US2607595A - Educational card game - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 19,1952 c. H. M-ATHEs EDUCATIONAL CARD GAME Filed July 14, 1947 I 6227/93 H Mikes 3nnentor (Ittomegs Patented Aug. 19, 1952 OFFICE EDUCATIONAL CARD GAME Charles H. Mathes, Seattle, Wash. Application July 14, 1947, Serial No. 760,794

. 3 Claims.

My present invention relates to the general art of card games and more particularly to an educational card game.

The majority of card gamesare created for the express purpose of entertaining players. In contra-distinction tothis general premise, I have provided a card game in which the conventional card-deck of 52 cards is employed, but on the faces of which I have provided, with appropriate symbols, information which shows the political voting trends as averaged over a period of thirty years. This game has been created with the intent of' interesting particularly the younger generation in a study of political science, and the game as "played has been found not only to acquaint children, or even adults, as to the general'voting tendencies in our various States, but, in the case of children, it excites their, curiosity to the point that they become genuinely interested in a study of the political organization and structure of these United States.

Further, successfulplaying of the game makes it necessary to keep track of the number of votes or electoral college members that each opposing player or pair of players may have, and this carrying of a runningftotal in ones-mind is in itself mind training an'd o'f real value.

The principal object of my educational game is to provide the means whereby individuals can easily acquire knowledge as to thevoting tendencies in thevarious States-of the United States.

A- further' object of my present invention'is to provide means whereby an individual can gradually and easily learn the number of electoral votes to-WhichJeach State of the United States is entitled. J This'igame 'also naturally gives the number. of representativesand senators in each State; I .1

A further object of my invention is to perpetuate and'familiarizethyounger generation with the symbols which are, i n'efiect, the trade-marks of the principal political parties.

A further object of my invention is to bring out, particularly to younger minds, the reasons why certain States are very valuable to a political party in a general election, and why some other States are of much lesser importance.

A further object of my present invention is to employ a deck of regular playing cards which are merely over-printed with the information essential to my game and, in this way, the deck may be used'for normal playing games or may be ,used'specifically for the'political educational purposes.-

A further object of my invention is to provide on thevarious cards of my'playing deck the information concerning the electoral votes and how the different States have voted during the past thirty years, so that this information will be readily available during an election period so that the game can be carried to a logical conclusion, particularly by youngsters who, from a study of the daily papers and their election forecasts, can make their own predictions as to the outcome of any election. This in'itself has been found to be a.great interest-sustaining feature.

Further objects, advantages and capabilities will be apparent from the description and disclosure in the drawing or may be comprehended or are inherent in the game.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a "representation of selected cards from my playing deck, the red cards of the deck have been appropriately sectioned to indicate their colors.

Referring more particularly to the disclosure in the drawing, the numeral l0 designates the card nomenclature and gives not only the State or territory n'ame,- but also the number of electoral college votes allotted to that political subdivision. At present this allocation is as follows I Table I.

Alabama 11 Nebraska 7 Arizona 1 3 Nevada 3 Arkansas 9 New Hampshire 4 California 22 New Jersey 16 Colorado 6 New Mexico 3 Connecticut 8 New York 47 Delaware 3 North Carolina' 13 Florida 7 North Dakota 4 Georgia 1 Ohio 26 Idaho 4 Oklahoma 11 Illinois 29 Oregon 5 Indiana 14 Pennsylvania 36 Iowa 11 Rhode Island 4 Kansas 9 South Carolina 8 Kentucky 11 South Dakota 4 Louisiana 10 Tennessee 11 Maine 5 Texas 23 Maryland 8 Utah 4 Massachusetts 17 Vermont 3 Michigan 19 j Virginia 11 Minnesota 11 Washington 8 Mississippi l 9 West Virginia 8 Missouri 15 Wisconsin 12 Montana 4 Wyoming 3 The deuces are assigned to territories, as fol- 3 lows: Hearts to Hawaii, Diamonds to Alaska, Spades to Puerto Rico, and Clubs to the Philippine Islands.

The numerals l2 and I l designate, respectively, the. donkey symbol of the Democratic party and the elephant symbol of the Republican party. These symbols are to be taken as merely representative of symbols used by the principal political parties as they are, or may be established in the future by actual elections.

Further political party designations are assigned to the cards bearing the State name generally as shown by past elections.

The determination of the rank of the cards assigned to various States is on the basis of their electoral vote strength, as far as practical; thus New York, with an electoralvote of 47, is assigned the highest red card, the ace of hearts, and Pennsylvania, with 36 electoral votes, the highest black card, the ace of spades.

In-playing .my game, the primary intent is to provide a game strategy which is based upon a general-understanding and appreciation of how electoral :votes are divided among the various States. The mere fact that intelligent playing of the game to win requires this preestablished information in the mind of the player, requires consideration and study which may actually be achievedthrough repeated playing of the game.

In playing, the 52 cards of the deck are normallydivided. up among the four players much as abridge hand is dealt, the cards being dealt one at at time around the table, until each player hashis thirteen cards.

Whenthe player scans his cards, he will be able to make appraisal ,of the strength of his hand and, on the basis of his knowledge of the distribution of electoral votes in the various States which are represented on the individual cards, he will planlhis playing strategy and determine in his mind Whether his better chances of winning are to play his hand for the one principal political party or the other. V

The markings of the cards, as previously indicated andas will be observed on thedrawings, are arranged so that the blacksuits, as clubs and spades, will represent one political party, and the red suits, as the hearts and diamonds, will represent the opposing principal political party. The

, playing effect is to divide the deck into two suits of 26 cards, one suit black and one suit red. The order of rank of the cards is from ace down to the deucein each suit, with hearts being higher of the same'denomination than diamonds, and likewise, spades of the same denomination being higher than the corresponding club card.

The play starts by the player to, the dealers left having the initiallead, and his lead, whether ning. It may be assumed, for instance, that he prefersto lead an ace of spades or hearts which, in accordance with'their lead, would be the high cards.

The lead of either a blackcard or a red card gives trump value to that color lead so that, for instance, a deuceof clubs, which is the lowest of the black cards, would take a trick composed of red cards, without regard to their .face value.

When a player leads a high card of his preferred color,'it is to bepresumedthat the No. 2 player will slufloff a low card which will least affect the strength of his hand. No. 3 player, however, being the partner of the leader, should preferably put on a high card of the opposing suit so 4 as to get the score, not that it will assist his partner in winning in his elected party, but it will take a large number of points away from his opponent and thus make him and his partner have a more advantageous position. Player No. 4, like player No. 2, normally would sluif what he considers to be the card of least value to himself and his partner.

It will be understood, it is believed, that there will ,be a large number of strategic plays very similar to what will be encountered in whist, pinochle, or bridge games. Further, it is to be understood that the game can be played by two players, by a dealing and playing arrangement that is comparable to the game of honeymoon bridge, as defined by Hoyle or other card-game authorities.

The lead player may play any card he may choose and the restrof the players have to play to the suit lead, unless they can take the trick by a higher card. However, black has to be played on black, and red hasto be played on red. Thus, if the 10 of diamonds is played, the 10 of hearts or any higher heart or diamond will take the trick, but if a player is unable to take the trick, the next player must play to the color and suit lead; 1. -e., if a 10 of clubs is lead, and the player cannot take the trick, he has to play a club, if possible. If there are no-clubs in his hand, then a spade must be played. If, after all the face cards down to 10 have been played, and the lead play is the 8 of diamonds, and the next player has no diamonds, he plays a heart. If he has no hearts, he may play any low count black card that he may wish to. Unless he plays to the suit card, he loses the trick, Hence, when all large count cards have been played to maintain the lead, the player may play cards that he feels his opponents are out of, and if he is correct in his assumption, he will take additional-tricks of low count cards which will make quite a gain in count for him.

The game proceeds on a trick-taking basis until all 52cards have been played. The cards are then appraised somewhat like pinochle and the electoral vote count of each card counted in favor of the player holdingit. .Countis kept of the points scored until one side obtains a previously agreed upon total of, say 1000 points and wins. I 7 I Under certain conditions, the addition of the odd values of electoral votes may be burdensome. A simplified scoring of 20 points for each ace, king, queen and jack, and a scoring-of 7 points for each of the cards from 10 down to deuces will give a total score value of 544 points against an actual'point'scoreof 531, and is recommended especially for children's play.

It is believed that it will be clearly apparent from the above description and the disclosure in the drawings that the invention comprehends a novel educational card game.

Having thus disclosed the' invention, I claim: 1. In combinationwith a 'four'suit deck of playing cards of conventional type, with the usual black and red, colored suits and with conventional denominationyand suit markings in two oppositecorners and in the central portions, a ,marginal imprinting on opposite long sides of a card of said deck for each State name, the number of electoral votes corresponding with said State and the symbol of the political party usually predominant in said State, one symbol being for the Republican party and being im-. printed on cards of one color and one symbolbe- 5 ing for the Democratic party and being imprinted on cards of the other color, and higher ranking cards having generally the names of States having higher numbers of electoral college votes.

2. In combination with a four-suit deck of playing cards of conventional type withthe usual black and red colored suits and with conventional denomination and suit markings in two opposite comers and in the central portions,

a marginal imprinting on opposite long sides of a card of said deck for each State name, the number of electoral votes corresponding with said State and the symbol of the political party usually predominant in said State, on symbol being for the Republican party and one symbol being tor the Democratic party, and higher ranking cards having generally the names of States having higher numbers of electoral college votes. 1

3. In combination with a four-suit deck of playing cards of conventional type and with conventional denomination and suit markings in The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 20 1,000,095 Kyle et a1. Aug. 8, 1911 1,012,574 Adams Dec. 26, 1911 1,048,346 Ritzman Dec. 24, 1912 1,855,543

REFERENCES CITED Dalton Apr. 26, 1932

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