IMPROVEMENTS IN PLAYING-CARDS
Year: 1885

page_text: I, JESSIE FARWELL, of 110 High Street, Poole, in the County of Devon,
Draper, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PLAYING-CARDS" to be as follows =
This Invention relates to improvements in playing cards whereby such cards.
instead of representing abstract ideas, that is to say, spades, clubs, diamonds, and'
hearts, may be made useful for educational and mneinonical purposes.
I therefore propose to dispense with the usual arbitrary symbols, and to retain the
usual division of a pack of fifty-two cards into four suits, representative of the four
continents, Europe, Asia, Africa and America..
On cach card is printed (with or without pictorial illustration) the name of
a continent, for the purpose of distinguishing the suit to which it belongs. The
principal card of the suit, equivalent in value to the ordinary ace, bears the name
of the continent only, the next, or King bears the name of the continent and also
the name of a country or separate dominion, the Queen and knave being likewise
represented. These "Court" cards may and will preferably be embellished by
nedallions or portraits of past or present sovereigns or dignitaries, of public build-
ings, or by other emblems.
The remaining cards of the suit bear the name of one of the principal cities or
towns of the continent and also the name of the country to which it belongs, with
or without illustration.
With each pack of cards a key is to be supplied which will determine the
relative value of each card and by the careful study of such key, the verbal
description may be dispensed with and pictorial indications only used.

page_text: I JESSIE FARWELL 110 High Street Poole in the county of Dorset Draper do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
This Invention relates to improvements in playing cards whereby such cards
instead of representing abstract ideas that is to say spades, clubs, diamonds and
hearts may be made useful for educational and mnemonical purposes.
I therefore propose to dispense with the usual arbitrary symbols and to retain
the usual division of a pack of fifty two cards into four suits representative of the
four continents Europe, Asia Africa, and America.
On each card is printed (with or without pictorial illustrations) the name of
a continent for the purpose of distinguishing the suit to which it belongs. The
principal card of the suit equivalent in value to the ordinary ace bears the name of.
the continent only. The next or King bears the name of the continent and also the
name of a country or separate dominion the Queen and knave being likewise
represented. These "Court cards" may and will preferably be embellished by
medallions of past or present sovereigns or dignitaries or eminent personages of
public buildings or by other emblems. The remaining cards of the suit bear the
names of the principal cities or towns (or public buildings in the cities or towns) of
the continent and also the name of the country to which it belongs with or without
illustration.
With each packet of cards a key is to be supplied which will determine the
relative value of each card and by the careful study of such key the verbal
description may be wholly or partly dispensed with and pictorial indications only
used.
I therefore claim the sole right of applying Geography views of Public Buildings
Portraits of Sovereigns dignitaries and eminent personages to the game of whist
and to all other games played by the ordinary playing cards.
I also propose to use the same packet of fifty two cards for playing a purely
educational game described in the key supplied with each pack of cards as "The
game of Geography" of which game I am the sole Inventor. The game of
Geography is played as follows.
* D
The children seated with an atlas before each the cards to be placed face down-
wards by the Teacher. He will then take up one card and if a Town will call out
the name
The children will try to find it in their atlases and when able to do so
will call out "Found". The teacher will see if correct and should it be so will give
that child the card and proceed to call out another.
The cards turning up which are not towns with numbers but countries with
personages on them or continents, these countries and continents must be found
only by the younger children. At the end of the game it will be seen which child
has the most cards each card with the number and Town on it will count as one

page_text: each card with a celebrated person and country on it will count as two and each
card with a continent on it will count as three.
The Teacher may then count each childs cards and decide which one may claim
the game or if he pleases he may decide it by introducing arithmetic according to
the key.
Having now particularly discribed and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
That I am the sole originator and Inventor of card games which in their manner
of being played resemble the games of Whist, Cribbage Bezique Ecarté etc but
which games instead of being played with the ordinary playing cards which
represent abstract ideas that is to say spades clubs diamonds and hearts are played
with cards which bear upon them views or names of places views or names of
buildings likenesses of eminent personages dignitaries or of past or present
sovereigns or other emblems calculated to educate instruct or amuse those who
play with them.