A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN PLAYING GAMES OF CHANCE
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Mac Ewan at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd March 1878.
EDWARD MAC EWAN, of Mauchline, in the County of Ayr, North Britain, Fancy
Wood Box and Clan Tartan Manufacturer. "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS TO
BE USED IN PLAYING GAMES OF CHANCE."
My Invention has reference to a new or improved apparatus to be used in
playing games of chance, and is in part a further developement of the Invention for
which Letters Patent were granted to me as of the 14th day of June, A.D. 1877,
and numbered 2325.
An apparatus constructed according to my Invention consists of a surface, which
may be the top of a box or other such like surface, upon a pin or centre on which
is mounted a disc or its equivalent capable of revolving. The surface upon which
the said disc is mounted is divided into a number of concentric rings or other closed
figures or portions of such figures, which by radial, or parallel, or equivalent
divisions are divided into compartments, each such compartment being marked
with or containing numbers or signs denoting value.
The disc has upon it a pointer or a number of pointers, each having a dis-
tinguishing mark. I will suppose that the disc has three pointers thereon, dis-
tinguished by the letters A, B, C, and that the surface upon which the disc is
mounted is divided into 4 concentric rings, divided into compartiments by radial
lines, the compartments of the inner circles having numbers or denoting signs of
various values marked thereon, and that the compartments of the outer circle have
figures of the hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, or representations of ordinary
playing cards marked thereon. In playing, each player spins the disc, and when
it comes to rest the pointers on the said disc will indicate a number or numbers in
the compartments of the inner circles, which the player will score.
By fixing before beginning a game what suit is to be trumps, if on the disc
coming to rest the pointer A points to a division which is marked with this suit,
the numbers in either of the concentric circles, as may have been previously agreed
upon, will indicate the amount to be scored by the player. If in like manner the

page_text: pointer B or C comes opposite a compartiment marked with the trump suit, the
numbers on other of the concentric circles may be scored.
In place of the central disc or its equivalent being rotated, the said disc may be
stationary, and the apparatus so 'constructed that the surface upon which the value-
denoting spaces are marked may be rotated. Or the disc or its equivalent may
be divided into compartments instead of the surface upon which it is mounted, in
which case a pointer or pointers would be marked upon the said surface. Or the
cards or suits, arranged substantially as herein-before described, may be applied to
the cylindrical rotating casket for which Letters Patent have been granted to me
as aforesaid.
Instead of a pointer or pointers being marked upon either the disc or the surface
upon which it is mounted, both the disc and the surface upon which it is mounted
may be divided into compartments containing numbers or signs denoting values.