The Controversial Machine That’s Ruining Bowling

The first 200 of you will get 20% off Brilliant's annual premium subscription.

Video written by Amy Muller

[TheDarthFalcon]

For all the real people in the comments, that Amazon thing is a crypto scam and you should report any of the comments talking about it.

[bigclivedotcom]

I can understand the league bowlers being upset by the change, but string setters are saving the game. Bowling alleys were dying out, but are now appearing all over the place due to the affordability, low power and low maintenance. Personally my favourite way of playing them is smashing the pins with enough force to try and make a knot that the machine can't untangle.
The way the old machines crushed the mechanics to death was particularly sinister. They usually got trapped above the table that sets the pins, and the motor would keep trying to run, meaning that every time they breathed out it would inch up a bit higher and gradually asphyxiate them. Any initial cries for help were drowned out by the immense noise of the other machines, meaning that they would only be found when players complained that their machine wasn't working yet.

String setters have been standard in many weird variants of the game throughout Europe for a long time.

[BallisticDamages]

Will never forget the time my father bowled a strike with so much force it shot a pin back up into the machine and they had to close the lane for a week until it was repaired. Always wondered how the pin managed to break something, but seeing the amount of moving parts now, it makes sense haha

[imchris]

my aunt owns a bowling alley and they have the old school pin setting machines. one thing alley owners have been doing with the lower traffic is setting up the machines to actually shut down instead of idling when the lane is not in use. also a lot of alleys run into the problem that these machines are actually pretty reliable so they ignore the daily maintenance they require and then get crushed on the price when major parts start constantly breaking from not being lubed and maintained. be good to your machine and it will be good to you

[Shlooomth]

Coolest field trip I ever went on as a kindergarten special needs kid was behind the machines in the bowling alley. They were all turned off and we were very thoroughly instructed to keep our hands in our pockets, and it was so unbelievably cool to get to see that back area at that age

[DOPESMAGA]

Glad to see Amy doing quality research while spending HAI's budget on Mozz sticks.

[bcquon]

As a serious bowler, who knows a lot about the subject I was going to add some context, but I'm shocked at how accurate the research was. This channel does good research. The little experiment they did at the end was pointless, a victim of very small sample size + amateur bowlers who are by their nature volatile in their scores. The string pin study was mostly for league+professional bowling, where bowlers tend to be more consistent shot to shot and would notice if they weren't getting the strike they deserved for a good shot.

If there is context to be added, I will say I've watched lots of videos about string pins and can tell you that the length of the string matters a lot. The USBC knew this and "certified" a certain length of string where score variations did not vary from freefall machines, and in my opinion this is true. But not all bowling centers use this length of string, so there will be definite noticeable differences in score and feel.

[thedeadwarrior]

Im studying statistics, and that reference absolutely made me feel that wasting hours in studying statistics didn't go to waste, time for me to do my own bowling quality testing

[SomeGuy]

Hi! I used to be a head mechanic on those big automatic pinsetters. Honestly one of the coolest jobs I've ever had. Our machines were ancient, but we made due. But working in that field, the biggest issue for smaller bowling alleys always ends up as the same unfortunate thing. It's incredibly expensive to replace pinsetters which is why there are still so many places with machines that are hella old. It's not easy to install and remove those buggers, especially with the way some older buildings are set up like ours was. Despite the fact we were owned by the biggest bowling company in the region, it was actually cheaper for them to build other locations and install them with modern machines than it would've been to replace ours, for reference.

While it would be cool to see more of these, it'll likely only be for newer places than older ones. On that note though, bowling actually has seen a recent upswing in popularity over the past few years. Our location before I left actually saw a rather massive growth in customers! I really hope it continues, bowling is such an underrated passtime.

[richardunruh]

One thing I've noticed about the "classic" pin setters is that on the rare occasion when a pin had light contact and didn't fall, but kind of "walked" away from it's spot, the setter would pick it up then set it back down right where it came from (within limits: I once saw the setter jam when it descended and tried to pick up a pin that was so far out of position it couldn't handle it). In other words, it doesn't reset it's location to the "standard" spot. I was always amazed by this ability. Based on the video showing how the string setters work I don't think they can do this. I think the "classic" setter's ability to replace the pin where it came from, while very subtle, can have an impact on the game - for highly skilled bowlers. This is the other aspect not covered by the studies: the effect on the game for highly skilled bowlers. I suspect that casual bowlers won't notice any difference, but league bowlers would definitely notice.

[ravenlord]

I find it ironic that computerized robots stole human jobs, and now stone age technology is replacing robot jobs. Don't be surprised if this is what triggers the long anticipated robot rebellion.

[Expat]

I was a teen-aged pinsetter and I was NOT underpaid. Plus, we got tips from the bowlers; usually half or silver dollars rolled down the lane after the game.

[sohopedeco]

I had always been confused by the fact the pins in the bowling alley in my countryside Brazilian town had strings but the ones in American movies were seamingly sorted by some form of black magic. Thanks for solving the mystery.😂

[MrAnalyzerSmith]

The picture at 2:35 is from a nin-pin bowling alley, which is standard in Europe to be operated with strings. Its even a dynamic of the game to shoot pins around another one and pull on its string to activate it and count as "fallen".

[higgs]

As a service brat back in the Fifties I set pins at the two lane base bowling alley at one of the smaller bases at which we were stationed. Every now and then a pin would go flying past. It never occurred that one could brain me.

[AriaNL]

The problem with strings is mostly in regards to pin action - if there are strings all over the lane, the knocked over pins can't roll around and potentially hit others that are still standing. As a result you eliminate a bit of the luck present in bowling.

[PerpetualRetrospect]

Worked at a bowling alley in High School, 15 year old kid working on AMF 8230 Pinsetters with the old relay style chassis "brains" on them, things were friggin deadly, came close to losing limbs/fingers MANY times!

[jamaicanskeleton]

Work at a bowling alley. With 20 lanes and the old machines consistently broke, to the point that it would severely hamper people’s enjoyment. We’d have to give them more time, move them to other lanes, one guy had to wait an hour bc his personal ball that he owned was lodged in the pin elevator. Having angry customers come up to the front desk was all too common. If we were packed on a Friday night and a lane was unfixable, there wasn’t much our manager could do to satisfy people without refunds.

[simonbone]

String pinsetters have been used in Canada for decades, as some of your images show. Those are duckpins in eastern Canada, probably Quebec or New Brunswick, but most Canadian lanes are five-pin, which is not played anywhere outside Canda.

[sphygo]

Apparently the bowling ally I went to uses bad strings then. There were multiple turns every game where pins got nocked down from strings colliding with other pin's strings. The game is still fun, but the experience suffered for it. String pins just sound and feel cheaper.