Marble melt glass fiber feed system

Apparatus for feeding glass marbles directly to a fiber forming bushing comprising a container having an elongate slot-like opening at or near the bottom therein, the height of said opening being not less than three times the diameter of glass marbles contained in said container, a pre-melter connected to said bushing and having an elongate slot-like opening therein for receiving glass marbles, said opening having a width not less than two times the diameter of said glass marbles, and a chute connecting said container to said pre-melter, said chute having a main body and having an opening at either end corresponding to the dimensions of the openings of said pre-melter and said container, said chute having its side to side dimension sufficient to accommodate flow of a plurality of marbles in side-by-side relation to provide feed of marbles across the width of the pre-melter, the main body of said chute being positioned with respect to said container and said pre-melter to provide an angle from the horizontal sufficient to allow for gravity feed of said glass marbles from said container to said pre-melter but slight enough to prohibit disruption of said pre-melter or said bushing from the weight of the marbles contained in the chute.