Improvements in Games or Puzzles.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Jan., 1891-Accepted, 21st Feb., 1891
COMI LEIDDI DOITICATION.
Improvements in Games or Puzzles.
I, TIMOTHY WILLIAM MCGRATH, of No. 1130, North Fifth Street,
Minneapolis, in the County of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, United States
of America, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
In the accompanying drawing :-
Figure 1 is a plan view of the devices; Fig. 2 a sectional view on the line x, x,
of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 detail views of the checkers or moving devices used in playing
the game.
My invention relates to devices constituting a game, apparatus or puzzle designed
for amusement.
In the drawings, A represents a board of wood or other material, having suitable
grooves B and C preferably in circular form, on its face. The grooves B, may
constitute a complete circle, as shown, and be separated from the concentric interior
groove C by a circular partition D, having a gate a connecting the two grooves.
Opposite the opening a is a bridge b, partitioning the groove C into two portions.
The board and checkers are enclosed when not is use by a cover F which serves
to prevent the loss of the checkers, and the rules for playing may be printed
on it.
The game is played with movable checkers or devices e, having on their faces
suitable letters or figures.
These are to be placed in the outer groove B, and to be moved therein and passed
one by one through the gate a into the inner circle and there occupy a predetermined
order. For purpose of illustration nine checkers are shown, numbered on one face
from 1 to 9 respectively.
These are placed promiscuously or in some desired order in the outer groove,
and are to be moved around and entered singly through the gate a to fall into the
order of their numbers in the inner groove, as shown by broken lines in Fig. 1.
The checkers may have figures on one face and letters on the other, as indicated in
Fig. 3, so that the proper letters being provided to spell a predetermined word or
words. The game will consist in moving the checkers from the outer to the inner
circle in the order required to form the desired word or words.
I do not wish to confine myself to specific forms and arrangements of the devices
of the game shown and described, for these may be considerably varied within the
plan of the invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a game or puzzle, a board provided with concentric grooves connected by
a gate, and a bridge in the inner groove opposite the gate, in combination with
checkers having character faces; and a cover for enclosing the whole substantially
as set forth.
2. In a game or puzzle, a board provided with concentric or other parallel grooves
connected by a gate or gates in combination with checkers having character faces
substantially as set forth.
Dated this 9th day of January 1891.
HERBERT J. ALLISON,
Agent for the Applicant.