Improvements in the Manufacture of Playing Cards.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 9th. Feb., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 17th Nov., 1892-Accepter, 17th Dec., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by CHARLES POOLE, of Shelby House, Shelby
Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States of America, Printer.]
Improvements in the Manufacture of Playing Cards.
I, JOSEPH WILLDING RANDALL ANDREWS, of 90 Bentham Road, South
Hackney in the County of Middlesex, Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
In carrying out the present invention, printing machines are employed for
printing the faces and backs of the cards, of a cylindrical character, a number of
printing cylinders provided with a supply of different coloured inks being arranged
around a central impression cylinder.
The paper for the cards is submitted to the printing machines in continuous
webs, two webs being intended to constitute the thickness of a card of the best
quality.
The two webs, either before or after being printed, are submitted to a pasting
machine, which pastes them and squeezes them together to form a continuous web
of card, which is afterwards cut into playing cards.
Where there is a repetition pattern or design for the backs of the playing cards,
a registering device must be provided in the pasting machine for making the
repeated patterns accord with the faces of the cards.
Dated this 9th day of February 1892.
NEWTON & SUN,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Playing Cards.
I JOSEPH WILLDING RANDALL ANDREWS of 90 Bentham Road, South
Hackney in the County of Middlesex, Clerk, 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 :-
The object of the present invention is to facilitate. the manufacture of playing
cards, and to this end they are printed upon continuous webs of paper in cylindrical
printing machines, which webs are pasted and rolled together, and afterwards cut
up into cards.
Two or more webs may be pasted together, two being sufficiently thick for cards
of the best quality.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1, Sheet I, shews diagrammatically a cylinder printing machine for printing
the faces of cards in various colors.
Fig. 2 is a diagram of a pasting machine for two webs, with registering rollers
for registering the backs with the faces, when repetition patterns are used for the
former.
Fig. 3 shews in diagram a machine for printing the backs only, when a sėt or
continuous pattern is employed.
Fig. 4 shews a pasting machine without registering rollers, to be used when the
backs are printed with the set or full pattern.
Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, Sheet II, are diagrams of the stereotype plates of the
printing or type cylinders for printing the faces of cards.
Fig. 10 is a key to these figures.

page_text: Fig. 11, Sheet 11J, is a press in end view, partly in section, for cutting or
stanping out the cards from the printed web.
Referring first to Fig. 1, A is an impression cylinder, surrounded by five type or
printing cylinders, 1 red, 2 flesh color, 3 yellow, 4 blue, black. Each type
cylinder is supplied with ink of the proper color by inking rollers arranged in
connection with it, in a manner that is well understood, and is therefore merely
indicated in the drawing. B is a roller, whence the web C to be printed is drawn.
D is the winding-up roller for the web, after being printed and dried. d are guide
rollers for supporting the paper web travelling to and from the impression cylinder.
a is a grip for taking hold of the paper web, and drawing it round the impression
cylinder at the beginning of the operation. Endless tapes may be provided for
hoiding the web, while being printed, against the impression cylinder, if desired.
The cylinders 1 and 5 print respectively the red and black cards, while the
cylinders 2, 3, and 4, print the additional colors of the picture cards.
The diagram Fig. 10 shows the position of the type for the whole pack of cards.
Nos. 1 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, are clubs, from the ace to the ten; Nos. 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, are the hearts; Nos. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,
29 and 30, are diamonds; and Nos. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 and 40, are the
ace to the ten of spades. The Nos. 41 to 52 are the picture cards of all four suits.
The type indicated by shading on the key, are for extra cards, sometimes called
jokers, or show cards, to fix outside the pack.
The first cylinder, Fig. 7, prints, as has already been stated, all the red cards,
viz., the hearts and diamonds, including the court cards, as far as these can be done
in one color.
The cylinder 5, Fig. 9, similarly prints all the black cards, viz., the clubs and
spades; while the cylinders 2, 3 and 4, Figs. 5, 6, and 8, fill in the colors of the
picture cards, niz., flesh color for the features, yellow and blue for the dress, giving
green also, where required, by a combination of the two colors printed one over the
other.
The printing cylinders are half the diameter of the impression cylinder, so that
the faces of two complete packs are printed for each rotation of the latter.
When a sufficient length of web has been printed, drawn off the impression
cylinder, dried and wound upon the roller D, it is ready for pasting to the web
which forms the backs. The backs may be printed in the web with a repetition
pattern in a multicolor printing machine, such as that used for the faces; or the
web may be printed with a set of continuous pattern in a single cylinder printing
machine (see Fig. 3), where E is a printing cylinder rotating in an ink trough e,
and A. is the impression cylinder covered by an endless band, the endless band
serving to carry the web from the impression cylinder, over the rollers ff, to the
winding-up roller F. F is a heater or drying apparatus for drying the printed
web in transit. Or, again, the backs may be printed after pasting, when the double,
or, it may be, triple web (if extra thickness is desired), has been cut into sheets.
In that case, the usual plan now in vogue is employed. When a repeated pattern
is used for the backs, the webs are pasted and stuck together in the machine
illustrated at Fig. 2. The webs are drawn from two rolls X and Y, passed around
the registering rollers and y y¹ y², by means of which the backs and faces
are made to accord, being moved out or in, to suit circumstances. Z Z' are rollers
round which the webs are passed. are pasting rollers, the former rotating in
the paste trough V. S S¹ are nipping rollers for squeezing together the pasted
webs, which are finally wound upon the roller T.
æ
Should it be desired to make the cards thicker, an extra web may be easily
introduced between the front and the back during the pasting operation.
When a set pattern, or a pattern all over the back, is used, the pasting operation
is simplified, as there is no need of registering rollers (see Fig. 4).
The web having been printed and pasted, it is cut up into separate cards. This
may be conveniently done by feeding it intermittently to a stamping machine
furnished with a set of plungers operating simultaneously against dies.

page_text: In Sheet III, Fig. 11, a machine of this description is shewn. G is a platform
whereon are the dies g. H is a frame carrying plungers h, to fit the dies 9, and
sliding in vertical guides in the uprights K K. This frame H may be operated by
a crank shaft J and link rods jj, the crank shaft being driven by a hand wheel, or
pulley, if power be employed.
Before printing, the webs may, if desired, be prepared by enamelling, to give a
better surface to the paper, and after printing, pressing, and drying, the cards in the
web or sheet may be hot pressed, or glazed, to give a finished appearance thereto.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
from abroad, I declare that what I claim is :—
-
The method of manufacturing playing cards, consisting of printing the faces on
a continuous web, pasting the said web to another web or webs which form the
backs, and finally cutting up the continuous printed and pasted web into separate
playing cards, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the
drawings.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.