How does a bowling alley work?

The title of this post must sound exceedingly strange, mundane, or outright stupid. I mean, really- how does a bowling alley work? That's easy! You roll a ball, knock some pins down, write down a number (or these days, let the computer do it for you), and then take a sip of beer and wait 10 minutes for your next turn. Fair enough. However- ever since I can remember rolling duckpin balls at Village Lanes and Arcade Lanes here in Frederick, MD (both now since have closed), I was always EXTREMELY curious as to what was happening behind that cosmetic facade just above the pin area, to know what was going on behind the scenes to keep the game going. Namely:

1. sweeping away "deadwood" (knocked-over pins which must be removed before subsequent rolls), while keeping the remaining pins in place;
2. sweeping away ALL of the remaining pins at the end of the frame, once your alloted amount of ball rolls (which for duckpin bowling, by the way, is three- not two- like ten-pin bowling) and resetting a new "rack" of pins in place;
3. collecting the knocked down pins to be used for the next "rack";
4. returning the balls that I have rolled back to me for reuse.

Frankly, there's a lot of precise action going on in the "back of house" in order to keep the game going. Keep in mind that if someone rolls a strike, it might only be 15 seconds or so between the end of the prior frame, and the time that the person that rolled a strike hits the reset button to request another full rack of pins to be reset in place. So, the machinery in the back of house must not only be fast, but it also has to be precise (not putting pins in the wrong spots, or making sure not to omit pins in the 10-pin layout), accurate (not putting pins in wrong places that would make a frame easier or more difficult for a bowler to score with, since league play is highly competitive), as well as safely and reliably putting pins- intact- in place, and not damaging the bowler's bowling balls in the process of gently returning them to the bowler, at the "front of house".

That being said- if you have a curious mind like I do, seeing how all this happens might be interesting to you. The first time my friends at Walkersville Lanes took me to the back of house to see how things work was really quite a thrill for me. A few days ago they let me hang out and shoot some video of how the 50+ (60+?) year old machinery works that clears pins, sets pins, and sends bowling balls back to the bowlers works. I hope you find this stuff interesting- please note that I tried to get in as close as I could to shoot these videos without losing any fingers- this machinery is VERY dangerous with all of the motors, chains, and gears involved....

Thanks to Reds and Leroy (in no particular order- you guys are both great teachers and have infinite patience with me) for your help with this.

Check out the six videos on the right:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ferdmack?feature=mhum#p/u/1/2pzRGbKpjBg