IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARDS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Andros de la Rue, of No. 110, Bunhill Row, in
the City of London, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF CARDS."
Sealed the 27th October 1877, and dated the 23rd August 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Andros de la
Rue at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd August 1877.
THOMAS ANDROS DE LA RUE, of No. 110, Bunhill Row, in the City of London,
Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARDS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of cards,
especially such as are used for play.
For these purposes sheets of cardboard are produced by pasting together thick-
nesses of paper sufficient to give to the cardboard the substance desired, taking care
that the substance and quality of the material be such that the cardboard may be
opaque. The two sheets forming the surfaces of the cardboard, which are of finer
material than that which is within, are printed in oil colours, the one with a pattern
such as is suitable for the backs of the cards, and the other with the designs by
which the cards are distinguished. The colours are mixed with oil and driers, as is
usual when printing with colours, and they are applied with surface printing blocks,
care being taken to obtain accurate register and to avoid set off. The spots are so
disposed that they may fall in opposite corners (or where this is inadmissible a
skeleton or outline is substituted) and they are figured in accordance with the value.
The sheets to form the back and front of the cardboard having been thus separately
prepared they are united together back to back, with a sufficient thickness of paper
between them to give the required substance. The sheets of card-board thus pre-
pared are, when thoroughly dry, hot pressed to give them a smooth and polished
surface. This is done by placing them separately between polished sheets of metal
previously heated, and together they are passed between heavily weighted rollers.

page_text: The sheets are then cut up into strips, and these strips are again divided and cut to
the required size by means of a rising and falling knife worked by hand and used
in connection with a fixed blade and with a gauge. The two blades acting together
as shears effect a perfectly clean cut, and leave no burr or roughness upon
the edges.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas Andros de la Rue in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd
February 1878.
THOMAS ANDROS DE LA RUE, of No. 110, Bunhill Row, in the City of London,
Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CARDS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of cards such
as are used for play.
The production of the cardboards, the printing and the cutting of the cards, may
all be performed in the ordinary manner, which it is unnecessary here to describe.
These processes, which are referred to in my Provisional Specification, are well:
known to all in the trade.
But the essential peculiarity in the Invention lies in the way in which the value
of the several cards is distinguished.
The arrangement of the pips or spots on the cards is so far modified as that every
card shall exhibit a pip or spot in the top and bottom opposite corners; that is to
say, the pips or spots of the two's and three's are made to fall diagonally instead of
vertically on the cards, and in the case of the aces a skeleton or outline pip is
similarly placed in the opposite corners of the cards, while the corner pips or spots
on all the cards, including the skeleton or outline pips on the aces, are figured or
marked in accordance with the value of the card in any manner which may be
considered preferable.
By these improvements the sorting of the cards into an orderly arrangement in
their several suits is greatly facilitated, and when the cards are held in the hand for
play the value of the cards can be readily seen, although they are only exposed or
"fanned out" to the width of a pip on each card.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and readily carried
into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto annexed.
Figure 1 represents several playing cards of a pack, in which throughout the
cards are marked in such manner that their values are distinguishable when fanned
out only to the width of a pip.
Figure 2 shews the same cards as are represented in Figure 1 arranged fanwise.
A special feature of the Invention is the diagonal arrangement of the pips or
spots in the two's and three's, and this I claim both separately and also in combi-
nation with the figuring, lettering, or other distinctive marking on the corner pips.
But I do not limit my Invention to this diagonal arrangement of the two's and
three's; as when the pips on these cards are arranged vertically in the ordinary way,

page_text: I carry out my Invention by the use of skeleton pips or spots disposed in the same
manner as in the case of the aces herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Andros de la Rue have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
TA
DRUE
(ro)
TA DE LA RUE
(L.S.)