US339066A

US339066A - Edgar j

Info

Publication number: US339066A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1886-03-30
Anticipated expiration: 1903-03-30

Description

(No Model.)

B. J. LEVEY.

PLAYING CARD.

No. 339,066. Patented Mar. 30, 1886.

WITNESSES 6 IIQYENTOR flWv/Xi w ATTORNEYS.

lhyiTnn STATES PATENT tries.

'EDGAR J. LEVEY, OF XEXV YORK, X. Y.

PLAYING-CARD.

Serial No. 164,573.

CIFN A TION forming part of Letters Patent No. 339,066, dated March 30, 1886,

(No sprcixncns.)

T aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be itknown that I, EDGAR J. LEvEY, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in PlayingOards, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to that description of playing'cards frequently known as squeez ers, owing to the compact and secure manner in which they may be held in the hand of the player and their freedom from exposure, and in which the cards have miniature symbols and figures or signs denoting their suit and denomination on or near the one corner of the marginal portions of their faces. These miniature designs, or pips, as they are sometimes termed, are very apt, owing to their smallness and slight difference in shape, also owing to their sameness of color in certain of the suits, to lead to misconception on the part of the holder of a hand as to the character or suit of the cards. Thus, where the miniature symbol is a heart, itis very liablein the hurry or confusion of sorting the cards or of playing to be taken for a diamond, both of which are usually red, or a diamond to be taken for a heart, or, in the black suits, a spade for a club, or a club fora spade. Especially is this the case where the players sight is defective.

The object of my invention is to remedy this liability to error as to the particular suit to which the card belongs, so that a player may readily distinguish at a glance not simply the color of the suit, but the particular suit to which the card belongs, as denoted by the symbol in the corner of the card on the marginal portion of its face.

To this end my invention consists in combining with the symbol of a suit any mark which shall distinguish it from a suit of the same color and it furthermore consistsin the particular application of a distinguishing mark to the marginal symbols of the cards, as hereinafter specifically set forth as one mode of carrying out my invention.

This distinguishingmark, with which a player from experience soon becomes familiar, may be varied in character or shape and color.

I attain my object by having a distinguishing mark or emblem applied to one suit only of the red color, and the same or a different mark or emblem of a different color, if desired, applied to one suit only of black color, leaving the symbols of the other suits solid or unmarked.

The accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, illustrate some of the modes of carrying out my invention in practice.

Figure 1. represents a face View of four cardsthat is, one for each suit in the packarranged as the same would be held in the hand by a player, and having a distinguishing-mark applied to the symbols only of certain of the suits, and with said distinguishingmarks upon the symbols themselves.

A, in Fig. 1, indicates a small heart, or one of the red suit of cards in the pack, with its symbol I), a miniature heart, in the usual place, but with a white or other colored dot or mark, 0, in the symbol, to distinguish the suit to which said card belongs from the other suit of like color in the packthat is, diamonds which, as shown for the card B, has its symbol 1) left solid or without special mark. A like distinction is shown for the two cards 0 D in Fig. 1, that pertain to the two black suits. Thus (1, which represents spades, has its symbol b distinguished by a dot or mark, 0, in it, while the card 1), which represents clubs, has no distinguishing-mark applied to its symbol. Now, supposing all the cards of the different suits to be thus or similarly distinguished by marks applied to the symbols of certain of the suits only, the player will soon become f. miliarwith the distinction, and thus be prevented from mistaking one suit for another.

By the term distinguishing marks, as applied to or combined with the marginal symbols of the cards, I desire it to be understood that I do not restrict myself to any partioular character of distinguishing marks, which may be almost indefinitel y varied, and be plain, ornamental, or emblematical, ranging from a mere dot or line to a well-defined arbitrarily-selected figure of regular or irreg ular shape, and of any desired color or colors.

I am aware that in playing-cards which are provided in their margins with miniature representations of the card it has been proposed to distinguish between the two suits of the same color by mutilating' or breaking the mar ginal line of the miniature card to indicate one of said suits, and to leave it unbroken in the other. My invention differs from that above referred to in placing the distinguishingmark upon the spot symbol itself, which 'enables me to make the mark larger and more easily distinguished.

I am also aware that it is old to place a distinguishing-mark in the spot symbols of a card, as set forth in the patent granted Saladee December 18, 187 7 but such was intended to indicate the rank of the card in its particular suit, and did not serve to distinguish one suit from another, as all the suits were marked in the same way; but