An Apparatus for Indicating the Dealing of Playing Cards with Rotary Indicating Disc.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 18th July, 1896-Accepted, 5th Sept., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Apparatus for Indicating the Dealing of Playing Cards with
Rotary Indicating Disc.
1, FRITZ RESSIG, of 30 Wolfenbüttlerstrasse, Schöppenstedt, in the Grand
Duchy of Brunswick, German Enspire, Station Master, 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 an apparatus constructed so that the simple pressure on
a button effects the rotation of disc, which by a suitable inscription indicates
whose turn it is to deal the cards when playing.
In order that my invention may be the better understood I now proceed to
describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings and to the letters
and figures marked thereon. Like letters refer to like parts in the various figures.
When playing cards, doubts arise frequently among the players as to whose turn it
is to deal the cards. The object of this invention is to obviate this, by indicating,
by the pressing of a button, the place of the person whose turn it is to next deal
the cards.
A brass disc is arranged under the glass plate of the casing provided for the
reception of the apparatus. The brass disc has four trapezium-shaped holes at
equal distance from one another. Under it, at a distance of about ", therefrom is
a second horizontal, but rotating disc divided into four fields, and held in the
casing by indiarubber rollers which run on angular brass pieces arranged on the
casing. Three of these four fields are coloured red, and the fourth o bears
the inscription "Please deal the cards." Under the rotating disc and rigidly
connected therewith is a toothed rim into which engage the teeth of a cog wheel
fixed to an horizontal axle e. The latter carries also a ratchet wheel c, with four
recesses arranged at equal distances from one another, and a loose toothed lever b
on the short semi-circular front end of which are a number of teeth.
The cover of the casing has a hole in the centre for the reception of a glass
plate; and screw holes are provided in its corners, so that the apparatus with its
cover may be screwed on to the centre of the top of a card table in a
plaue with
said top. The glass plate has also a circular hole in its centre in which a guiding
piece a, provided with a knob or button may move up and down. This guiding
pin a which is formed of round shape below the knob has a circular shoulder below
the fixed disc 7 and carries at its lower end a rack with which engages the betore
mentioned toothed lever b. On the long rear end of the latter is situated a ratchet
pawl d to operate the ratchet wheel c. The guiding pin a is guided on a
swallow-tail shaped bar g fixed to the bottom of the casing. The bar g has at its
back a groove on which is suspended by its short end an angular lever n made of
steel.
Below the guide pin a is situated a spring i which presses the former upwards,
the circular projection preventing the pin from rising too high, so that it is even
with the cover at the upper end. The lever n is forined so that it extends through
a slot in the middle of the guiding bar g int the sliding face of the guiding pin a
so that the latter presses it forwards when sliding downwards, and the free end of
it is lifted close under the movable disc k. During this operation the guiding
pin a comes into contact with one of four pins m arranged at proper places on
the lower side of the movable disc and thus arrests this disc after a quarter
rotation.

page_text: The action of the apparatus is as follows:-
The
When pressing on the guiding pin, the lower toothed end of it engages the short
end of the toothed lever b and presses the latter downwards. This operation
causes the ratchet pawl d on the long end of the toothed lever to engage into one
of the recesses of the ratchet wheel c situated on the horizontal axle e.
ratchet wheel c is thereby rotated in an inward direction. The toothed wheel f
situated also on the axle e is simultaneously rotated in the same direction, and
rotates, because it engages with the toothed rim, the disc k around the vertical
axle of the same. Simultaneously with pressing the guiding pin a the angular
lever n, suspended in the hack part of the guiding bar, is caught at its angle point
by the guiding pin and pushed forwards, whereby the long end of the angular lever
is raised close below the movable disc, and engages a pin m arranged thereunder,
so that the rotation of the disc is limited to a quarter revolution. The part of the
movable disc bearing the inscription is consequently moved under each of the four
trapezium-shaped holes of the fixed disc in rotation and thus indicates in
succession one of the persons playing. If two or three persons should play, the
knob of the guiding pin is pressed several times in succession.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1st. An apparatus for indicating the dealing of cards when playing, in which the
depression of a pin a causes, by means of gearing, the rotation of a disc k, movable
in a horizontal plane, having four differently marked fields.
2nd. In an apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, an arrangement for rotating the
movable disc k ngainst the fixed dise in which the pin a having a toothed end and
moving up and down in a guide fixed to the bottom of the casing, operates a
toothed lever b, by the rotation of which, through the ratchet pawid the ratchet
wheel c and the wheel, the disc kis rotated while a spring i and a circular
projection of the guiding pin a cause the knob of the same to be always even with
the cover of the casing.
3rd. In au apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, the arrangement of an angular
lever so that the latter extends into the sliding face of the guide pin a and is
lifted at the depression of the guiding pin, whereby it strikes against one of four
pins on the movable disc and arrests the latter after a quarter rotation.
Dated this 18th day of July 1896.
FELL & JAMES,
Agents for the Applicant.