US2815214A - Card shuffler - Google Patents

Description

B. G. HALL CARD SHUFFLER Dec. 3, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 9, 1954 Attorhegy Dec. 3, 1957 B. G, HALL 2,815,214

CARD SHUFFLER 'Filed April 9, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 r 7 az/ V Inverti-Or:

Basl. G. Hall.

Attornevg.

CARD SHUFFLER Basil G. Hall, Minneapolis, Minn. Application April 9, 1954, Serial No. 422,100

3' Claims. (Cl. 273-149) The invention relates to a card shuffler that is used for shufiing the standard form of playing cards such as is used when playing such games as bridge, canasta, samba and bolivia, or any other games where cards are to be shufled.

The purpose of this device is to make it easy for the participant to readily shuffle one, two or three decks of cards by the sirnp1e means of splitting the cards into two equal portions, placing the two portions upon sets of rollers Within the shuflier, turning a crank for discharging the cards primarily one at a time upon a card rack from which the operator removes the shuflled cards.

A further object is to provide adjustable means for -regulating the number of cards that are discharged through each card clearance opening during the sbuffling cycle of two separated portions of cards.

Another object is to provide means for regulating the up and down movement of a gauge which regulates the clearance opening for discharging oneor more card's from a deck which are moveable through said clearance by means of revolvin g rolls.

A further object is to provide a pair of spaced apart upper rolls and a pair of spaced apart lower rolls each retaining thereon a stack -of cards, means provided at the discharge end of said rolls for retaining said cards and means for providing clearance opening for the discharging of said cards one or more at a time, when said rolls are revolved clockwise, the said cards fal1 on a rack positioned at the discharge end of said rolls.

A further object is to provide a pair of spaced apart upper rolls and a pair of spaced apart lower rolls each retaining thereon a stack of cards, means provided at the discharge end of said rolls for retaining said cards Wrth adjustable means attached thereto for providing clearance opening for the discharging of said cards one or more at a time, when said rolls are revolved clockwise the said cards fa1l on a card rack conveniently positioned at the discharge end of said rolls.

A further object is to provide a means whereby the frictional engagement between the releasing card and the gauge at the ciearance opening is minimized to a tangential contact, thereby eliminating practically a11 resistanace for the releasing of a card from each deck through the clearance opening by the revolving rolls during a shuffling cycle.

A further object of the nvention is to position the clearance opening through which a card is released when shuifling so that a forward corner of said card will be the only part thereof required to pass through said clearance opening.

A further object is to provide a shuflier that is attractive in design, simple in construction, easy to assemble and easy to operate.

A further object is to provide on all feed rolls rubber bands or tires having peripheries of such construction and design that Will continuously release from the stack of cards, thereon, durirrg a shufliing cycle, one card after another through its respective clearance opening to a card rack positioned in front and below the card feed discharge rolls.

Other and further objects of the invention and the advantages of the same Will be pointed out hereinafter and indicated in the appended claims, or Will be obvious to one skilled in the art upon undertsanding the present disclosure.

For the purpose of this application there has been elected to set forth in more or less deta-il one particular structure but it is to be understood that it is here presented for illustrative purposes only and is not to be accorded any interpretation such as might have the effect oflimiting what is claimed as the invention short of its true and comprehensive scope in the art.

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the card shufiier in shuffling position;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view on the line 2 2 of Figure 5;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary full size sectional view of the line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a fragrnentary detailed sectional view With some of the parts broken away taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 5*-5 of Figure 2;

Figure 6 is an isometric view of a combination spacer and card guide plate;

Figure 7 is a sectional view taken on the line 7-7 of Figure 1;

Figure 8 shows the position of the card shuflier, When the cards are to be removed after having been shuffled; and

Figure 9 is a detailed sectional view 011 the line 9-9 of Figure 2.

Referring to the drawings in detail numerals 10 and 12- designate the side plates of the card shuflier. The plates being spaced apart by two special U-shaped spacers 14 and they are held firmly and rigidly in their respective position by the downward extending ends 15 of said spacers 14 by meaus of the interfitting detents at 16 and the threaded headed screws 18 as clearly shown in Figures 5 and 9. The piates are further held together and spaced apart by an upper U-shaped tie plate 20 and an intermediate U-shaped tie plate 22. These plates Will be referred to in the specifications and claims as a gauge plate as they retain thereon the gauge 36. The rearward extensions 24 and 25 of plates 29 and 22 have threaded holes therein for receivirrg suitably thrcaded headed screws 26 which tie said side plates and gauge plates together. Bach of the gauge plates 20 and 22 have at their lower edge a rearwardly extending lug 28 having aperture 30 therein for receiving one end of tension spring 32, the other end of said spring being anchored in lug 34 of a gauge 36 which is pivoted at 38 to its respective gauge plate. Each gauge and gauge plate has this assembled construction With the lug 34 of the gauge to the right of pivot 38 as clearly shown in Figure 3. To the left of pivot 38 said gauge 36 has a projection 40 extending perpeudicular therefrom and in the same piane as lug 34. Bach projection 40 is engaged by a screw 42, which threads into the lower tapped hoie 43 in piate 10 just belcw extensions 24 of plates 20 and 22. It can be readily seen that turning screw 42 inwardly moves the gauge 36 down about the pivot 38 and increases the tension of spring 32, turning said screw out, the gauge 36 moves up about the pivot 38 by means of the tension spring 32. The contour of said gauge 36 is of an irregular shape and has one end substantially arc-shaped or semi-circular at 44. This semi-circular extension 44 is placed below projection 40 and as near to the inside of extension 24 as possible. The gauge 36 is assembled on its respective tie or gauge plate at pivot 38, thus having a longer lever arm to the screw 42 than to the spring 32, making it easy to operate said gauge up or down by means of screw 42 and spring 32. The purpose of the semi-circular shaped portion 44 Will be more fully described hereinafter.

The upper tie or gauge plate 20 has a rearward extending shelf 45 having two threaded holes therein for receiving headed screws 46 that retain -the cover 48 over the top of plates 10 and 12. Sutably mounted between said plates for retaining substantiaily equai portions of a full deck, two decks or three decks of cards that are to be shuffled, is a pair of upper spaced apart driven rolls 50 and 51, and a lower pair of spaced apart rolls 52 and 53. Rolls, G, 51 and 52 being driven and roll 53 being the driving roll. The arrangement of these rolls is olear- 1y shown in Figure 7. The distance between the plates is slightly greater than the width of said rolls, thus the shafts 54 of rolls 50, 51 and 52 can freely rotate in their respective apertures 58 in the plates and 12. The driving roll 53 has a shaft 57 mounted securely therein which is freely mounted in like apertures or bearings 58 in the plates 10 and 12. The shaft 57 extends out beyond plate 10 in the form of a handle 60 and has an operating knob 62 attached theret0. The ends Of all the rolls adjacent the inner face of plate 12 have half round-shaped grooves or pulleys 64 out therein for retaining a driving belt 66. The roll 53 having the shaft 57 securely attached thereto drives the belt 66 and all the rolls in a clockwise direction when the handle 60 is turned in a clockwise direction by means of the knob 62.. It Will be noted that the grooves or pulleys 64 on rolls 51 and 52 are reduced in size in comparison to pulleys on rolls 50 and 53. The reduction is 2 to 1 thus the rolls 51 and 52 Will rotate twice as fast as the rear rolls 50 and 53. Thus the cards can be run through the shuffler rapidly because the cards .travel ofi of rolls 51 and 52 at twice the speed which the operator is revolving the rolls 50 and 51. It can be readi1y seen if the operator rotates the handle 60 rapidly the cards Will be released to the card rack in minimum time; il": rotated slowly the cards Will be released slower or over a longer period of time.

A wire card guide 68 is held in the position shown in Figures 1 and 2 by means in spacers 14, thus preventing the sides of the cards nearest the belt 66 from contacting said belt at 67 when the cards on roll 52 are being released through opening 76 to the card rack 70. The card rack 70 is pivotally mounted at 70a between the inside of plates 10 and 12 near the lower edge 11 and 13 of plates 10 and 12 directly under the center of rolls 52. The card rack 70 receives the cards as they are discharged from rolls 51 and 52 during a shutfling cycle While the shufiier is in position shown in Figures 1 and 2, and after said shuf'fling cycle the shufller is then positioned as shown in Figure 8, thus the rack automatically assumes the position shown and the cards can be readily removed for dealing. The rack 70 consists of a base mernber 71 having extending upwardly therefrorn front and rear wall members 71a and 71b. The wails 71a and 71h retain the cards on the base member 71 during a shuffling cycle, and also when the shuffler is changed from the position shown in Figure 1 to the position in Figure 8.

Spaced apart on all the rolls are a pair of rubber bands or tires 73 being of a suitabie thickness and Width which cause the stacked cards to be moved into engagement With the gauge plate and to be released from each respective stack of cards one card at a time through the openings 76 into the card rack 70. The face surface of the tires 73 generally should be slightly roughened to readily move the card engaged therewith forwardly when the rolls are turning in a clockwise direction. A band of rubber or tire having a cloth covered face surface wi1l provide the necessary roughened surface which engages the card and Will cause the cards to move more rapidly than a plain tace (ire surface.

In the figures there is shown less than a full deck of cards 75 so that the detail structure of the shuffler can be shown. As seen in Figure 2 the cards shown in full lines on the rolls are in the process of being shuffled, the cards shown in dotted lines 75a show the cards leaving the rolls through clearance 76. The cards in full lines 75h in the rack show the position of the cards after sbuffling.

The mernbers 14, as shown in Figure 6, provide the means for guiding the cards onto the tires 73 of the rolls 51 and 52 when they are being inserted by the operator for shufling. The mernbers 14 are also designed to provide clearance at 17 for the belt 66 as it travels between rolls 50 and 51. If this mernber 14 was not provided the cards at the start of a shufling cycle would jam up at the gauge plate and would not allow the rollers to rotate until the cards were adjusted by the operator. With mernber 14 assembled as shown, jamrning is prevented because the rotation of the rear rolls moves the entire deck of cards against the gauge plate, when the deck of cards is resting on the elevated edge of member 14 and the forward ends of said cards are not engagng the gauge plates 20 or 22.

The operation of the shuffler is as follows: The gauges 36 are first adjusted so that clearance between the top of the rubber band 73 and the semi-circular portion 44 cf the gauge 36 is slightly more than the thickness of one of the cards of a deck. Figure 4 shows the clearance 76, shown in full lines, and a card 75 released through said clearance With another card in position ready to replace the discharged card. It should be understood that this clearance 76 can be set for releasing a plurality of cards at once if desired. By turning screw 42 outward the end of screw moves out away from projection 40, then the spring 32 pulls down on lug 34, raising the semicircular portion 44 and thus increasing the clearance 76. To make the clearance 76 smaller the screw 42 is turned in forcing the projection 40 downward increasing the tension of spring 34, moving semi-circular portion 44 of the gauge down and thus decreasing the clearance at 76.

the game being played requires the use of more than one deck, the cards 75 are divided into two equal groups. The one group is placed upon the rubbers 73 of rolls 50 and 51, the other group upon rubbers 73 of rolls 52 and 53. The dealer or operator now turns the handle 60 by means of the knob 62 in a clockwise direction. The rolls all turn in clockwise direction, being rotated under the influence of belt 66 and the cards are fed by means of the rotating rolls one at a time through the clearance 76 onto the rack 70. The turning of the rolls continues until all the cards are discharged from the rolls onto the rack. When this cycle is completed the card shufller is placed in positon shown in Figure 8 where the operator removes the cards. It can readily be seen from the drawings and as explained that one card from the top group will fall upon the one from the lower group as they drop into the card rack. It is to be understood the gauges can be adjusted so that two or more cards Will fal1 from one group while one falls from the other group.

In Figure 7 the semi-cireular pertion 44 of the gauges as seen from the rear is to the extrerne right band side of the shuflier and the engagement between the cards and the gauge 36 at extension 44 is adjacent the corner of the discharging card. If a card has been deformed or curved up at the center it Will readily be discharged because the corner of the card Will go through the olearance 76 With minimum engagement between the card and the gauge at 44. Regardless of the shape of the cards they can rapidly be discharged through the olearance 76 because of the frictional engagement between the bottom card and the rubber bands 73. There is shown a card shufler constructed for receiving the cards where the cards are placed iongitudinally in the shuffler. It should be understood that said shufler can be made for receiving the cards longitudnally, length or Width wise. As shown in Figure 2, when the cards rest upon a pair of rolls they are not in contact With the upper edge of members 14 but as soon as the cards leave the rear rolls,

the cards then contact the upper edge of members 14 whi1e being moved forward by the roll 51 or 52. By this arrangement there is a minimum of drag on the card or cards bsing discharged through the clearances 76.

What is claimed:

1. A card shuffler comprising side plates spaced apart by a plurality of spacer members, 2. pair of spacer rolls carried by the side plates and adapted to receive a stack of: cards, one of said rolls adapted to rotate at about two tmes the speed of the other roll, a member mounted between the pair of spaced rolls in substantially the same horizontal piane, a second pair of spaced apart rolls positicxnsd above the first pair of spaced rolls, one of said rolls of the second pair adapted to rotate at about two times the speed of the other roll of the second pair, a member positioned between the second pair of rolls, means far rctating he rolls, a gauge plate mounted in a plana above and adjacent che faster rotatable roll of each pair of rolls to provide discharge clearance, a gauge pivbally mauned on each gauge plate and adapted to move substantiay paralisi thereto, one end of each gaugs resiliently connected to the gauge plate and the other end of the gauge having a rounded card contacting porion, said rcunded portion contactng the card adjacent one edge for a distance considerably less than half the Width of a card.

2. A mechancal card shuffler having card receiving means on two levels for supporting piles of cards, a shufied card receiving compartrnent, a gauge plate adjacent to and in a plana above ons end of each card receiving means and between the card receiving means and the card receiving compartment, a gauge adjustng means, a gauge pivotally mounted on each gauge plate, the pivot point of each gauge located to provide a short arm and a long arm, means for reslienly connecting the *short arrn to the gauge plate for urging the long arm against the gauge adjusting means, the long arm having a substantially arcshaped member projecting therefrom adjacent an end, said arc-shaped member adapted to contact cards adjacent an edge for a distance less than about half the distance of the card Width and means for moving cards from the card receiving means to the shuffled card receiving compartment.

3. A card shufier comprising side members held in p0sition by a plurality of spacer mernbers, two pairs of rotatable spaced apart rolls -for receiving cards, one pair of rolls spaced above the other pair, a shelf 1ike member posizonsd between each pair of rolls, one edge of each shelf like member in a plane higher than the remainder of the shelf like member, a gauge plate attached to che side members and positioned adjacent the surface of one of each pair of rolls, gauge adjusting means, a gauge pivotally mounted on each gauge plate, the pivot point located so as to provide a short arm and a long arm, the short arm connected by a spring to the gauge plate for urging the long arm against the gauge adjusting means, the long arrn provided With an arwshaped portion for contacting cards adjacent one edge for a dstance less than about half the Width of the cards a shufied card receiving means and means for rotating said rolls to move cards from said rolls to the shufied card receiving means.

References Ced in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 999,428 Baker Aug. 1, 1911 1,292,377 Runyan Jan. 21, 1919 1,847,346 LUX Mar. 1, 1932 1,955,926 Matthaey API. 24, 1934 2,159,958 Sachs May 23, 1939 FOREIGN FATENTS 12,427 Great Britain 1891

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