AN IMPROVED BAGATELLE BOARD
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HAGEN, of Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, Brewer, being one of the
people called Quakers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of July, in the fifth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Hagen, Her especial licence that I, the said. Thomas Hagen, my exors;
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said. Thomas Hagen, my exors,
adiors, or assigns,, should. at any time agree with, and no others; from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should,
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
BAGATELLE BOARD;" in. which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Thomas Hagen, by an instrument in writing, under my,
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in Her said. Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in

page_text: part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Hagen, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in a false bottom or moveable platform, with numbered holes or cups sunk in
it at that end of the bagatelle board where the holes or numbered cups are
usually placed, such false bottom or moveable platform, or the bottom of the
board without the intervention of a false bottom, being so covered with maps,
figures, or the like devices, as herein-after described; and such holes being so
arranged that instruction in various sciences may be combined with amuse-
ment in playing games with my said "improved bagatelle board." And in
further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Thomas Hagen, do
hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed,
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say: -
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of one of my said improved
bagatelle boards. A is the said false bottom or moveable platform, the other
arrangements of the board being precisely similar to those of ordinary baga-
telle boards. It will be seen that this Figure represents a portable bagatelle
board, the legs unscrewing, and those which support the tail of the board
being screwed into a sliding frame B.
Figure 2 is a plan of my said improved bagatelle board, by which it will be
seen that the false bottom or platform A is covered with a map, supposed to
represent several counties in Scotland, the holes or cups being placed one
in each county, and the counting, when the game is played with a false
bottom or platform so covered, being regulated as follows:-When a ball is
struck into one of these cups, instead of counting towards the game the
number assigned to the particular hole, as is the case when playing with the
ordinary bagatelle board, the player is to be questioned by his adversary as to
the name of the county in which the cup into which the ball has fallen is
situated, and if the player answers correctly, he is to count one towards the
game, but if not, and his adversary can rightly name the county, he counts
one towards the game. If neither know the county then neither can count,
and a reference for the purpose of instruction must be made to an index,
where the correct name should be found opposite to a number corresponding
with that immediately beside or within the cup or hole into which the ball
has fallen.

page_text: Figure 3 is a separate view of my said false bottom or platform, the under-
side of which may be covered with another portion of a map of Scotland, or
any such figures as herein-before suggested. This Figure 3 represents the
false bottom or platform, shown in section at Figure 1, and in plan at
Figure 2, and marked A in both Figures.
Now whereas it is evident that the rule of counting towards the game here
given may be extended, and after the player has been questioned as to the
name of the county, the names of its principal towns and rivers, its popula-
tion, and other statistics connected with it, may all be made subjects of
question, and consequent counting by one party or the other towards the
game, or of instruction by reference to a numbered index, as before described,
or even such other rules of counting may be adopted as those who play the
game may suggest, so long as they make the counting depend upon answers
to questions from the adversary, which answers must be the result of infor-
mation derived from instruction; and whereas my said false bottoms or
platforms may be covered otherwise than with maps, as for instance, with
figures of animals, birds, insects, and the like; or such maps, figures, or like
device may be fixed on the bottom of the board, without the intervention of a
false bottom, the holes or cups being one in each figure, and the questions
asked by the adversary made to relate to zoology, ornithology, or entymology,
as the case may be, the correct answering of which must also be the result
of information derived from instruction; and an almost endless variety of
amusement and instruction may be thus afforded, by means of my said
Invention of improved bagatelle boards having false bottoms or moveable
platforms so covered, and with the holes or cups so placed as aforesaid;
and such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my
said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right
and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Hagen, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
THOMAS (...) HAGEN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of August, in the
year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid. Thomas Hagen came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statuté made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Third day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty one.