponies or the stocks and get the inside track on what was to be selected. The "underworld" aware of the possibility of such shenanigans, devised a secure, fool-proof method to produce a random number: Double edge razor blades with numbers imprinted upon each face would be placed into a rotating drum. After several rotations, a large cork would be tossed in. when several blades became imbedded in the cork, the drum was stopped and the numbers on corners of the blades attached to the cork would be tallied and that would be one of the digits for the day's number. The process would be repeated two more times for each number.
As many high ranking individuals were involved in the "numbers racket," razor blades continued to be manufactured with numbers to protect their identities.
The first cut won't hurt at allI always thought it was a tally aid for self-harmers.
Actually, "corking" as it is used today is a direct dervative from this practice. Albeit originally it was done with multiple blades.
Huh?
I don't think he was asking what "Corking" meant.Passing the edge of the blade through the surface of a cork to clean and to smooth any imperfections. Often considered of dubious merit.