CINCINNATI

Here's the story from one end to the other.  A man named John Brunswick built billiard tables in Cincinnati in the 1840s.  By 1860, Brunswick dominated the billiard table industry in the U.S. Brunswick bought out another Cincinnati based pool table manufacturer in 1873 and then, in 1884, consumed a New York manufacturer.  They moved into the bowling alley business and related hardwood table games.

Albert Carter grew up in Cincinnati the son of a clairvoyant.  His mom used a "spirit writing" device to dazzle her customers.  In the 1940s, Al took his mom's idea and turned it into a toy he called a magic ball and hoped to sell.  He filed for a patent in 1946, with partners Abe Bookman and Store owner Max Levinson.  Albert died 1948. 

The magic ball didn't sell too well but it caught the eye of a Brunswick executive in 1950.  Brunswick commissioned the Cincinnati boys to redesign the ball to look like a billiard 8-ball.  The rest is history.  They still sell them. 

ps:  the solid piece floating in alcohol inside the ball is an icosahedron;  that, my friends, is a twenty-sided die.  Each side contains a different answer that might show up through the magic lens.  MAGIC!