IMPROVEMENTS IN PLAY CARDS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Herbert John Haddan at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st May 1883. Communicated to
him from abroad by Andrew Dougherty of Brooklyn, New York, United
States.
HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of Kensington, Middlesex, "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLAY
CARDS," a communication to me from abroad by Andrew Dougherty, of Brooklyn,
New York, United States,
This invention relates to that class of playing cards in which marginal emblems
or figures are used to indicate the characters and values of the cards; and the
invention consists in providing the cards with certain indicating devices, as fully
described hereinafter, whereby to enable the player to determine more readily and
with less liability of mistake than heretofore, the character of each card without
exposing the face.
Heretofore it has been common to place upon the margin of each card of a pack
a miniature spot or emblem indicating by its form and colour the suit to which
the card belongs, and also a numeral or letter indicating the value of the card,
initial letters being employed for court cards, and figures for the others.
It thus becomes necessary to examine two devices to ascertain the character of
the card and as such devices are necessarily of small size, the player is often
confused and is led to make mistakes in confounding the figure with the emblem.
This is partly remedied by the use of miniature representations of the entire
card at the corners, and such cards have proved to be of great utility especially
for some games, as euchre, but they are not so serviceable for playing poker,
where it is desirable to avoid spreading the hand, and to cover the cards to as
great an extent as possible.
To avoid these objections I provide each card with the miniature representations,
in the diagonally opposite corners, and in addition I place upon the margin at
each corner a single letter or numeral which indicates by its form the value or
quality of the card, and is colored to indicate the colour of the emblems upon the
card. This single device therefore serves to show to the player whether the card
belongs to a red or black suit, and also the number of its emblems or its character
as a court card.

page_text: This is sufficient for poker playing in which the colour and values of the cards
only are generally of importance. It will be seen that as there is but one device
at each corner there is little opportunity for mistake, as the player is able at a
glance to ascertain the character of the card and cannot be mislead by confusing
the indicators.
In some instances in poker, and also where the cards are to be used for playing
different games, it is necessary to provide means for indicating the suits yet
without the use of a second device likely to be mistaken for that above described.
For this purpose I place upon each card a line, arranged parallel to the edge so far
inside of the device above described that ordinarily the line may be covered in
poker playing, but can be readily exposed when necessary by displaying a wider
margin of the card. This line may be continuous to indicate diamonds, broken at
two places to indicate spades, at one place to indicate hearts, and at three points
to indicate clubs. In connection with the emblem, or letter this will not only fully
disclose the character of the card, but will further serve, as a means. whereby two
persons, one familiar only with the English cards and the other with only the
Spanish, can play together. The lines may be colored, and divided differently;
for instance, a break in one red line will indicate diamonds, a continuous black
line clubs, and a broken black line spades. The lines may be placed outside of the
margin of the card or they may form part of the margin, or they may form the
margin lines of the miniature representations. In such case it is well to place
the said representations a little outside the main margin line, thereby giving
prominence to the lines.
By this combination of the single indicating devices, lines, and miniature
representations, I provide a card adapted for playing various games, with marginal
indications of such a character as will enable the face to be almost wholly concealed
and yet indicating readily and in a manner not to be misunderstood the character
of the card.