A New or Improved Game of Skill, and Means to be Employed in Playing the same.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 1st July. 18°5
Complete Specification Left, 15th Oct., 1895-Accepted, 16th Nov., 1835
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Game of Skill, and Means to be Employed in
Playing the same.
I, FLEMING FULCHER, of No. 11, Kingdon Road, West Hampstead, in the
County of Middlesex, Tutor, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
This invention relates to a new or improved game of skill and means to be
employed in playing the same.
In carrying the invention into effect, a pack of cards or plates, of cardboard,
celluloid, metal or other suitable material, is employed composed of several suits or
kinds similar to ordinary playing cards, and capable of being shuffled and dealt,
and, for convenience, the invention will be described in connection with a pack of
cards marked in the ordinary manner of playing cards but minus the king, queen
and knave of each suit.
These cards in place of the ordinary pips printed thereon are formed with
recesses of similar shape or recesses may be formed in the bodies of the pips on the
card, and separate pips are provided for filling into such recesses in accordance
with the rules of the game, and the game consists in filling the recesses with the
separate pips, as hereinafter described.
The cards are shuffled in the ordinary manner of playing cards, but they are
dealt face upwards upon the table in rows, and the game consists in filling the
recesses with the separate pips is speedily as possible, certain restrictions being by
the rules hereinafter referred to imposed upon the players thereby rendering the
game one of great skill.
The game may be played by four, three, or two persons, or, in the case of
employing other signs than the ordinary pips of the playing card, the game might
take more the form of a round game so that a greater number of persons might
engage therein.
Although cards of the character of playing cards modified in the manner herein-
before described are the preferred kind, it will be evident that cards, in which
other signs, desigus or figures in place of the ordinary pips, and, such, for example,
as squares, crosses, octagons, triangles or other figures or designs, might be
substituted for the ordinary playing card suits.
It will be also understood that the number of cards employed in the game may
be varied at will, and thus a pack comprising a considerable number of suits may
be employed when it is desired to form a round game, but in all cases the game is
essentially one of skill.
lu order that the game may be clearly understood, a set of rules suitable for
playing the same is annexed hereto, and it will be obvious that these rules are
applicable where the signs employed are the ordinary playing card pips or
otherwise.

page_text: IV. In this game the pack consists of thirty-six cards, the tens being
excluded.
V. The players cut for partners as in whist. The player who cuts the lowest
card and his partner play with the two suits of the same colour as the card
he cuts.
VI. The partners then agree as to which suit each is to play with; and each
player plays with his own suit and with no other throughout the game.
VII. The players must select their places at the table, partners sitting opposite
each other, before the deal commences. The player who cuts the lowest card in
cutting for partners has first choice of seats.
VIII. The cards must be well shuffled before they are dealt. Every player has
the right to shuffle once.
IX. The player who cuts the lowest card in cutting for partners has the right to
deal but any other player may deal with the consent of his opponents.
:
X. The dealer must hold the pack above the table with the faces of the cards
downwards, and turn each card face upwards as he deals it. He must place the
cards, one at a time, as he deals then, in the centre of the table in six rows of six
cards, commencing at the left of each row. The rectangle of cards thus formed is
called the field.
XI. Partners may not advise or assist each other in any way until one of them
is ont; i.e. has filled all his cards.
XII. The player who cuts the lowest card in cutting for partners commences the
game, and the others play in rotation round to the left.
XIII. A player commences his turu by placing one pip on one of the cards of
his suit; and, having once removed his hand from it, he cannot retake the pip
except under penalty. (Rule XIX.)
XIV. By thus placing the pip on a card the player prevents the opponent whose
turn it is to play next from playing on, filling, or in any way making use of any of
his cards in a line, either straight or diagonally, with the card played on, except as
provided by Rule XV. The card on which the pip is placed is called the
dominating card, and all cards which through its influence cannot be made use of
are called dominated cards, and the remainder free cards. This dominating
influence only lasts one turn.
H
XV. A full card, (Rule XVI (a)) of the adverse colour,-either suit-intercepts
the dominating influence: i.e. the dominating influence does not extend beyond
full card of either of the opponents' suits.
XVI. A player, having placed the pip, (Rule XIII), may continue his turn in
the following manner :-If, after the pip is placed, the number of pips on any one
of his full cards, or the sum of the pips on any two or more of his full cards, will
exactly till the empty spaces on the doininating card, he may fill them: and, baving
thus filled the dominating card, he may in the same manuer till any of his empty
or partially empty cards either with the dominating card alone or with the
dominating card and any other card or cards not yet used to fill a card with in that
turn provided, of course, that all the cards in question are free cards.
Note: (a) That a card is not full until the last pip has been placed in it and
the hand removed.
(6) That the pips are not removed from the full cards for filling others, but
the required number are taken from the players stock.

page_text: (c) That, in filling cards, the player must, in each case, use the dominating
card;
and that he cannot use any other more than once in the same turn to
fill other cards with.
(d) That he cannot use any partially filled card to fill another with.
(e) That he cannot make use of his partners cards.
(f) That he cannot play on, fill or otherwise make use of a dominated card.
XVII. If a player, not being out, is unable to play, owing to all his empty or
partially empty cards being dominated, he is said to be blocked and loses his turn:
and consequently cannot dominate; so that the opponent whom he would have
dominated, had he been able to play, has all his cards free.
XVIII. When a player is out, his partner dominates both opponents, but is, of
course only dominated by the player on his right until the latter is out.
XIX. If a player place the pip on a dominated card, and attention be 'called to
the fact, he must retake it, and may be required to place it on any card which the
opponent exacting the penalty (Rule XXII) may select; but, having done so, he
may continue his turn in the usual manner.
XX. If a player in any way wrongly fill a card, and attention be called to
the fact, he must retake the pips wrongly used and any he may have used subse-
quently to the mistake, and can play no more that turn. All play previous to the
mistake holds good.
XXI. If a player's partner, not being out, advise or assist him in any way, the
opponents may cause him to play his turn afresh, and may either require him to
place the pip on any card which the opponent exacting the penalty (Rule XXII)
may select, (in which case he may 'continue his turn in the usual manner), or may
allow him to place the pip on any card he pleases, but require him to fill or refrain
From filling any particular card or cards.
XXII. If a player play contrary to rule, any player may call attention to the
fact; but he must do so, and the opponents must exact the penalty before the next
player has placed the pip, after which no mistake can be rectified and the play
folds good.
The opponents may agree as to which of them shall exact the penalty, the
opponent whose turn it is to play next having the prior claim; but the player
exacting the penalty must do so without consulting his partner as to the manuer
in which it shall be exacted.
XXIII. When a penalty is exacted, a player cannot be required to play contrary
to rule. Should his opponents require him to do so, the penalty is annulled and he
may play as if no error had been made.
XXIV. The winners score ten points for the game if one of the opponents is
out, and twenty-five points if neither opponent is out :-one point is added for
each card not full. Each of the losers owes the full score to the opponent on his
right.

page_text: points for the game and one point for each of his cards which is not full when
that player goes out. The two remaining players then play for second place,
and the loser owes the winner ten points for the game and one point for each card
not full.
THE TWO-HANDED OR SINGLE GAME.
XXXIII. The rules for the four-handed game hold good, except that those
concerning partners do not apply, and :-
XXXIV. The pack consists of any two suits of ten cards each.
XXXV. The players agree as to which suit each is to play with before the
deal commences.
XXXVI. The players cut for deal; the player who cuts the lower card has
prior right of deal.
XXXVII. The field is dealt in four rows of five cards.
XXXVIII. The loser owes the winner ten points for the game and one point
for each card not full.
Dated this to day of July 1893.
VAUGHAN & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION..
A New or Improved Game of Skill, and Means to be Employed in
Playing the same.
I, FLEMING FULCHER, of 11, Kingdon Road, West Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex, Tutor, 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 a new or improved game of skill and means to be
employed in playing the same.
In fully describing my invention I will refer to the annexed drawing in which
Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate two sample cards;
Figs. 3 and 4 two corresponding pips; and
Fig. 5 shows the cards as dealt to form the "Field
in a four-handed game.
In carrying my invention into effect employ a park of cards or plates of card-
board, celluloid, metal, or other suitable material capable of being shuffled and
dealt in the ordinary way. The pack usually consists of 40 cards in four suits.
There are 10 cards in each suit, and each card respectively bears the signs from
1 to 10 only. These may be arranged in the manner of the usual suits of ordinary
playing cards or otherwise, such suits being each of a form or of a colour differing
from the others. I may employ the well-known signs (hearts, diamonds, clubs,
spades,) as shown in the example, Fig. 1, or 1 may use other signs such as the
crosses shown in Fig. 2; or other crosses, squares, octagons, triangles, or other
figures or designs may be substituted. It is not advisable to merely print or
outline such signs upon the faces of the cards since it is important to prove it slip
of the rip, and therefore the best and referred construction is to manufacture the
cards with a recess for each sign of a suitable depth into the material, as indicated
in Figs. 1 and 2, and to fit such recesses I provide correspondingly shaped separate
For cach suit the recesses and pips are
filling pips as illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4.
of the saine shape; or equivalently the suits may be all of the same shape but of
different colours, the colour of the pips correspoiling with that of the recesses to
receive same.
The game may be played by 2, 3, or 4 players, and consists in filling the recesses
in the cards with the separate corresponding pips as speedily as possible in accordance

page_text: with the rules hereinafter referred to, or any optional or modified rules that may be
devised, the player or pair of players first filling all his or their recesses being the
winner.
For a four-handed game the "tens are excluded, leaving 36 cards; in other
games each player has 10 cards.
The cards are dealt usually with their faces upwards upon the table in suitable
lines or groups; for example in a four-handed game the field consists of six rows
of 6 cards; in a three-handed game five rows of 6 cards; in a two-handed game
four rows of 5 cards. Certain restrictions may by optional rules be imposed upou
the players, thereby rendering the game one of great skill. By employing a greater
number of cards or suits than above stated, each suit having different sigus, the
game may be made a "round game," so that a greater number of players may
engage therein; but in all cases the game is essentially one of skill.
The essential rules of the game may be epitomised as follows:
1. A player commences his turn by placing one pip on one of the cards of his
suit, and by so doing he prevents the opponent whose turn it is to play next from
playing on, filling, or in any way making use of his cards which in
are a line,
either vertically or horizontally (as 1-1,2-2, Fig. 5), or diagonally (as 3-3, 4-4),
with the card played on, except as provided by (2) infra. The card (which in the
figure is the ace of diamonds) on which the pip is placed is called the "Dominating
card, and all cards in the said lines which, through its influence, cannot be made
use of are called "Dominated cards, and the remainder "Free cards. This
dominating influence only lasts one turn.
"
"
2. When a player or his partner has a "full" card in the line of dominating
influence, such card, though dominated itself, forms a barrier to protect the cards
beyond it in that line, so that a player's card is not dominated which has a "full"
card of his own or his partner's suit between it and the dominating card.
3. A player having placed his pip, may continue his tura in the following
manner :- If, after the pip is placed, the dominating card be not full, and the
number of the pips on any one of his full cards, or the sum of the pips on any two or
more of his full cards, will exactly fill the empty spaces on the dominating card, he
may fill them; and having filled the dominating card-either by placing the pip
only, or with the aid of other cards-he may also fill any of his empty or partially
empty cards with the dominating card alone, or with it and any other card or cards
not yet used to fill another card with in that turn. Provided, of course, that all
the cards in question are free. It must be understood
(a) That the pips are not removed from the full cards for filling others, but
the required number are taken from the player's stock.
(b) That a card is not full until the last pip has been placed in it and the
hand removed.
(c) That in filling cards the player must in each case use the dominating card,
but that he cannot use any other more than once in the same turn to fill
other cards with.
4. If a player, not being out, is unable to play owing to all his empty or partially
empty cards being dominated, he is said to be "blocked," and loses his turn, and
consequently cannot dominate; so that the opponent (whom he would have
dominated, had he been able to play,) has all his cards free.
The above rules are not arbitrary, since it will be obvious that many modifications
and optional rules may he devised, and that various games of skill can be played
with the same cards and pips, and therefore I do not limit myself to any specific
rules and regulations for playing games of skill therewith such as are above
indicated, but
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. The hereinabove described game of skill played with cards having certain

page_text: marks or signs recessed into their faces and adapted to receive separate corre-
sponding pips, identified with the cards by shape or by colour, said marks or signs
being arranged to form suits in the usual way, and the said game being played
according to rules such as are herein contained, or any modification thereof.
2. The manufacture and use for playing a game of skill such as is above referred
to of a pack of cards specially recessed to receive corresponding pips, substantially
as above described.
Dated this 14th dor of October 1905