US509881A - Playing-card - Google Patents

Description

(N0 Model.)

THE PAST 2 SheetsSheet 1. W. DOERPLINGER.

PLAYING CARD.

N0. 509 88l. Patented Dec. 5,1898. z grz.

' FIRST ROW SECOND ROW THIRD ROW A V C THE PRESENT THE FUTURE FOURTH ROW FIFTH ROW SIXTH ROW- DHNG ER Love Matters General Hdvice W iflJQSSQS I Wllimzli'oezflifyez 2 Sheets Sheet 2.

(No Model.) e

W. DO-BRFLINGER.

PLAYING CARD.

mm $087k? 0 THE NATIONAL umomupnmu cow'luw.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM DOERFLINGER, OF LA (dROSSE, WISCONSIN.

PLAYING-CARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 509,881, dated December 5, 1893.

Application filed February 18, 1893- Serial No. 462,871. (No specimens.)

specification.

My invention relates to playing cards, and has special reference to that class thereof employed for the purpose of telling fortunes.

The objects of my invention are to provide a pack of cards preferably having such characters on their faces as the ordinary playingcards and to be grouped according to such characters to represent difierent events, for instance, the past, present, future, love-matters, general advice, and danger; and furthermore to provide the backs of said cards with a series of aligning spaces, each space being numbered so that when these cards are arranged in their respective groups and reversed the reading matter contained in the spaces will form different sentences purporting to represent the events that have been or are to take place.

Referring to the drawings:-Figure 1 is a general face View of one card of each group. Fig. 2 is a back view of the four cards of one group. 7

The pack consists in this instance of twenty-four cards, the same being given any shape desired but preferably oblong as shown. These twenty-four cards are divided into six groups of four each, the cards of each group being of different suits, as hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds, and in the first group I in the present instance have aces as indicating the group to which it belongs; in the second group I employ kings as the indicative character of the group; in the third, queens; in the fourth, jacks; in the fifth, ten-spots; and in the sixth, nine-spots. the cards are divided into twenty-four spaces by means of transverse black lines, and these spaces are numbered from 1 to 4 by prominent characters or numerals, the numeral 1 appearing at some point of the series of spaces six times consecutively, and the remaining numerals being arranged in such manner that when any four cards of a group are laid face down at some one point the aligning spaces of the four cards will bear the numerals 1, 2,

The backs of 3 and 4, and such are supposed to indicate the fortune of that particular group. For instance to play the game the cards are first shufiied, and may be cut by the person whose fortune is to be told, after which the fortuneteller takes the first card, which may be a king and as seen in the drawings is employed in that group indicating the present, the words The present being preferably prin ted thereon in some conspicuous place, and we see at the top of the cards the words Second row so that we know that it belongs to the second row or group. This card is laid face up on the table or playing-board, and the next card may be a queen, which belongs to the third group or row and is supposed to tell the future so that it is placed in the third row; the jack belongs to the fourth row or that pertaining to love matters; the ace t0 the first row or that pertaining to the past; the ten-spot to the fifth row or that pertaining to general advice; and the nine-spot to the sixth row or that pertaining to danger. When the cards have thus been assembledin their respective rows they are then turned face down so that the black lines of the cards of each row or group will align. The fortuneteller now glancing down the line of numerals of the first card comes to the group of the numerals 1, and then glancing at the remaining cards of the series ascertains in which line the numerals follow in regular sequence, such as 1, 2, 3 and 4. The fortune-teller then reads off the fortune, which may be any arbitrary sentence. After reading the backs of the cards of that group forming the past the fortune-teller then takes up that group indicating the present, then the group indicating the future, then that pertaining to love-matters, followed by that of general advice, and finally the group supposed to indicate danger that may threaten the person.

Itwill be seen that a great number of combinations maybe formed by the various relative locations of the cards of the group, each one reading diiferent from the other, and that in this manner considerable amusement may be afforded to a company.

Having described my invention, what I claim is-- 1. The herein describedfortune-telling pack of cards, the same consisting of a series of groups the faces of which are provided with suitable indicating characters whereby they may be identified as to their groups, and the backs of which are provided with a series of spaces, each space containing reading-matter, some one line of reading-matter of all of the cards of a group being designed to produce sense regardless of the relative positions 00- cupied by the cards of that group, substantially as specified.

2. The herein described fortune-telling pack of cards, the same consisting of a series of groups, each group comprising four cards and having on the front face thereof the ordinary playing card signs or insignia, the backs of the cards of each group being provided with a series of transverse parallel lines forming intermediate spaces, each of said spaces having a numeral, the numerals arranged from 1 to 4, the numeral 1 appearing consecutively six times on each card of the group and at a different point from Where it appears in the remaining cards of the group, and suitable reading-matter in said spaces so that when the cards are turned face down and with their backs uppermost there will always be four of the lines of the cards of a group whose numbers will run consecutively, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

WILLIAM DOERFLINGER.

WVitnesses:

JOHN HALIK, ANT. MEURER.

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