US3189888A

US3189888A - Electronic cribbage board

Info

Publication number: US3189888A
Application number: US307709A
Authority: US
Inventors: William A Bradley
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1963-09-09
Filing date: 1963-09-09
Publication date: 1965-06-15
Anticipated expiration: 1982-06-15

Description

June 15, 1965 w. A. BRADLEY ELECTRONIC CRIBBAGE BOARD 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 9, 19s:

CONNECT TO WIN BULB c NEON BULB (H -2) r-IH .223 D. OFO Oh FOMZZOO IIO -l lO-2O CONTR TRACK I T RACK 2 SEPARATE BUT IDENTICAL SWITCH S CIRCUIT FIG.

June 1965 w. A. BRADLEY 3,189,888

ELECTRONIC CRIBBAGE BOARD Filed Sept. 9, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 TRACK 2 WIN BULB TRACK 1 WIN BULB IIO- I20 STAGE OF TRACK 2 June 15, 1965 w. A. BRADLEY ELECTRONIC GRIBBAGE BOARD 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Sept. 9, 1963 s a'r eloosoao-ro so sno so WIN OFF

\.un an... 00-0: .100. at... 01-00 nut. u

United States Patent 3,189,888 ELECTRUNIC CRHSBAGE BOARD William A. Bradley, 1301 12th St. E, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Filed Sept. 9, 1963, Ser. No. $137,709 6 Claims. (@Cl. 340-323) My invention relates to new and useful improvements in electronic Cribbage boards.

The conventional method of scoring cribbage is to have a board within which are provided .a plurality of drillings or apertures normally formed in two parallel tracks, and usually incorporating 120 apertures for each track. A pair of pegs are progressively moved along the tracks as the scoring proceeds, each player normally looking after his own score.

in order to operate satisfactorily, the board has to be located :so that both players can reach the pegs easily but unfortunately pegs often become displaced when one player is moving his own score so that some doubt occurs as to the exact score of the game at that point.

Another disadvantage is that due to the length of the tracks they are normally counter folded one upon the other to encompass the many relatively small boards so that any one player has to travel down in one direction, around the corner and back up the other direction and then finish on a third track parallel to the first track. This often becomes confusing so that it is quite prevalent for a player to score backwardly on the track rather than forwardly once again adding to the confusion of the score at that point.

I have overcome these disadvantages by providing an electronic board having a source of light for each corresponding score point upon the tracks, said lights being illuminated by a units and tenths switch which can be manipulated readily and easily by the player involved without the danger of error occurring.

The principal object and essence of my invention is therefore to provide a device of the character herewithin described which eliminates the use of pegs, match sticks and the like from the scoring of the game of Cribbage.

Another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described in which it is diificult to misunderstand the score or to make an error in the actual scoring process.

Yet another object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described which can be battery operated or, alternatively, can be plugged into the house voltage.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a device of the character herewithin described which is simple in construction, economical in manufacture, and otherwise well suited to the purpose for which it is designed.

With the foregoing objects in view, and such other objects and advantages as will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, my invention consists essentially in the arrangement and construction of parts all as hereinafiter more particularly described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic block diagram of one track, the second track being separate but identical.

FIGURE 2 is a schematic wiring diagram of one track, it being understood that the second track is identical.

FIGURE 3 shows a schematic wiring diagram of the portion of my device incorporating the win bulb circuits and showing the 110 and 120 stage of the track.

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of a cribbage board with my invention incorporated.

3,189,888 Patented June 15, 1965 FIGURE 5 is a cross sectional view of the board substantially along the line 5-5 of FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged view of the switching area of the cribbage board.

In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the diiferent figures.

Proceeding therefore to describe my invention in detail, reference to FIGURES 4 and 5 will show a conventional cnibbage board collectively designated 10 which is substantially rectangular when viewed in plan and normally consists of a planar piece of wood or the like. Although the present device is shown as a board, normally designed to be supported upon a table, nevertheless this particular invention is suitable for use with a relatively large cribbage board having four legs which is self supporting and provides an area suflicient for a playing sur-fac A substantially rectangular aperture 11 is formed through the board 10 bounded by the sides 12 and the ends 13 of the aperture. These sides and ends are recessed to provide support ledges 14 for a panel of clear plastic or glass 14 situated flush with the upper surface 15 of the board and covering the lamps and lamp holder unit collectively designated 16. In this particular embodiment, the lamp holder 17 consists of a rectangular piece of styrofoam plastic sheet cut to fit the recess 11 and adapted to register upon the overlapping flanged edges 18 of strips 19 secured to the underside 20 of the board as clearly shown in FIG. 5.

The bulbs 21 are preferably NE2 neon type bulbs which are relatively small and are pointed upon the upper end thereof. These can readily be pushed through the styrofoam plastic sheet so that the upper ends 22 of the bulbs break through the upper surface 23 of the plastic as shown in FIGURE 5.

Reference character 24 illustrates track one of a conventional scoring route for a cribb age game and reference character 25 illustrates the corresponding parallel track two. It is conventional to score 120 points for a cribbage game and these tracks are counter folded in order to encompass them within a relatively small space as shown in FIG. 4.

Situated adjacent each

end

26 and 27 of the board are scoring actuator panels 26 and 27', one of these scoring panels being connected to track one and the other to track two.

Each scoring panel consists of a multiple units switch 28 and a multiple tens switch 29 with the relevant indicia engraved around the switch knobs 28' and 29'.

The wiring of the indicator lamps 21 is shown in detail in FIG. 2. The units switch 28 is provided with twelve switching positions including oil, 1, 2, 3, 4, S, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and win, and the tens switching unit is provided with twelve switching positions including 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110.

The switches connect the device to a source of electrical energy through means of a conventional plug 30, K resistors 31 being provided where necessary so that the voltage and current are correct for NE-2 neon bulbs.

Unit 1 of the units switch 28 is connected to one side of indicator lamp #1 (reference character 31') and to indicator lamps 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, etc. Units switch 2 is connected to neon bulb #2, (reference character 32) and also to one side of bulbs 12, 22, 32, 42, 52, 62, etc.

The remaining unit numbers are connected in a similar manner to

bulbs

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and also to their corresponding multiples as clearly shown in FIG. 2.

The other sides of the indicator lamps 31', 32, etc. of the first 10 positions are connected to the zero position of the tens switch and the other sides of bulbs 10 to 20 are connected to the position of the tens switch and the remaining positions of the switches are connected as clearly indicated in FIG. 2.

Reference should be made to FIG. 3 which shows the

win bulb

33 and 34 situated at the ends of the tracks and connectable by means of the units switch between the win position and the other side of the 110 to 120 stage of each of the tracks so that the win bulb will only illuminate when the tens switch is at 110 position and the units switch has been moved around through 1 to 10 to the win position.

In operation, both units switches are in the off position at the beginning of the game and the tens switches are set to zero. If the player on track one scores six points, he moves the units points to six thus illuminating the sixth bulb. If he then scores a further eight points, he moves the units switch around to position No. 4 and the tens switch to position No. 10 so that the score illuminates fourteen.

Play continues until the one player is enabled to illuminate the win bulb and at all times it is readily apparent the position of both players with the minimum chance of error occurring.

Since various modifications can be made in my invention as hereinabove described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without departing from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter con tained in the accompanying specifications shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. An electronic cribbage board comprising in combination with a source of electrical energy, a supporting board, an indicating lamp holder recessed Within said board, a plurality of indicator lamps corresponding to the conventional two-player scoring tracks, there being one indicator lamp for each of said scoring positions on each of said tracks, a multiple units switch mounted on said board for each of said tracks and a multiple tens switch mounted on said board for each of said tracks, and electrical wiring extending from said source of electrical energy, through said switches, to said indicator lamps whereby sequential movement of said units and said tens switches will illuminate said indicator lamps sequentially.

2. The device according to claim 1 in which said lamp holder comprises a sheet of opaque styrofoam plastic, said indicator lamps being pushed through said plastic from the'underside thereof so that the upper portions of said lamps break through the upper surface of said styrofoam holder.

3. The device according to claim 2 which includes a transparent sheet covering said lamp holder and recessed into the surface of said board.

4. The device according to claim 1 which includes a further circuit for each track connected to one of said switches to selectively illuminate a win bulb situated adjacent the end of said tracks.

5. The device according to claim 2 which includes a further circuit for each track connected to one of said switches to selectively illuminate a win bulb situated adjacent the end of said tracks.

6. The device according to claim 3 which includes a further circuit for each track connected .to one of said switches to selectively illuminate a win bulb situated adjacent the end of said tracks.

No references cited.

NEIL C. READ, Primary Examiner.

Claims

1. AN ELECTRONIC CRIBBAGE BOARD COMPRISING IN COMBINATION WITH A SOURCE OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY, A SUPPORTING BOARD, AN INDICATING LAMP HOLDER RECESSED WITHIN SAID BOARD, A PLURALITY OF INDICATOR LAMPS CORRESPONDING TO THE CONVENTIONAL TWO-PLAYER SCORING TRACKS, THERE BEING ONE INDICATOR LAMP FOR EACH OF SAID 120 SCORING POSITIONS ON EACH OF SAID TRACKS, A MULTIPLE UNITS SWITCH MOUNTED ON SAID BOARD FOR EACH OF SAID TRACKS AND A MULTIPLE TENS SWITCH MOUNTED ON SAID BOARD FOR EACH OF SAID TRACKS, AND ELECTRICAL WIRING EXTENDING FROM SAID SOURCE OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY, THROUGH SAID SWITCHES, TO SAID INDICATOR LAMPS WHEREBY SEQUENTIAL MOVEMENT OF SAID UNITS AND SAID TENS SWITCHES WILL ILLUMINATE SAID INDICATOR LAMPS SEQUENTIALLY.