US360444A - Puzzle - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALVIN P. JOHNSON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

PUZZLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 360,444, dated April 5, 1887. Application filed January 12, 1887. Serial No. 224,132. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALVIN P. JOHNSON, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Puzzle, of which the following, taken in commotion with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an amusing andinstructive entertainment for children and others; and it consists in a series of plates of wood, metal, card-board, or other suitable material of such shape and size that when placed together with their edges in contact they will make up or represent a single larger plate from which they may have been out, said plates having printed, stamped, out, or otherwise formed therein or affixed thereon figures, characters, or objects in a plurality of positions relative to the sides of said plates, in combination with a test plate provided with a series of holes corresponding in numher to the number of figures, characters, or objects formed upon said series of smaller plates, and so located relative to each other that the figures, characters, or objects formed upon said small-er plates may all be seen through said holes when-said smaller plates are placed together with their edges in contact, with each smaller plate bearing its true and correct position relative to all of the othersmaller plates, and the perforated test-plate is placed upon the cluster of smaller plates in its proper position, as will be further described.

Figure l of the drawings represents the se ries of small plates in their true position. Fig. 2 is a plan of the perforated test-plate. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on line as x on Fig. 2. Figs. 4. and 5 are respectively a plan and an edge view of one of the smaller plates provided with a projecting object instead of a printed figure, and Figs. 6 and 7 are respectively a plan and section of one of the series of small plates provided with a perforation in lieu of the printed figure.

In the drawings, A A are the series of small plates, each provided with a figure, character, or object, a, formed thereon, therein, or affixed thereto, as shown, said figure, character, or object being arranged upon each of said plates A in a different position relative to the edges of its plate, to the figure, character, or object on any other of said plates.

The figures, characters, or objects a may be printed upon the plates A, as shown in Fig. 1, or said plates may be perforated, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, or they may have projecting objects alfixed thereon, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, without affecting the principles of my invention.

B is the test-plate, having an areaconsiderably larger than the aggregate of the areas of the series of smaller plates, A, and having formed therein a series of holes, b b, arranged relative to each other, so that when the plate B is placed upon the series of plates A, arranged as shown in Fig. 1, one of the figures, characters, or objects a will be seen through each of the holes I) b, the positions of the smaller plates, A, relative to the plate B when the latter is placed upon the former being indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2.

The plates A may be made square, as shown, or of any other desired shape which will fit together in more than one position, and there fore I do not wish to be restricted to the pie cise form of said plates shown in the drawings.

The operation of my invention is as follows: The plates A being thoroughly mixed or shuffled, the puzzleis to place them together again with their edges in contact and in their true or correct position, so that when the test-plate B is placed above them in a certain position one of the figures, characters, or objects upon the plates A may be seen through each of the openings in said plate B.

\Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-- A puzzle composed of a series of plates of a shape and size to fit together, each in more than one position, to make up a larger plate, said plates being provided with figures arranged in a plurality of positions relative to the edges of said plates, in combination with a test-plate provided with a series of holes or perforations corresponding in number and po sition to the series of figures upon the smaller plates when said smaller plates are placed with their edges in contact and each smaller plate occupying its correct position relative to all of-the other plates, substantially as de scribed.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, on this 8th day of J anuary, A. D. 1887.

' ALVIN I. JOHNSON.

Witnesses:

N. O. LOMBARD, WALTER E. LOMBARD.

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