A New AND IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SHUFFLING AND DEALING CARDS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, in the
Empire of France, and 10, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "A New
AND IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SHUFFLING AND DEALING CARDS."—A
communication from Honoré Etienne Piquet, residing at Sartrou-
ville, in the Empire of France, Engineer.
Sealed the 27th November 1868, and dated the 10th June 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henri Adrien Bonne-
ville at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 10th June 1868.
I, HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent
Offices, 18, Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 10,
Sackville Street, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW AND
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SHUFFLING AND DEALING CARDS," a communication
from Honoré Etienne Piquet, a person resident at Sartrouville, in the
Empire of France, aforesaid, Engineer, to be as follows:-

page_text: The Invention communicated to me relates to a new and improved
apparatus for shuffling and dealing cards, and consists in a box made of
wood or any other material combined with a clockwork movement.
This box having the width or thereabouts of a pack of cards, twice its
length and about three times its thickness, is divided at the middle
transversely by several steel or copper wires fixed in its sides at a certain
distance from one another. The cards being put in the box, furnished
with a lid, are shaken in the direction of its length, and are thus shuffled
by being divided and separated by the transverse metal wires. The
shuffling of the cards being effected, by inclining the box they are all
brought forward to the front part of the box and pressed towards the
upper part thereof by means of a spring placed at the bottom of the
box and which is set free by the hand against a cork roller covered with
cloth or caoutchouc. This roller receives a rotatory movement from the
clockwork placed in an envelope fixed on the upper extremity of the
box by means of ordinary gearing, and this rotation has for object to
carry away and in succession push outside all the cards through an
opening or slot at the end of the box.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville'in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 2nd December 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18,
Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 10, Sackville
Street, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-second year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, 'Her special license that I,
the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my exécutors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during

page_text: the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"A NEW AND IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SHUFFLING AND DEALING CARDS," a
communication from Honore Etienne Piquet, a person resident at
Sartrouville, in the Empire of France, aforesaid, Engineer, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby
declare the nature of the said. Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-.
The Invention communicated to me relates to a new and improved
apparatus for shuffling and dealing cards, and consists in a box made
of wood or any other material combined with a clockwork movement.
This box having the width or thereabouts of a pack of cards, twice its
length and about three times its thickness, is divided at the middle
transversally by several steel or copper wires fixed in its sides- at a
certain distance from one another. The cards being put into the box,
furnished with a lid, are shaken in the direction of its length, and are
thus shuffled by being divided and separated by the transversal metal
wires. The shuffling of the cards being effected, by inclining the box
they are all brought forward to the front part of the box and pressed
towards the upper part thereof by means of a spring placed at the
bottom of the box and which is set free by the hand against a cork
or wooden roller covered or not with cloth or caoutchouc. This roller
receives a rotation movement from the clockwork placed in an envelope
fixed on the upper extremity of the box by means of ordinary gearing,
and this rotation has for object to carry away and in succession push
outside all the cards through an opening or slot at the end of the
box.
Having thus summarily described the said Invention, I will now

page_text: Drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a side view of the apparatus, Fig. 2 a
front end view, and Fig. 3 a top view, like letters of reference
indicating corresponding parts throughout all the Figures.
A is the box, it is closed at its rear end by a sliding or hinged door B,
which is opened by means of the notch C to introduce the pack of cards;
D is a spring blade having a slot E; a pin F, G, the head F of which
rests on the spring, passes through this slot and a corresponding slot
which is in the bottom of the box. The button G being pushed with
the finger, the head of the pin on the pin sliding causes the spring
to be depressed to the bottom of the box. D' is a moveable counter-
plate or metal blade mounted on a hinge at D" of the spring blade D;
this counterplate or blade, on which the cards are placed for distribution,
assumes the horizontal position when the spring blade is raised, its front
end resting against the distributing roller. When it is desired to raise
the spring up again, as represented in Fig. 1, the button G is brought
back into its former position. H, H, H, are little steel, brass, or copper
wires, which extend across the width of the box; they serve to separate
and divide the cards when shaken to and fro to shuffle them; the
spring D and the counterplate D¹ is then depressed to the bottom of
the box. Instead of causing the box to be opened at the side it might
so be arranged as to open at the top or front by means of a sliding or
hinged closing piece. The pack of cards being brought back to the
front part of the box the button G is slid back, and the spring D raising
the counterplate D', the said counterplate presses underneath the pack
of cards I, as shown in Fig. 1, which pushes the same towards the
distributing roller J. This cork or wooden roller presses on the cards,
and by its rotation movement, in succession pushes out each and every
card through the slot or opening L existing at the front end of the box.
This roller may be covered or not with cloth, caoutchouc, or any other
suitable elastic substance. The clockwork is enclosed in a thin brass
envelope M connected with the box A by means of the screws N, N,
or otherwise. O is the ordinary barrel enclosing the main screw, the
arbor of which barrel protrudes from the barrel envelope and carries a
little handle P, which serves to wind it up. This arbor carries inside a
ratchet wheel Q with its spring catch, to prevent it retrograding, as in all
clockwork movement. The main wheel R of this barrel actuates the
pinion S keyed on the arbor T of the roller J, thus is the roller actuated;
its rotation is regulated by means of the little roller controlled by the

page_text: spring U.
On the arbor T of the roller J is keyed a wheel V, which
gears in with the wheel X, gearing in with the pinion X' keyed on the
arbor X", at the other extremity of which is keyed the wheel Y, which
gears in with the pinion Z and imparts to it a certain speed. On the
arbor of this pinion is keyed a little roller U. These, however, differ in
no wise from the ordinary combination of clockwork movements as used
in alarums, musical boxes, and such like analogous objects. In order
to arrest the movement a spring U' prevents the rotation of the little
roller U; when the rotation is to take place a finger should be pressed
on the button V"; the little roller is then freed and the movement
operated. Between the internal and front edge of the box and that
of the clockwork envelope there is but exactly sufficient place for the
passage of a single card. At its front and rear ends the box is lined
with a band V" of cloth or caoutchouc to protect the edges of the cards
when shuffled.
The construction of the apparatus may be considerably simplified by
entirely doing away with the mechanism herein-before described, leaving
the roller J, on the arbor of which would be fixed a dented pinion, loose
on one side, actuated by the dented arc of a circle fixed on the extremity
of a lever passing through the envelope -M, and to which motion is
imparted by the pressure of the thumb, in order to push each and every
card out of the box. When a plane box for the shuffling of the cards
alone is required, the clockwork, the roller J, the spring blade D, and
the counterplate D¹, should be suppressed, and the box A alone retained
with its wires H, H, H; this would considerably simplify the apparatus.
A box may also be made without any clockwork movement and merely
furnished with a distributing roller J, which might be actuated with
the hand by means of a handle; such a box, being less complicated,
would be less expensive.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that I do
not intend to confine myself to the exact details above enumerated, as
these may obviously be modified without departing from the principle of
the Invention, but what I claim is,-
1°. The transversal metal wires H in combination with the box A
operating substantially as herein-before fully set forth and described and
illustrated in the annexed Drawings.

page_text: 2°. The combination of the clockwork movement with the distributing
roller J, the spring blade D, the counterplate D¹, and the pin F, G,
operating substantially as herein-before fully set forth and described and
illustrated in the annexed Drawings.
3°. The counterplate D¹ in combination with the spring blade D and
the pin F, G, operating substantially as herein-before fully set forth
and described and illustrated in the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight.
H. BONNEVILLE. (L.S.)