Machine for shuffling cards

Application filed August 9, 1928, Serial No. 298,458, and in Austria August 13, 1927.

The object of the present invention is a machine which is adapted to shuffle cards, for instance cards separately arranged corresponding to their characteristics into two or more u piles, according to predetermined successions and proportions.

The practical value of the invention may be concluded from the fact that such a shuffling is very often required in book-keep10 mg and statistical work and that such a machine may also prove to be of advantage for other work, for instance for the expedition of different kinds of advertisements and pricecurrents. The new machine is, however, of 15 particular advantage in connection with machines for perforated cards. In book-keeping using perforated cards, for instance, it very often happens that, after a certain number of perforated cards of a certain kind, 20 cards of another kind, for instance stop-or sum-cards, must be inserted or shuffled in, to cause certain effects. Also for the purpose of receiving the results obtained by calculatively interpreting a certain number of per25 forated cards or certain rows of the cards in a suitable machine, cards not yet provided with holes must be inserted in the machine, which cards must be shuffled in the pile of cards to be interpreted.

so These operations, done up to now by hand, are according to the present invention, performed by a machine which, by means of a card feeding device, leads the cards, arranged in two or more piles, to a common card de35 positing place and there deposits them in a succession corresponding to the shuffling proportion. Moreover, the card feeding device may, according to the invention, be constructed in such a manner as to simultaneous49 ly serve for storing the pile of cards to be shuffled, or vice versa for storing the common pile resulting from the shuffling.

In the accompanying drawing several modes of carrying out the invention are -³ shown by way of example.' In this drawing Fig. 1 is a plan view of a machine according to the invention; Fig. 2 shows a view, partly broken away, of a modification; Fig. 3 is a view of another modification of a machine ac50 cording to the invention; Fig. 4 illustrates a detail of the machine shown in Fig. 2 · Fig. 5 is a bottom plan view of a magazine, showing the bottom plate recessed to receive the card stripping fingers; Fig. 6 is a section along the line 6—6 of Fig. 5; and Figs. 7 85 and 8 represent, respectively, a side and a sectional view of a card stripping finger.

j ^construction shown in Fig. 1 the cai d feeding device simultaneously serves the P,^nrE°T °mCoring the pile of cards to be ⁸⁰shuffled. The operation of this machine is as follows:

The magazines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, connected to the card feeding wheel 1, are charged with the cards to be shuffled in such a manner, ⁸⁸that-the cards are arranged in the magazines m the shuffling succession desired later and corresponding to the shuffling proportion. If, for instance, perforated and not perfo- rn rated cards are to be shuffled in such a manner, that each two perforated cards are to be followed by one not perforated card, the magazines 2 and 3, 5 and 6 are charged with perforated cards, while cards not provided 75 with perforations are inserted in the magazines 4 and 7. The magazines are so constructed, that, by means of springs 8, the ^ca/ds are pressed against their bottom plates which as shown in Figures 5 and 6, have two 80 recesses along the direction of rotation of the feed wheel, shown by the arrow. Besides this the bottoms of the magazines are recessed at the rear side walls 10 crossways to the direction of rotation in such a manner, ⁸⁵that a slot corresponding to the thickness of the card is formed. A finger 12 engages the lowermost card and shifts it out of the passing magazine. A spring 13 presses the finger 12 against the feed wheel, so that the shoulders 12^a of same uniformly strip off the bottom of the magazine. The edge 12^b of the finger 12 projects over the inside of the bottom plate for a distance somewhat smaller ₈₅than the thickness of a card.

After charging the magazines in the manner described above, the feed wheel is rotated in the direction of the arrow, whereby the cards under the action of the finger 12 ioo

1,757,663 are deposited in a receptacle 14 in which they lie shuffled in the manner desired.

Another construction according to the invention is shown in Fig. 2 in which the card 5 feeding device, for example in the form of a conveyer belt 15, is neither employed to carry the magazines nor to receive the pile of cards resulting from the shuffling. As in the example given above, the cards to be shuffled are 10 deposited in magazines 16,17 which may be provided in any desired number, whereupon the belt 15 is moved. Fingers 18 are fixed to this belt 15 in such a manner, that they engage the lowermost card of the magazine as soon 15 as they are lifted against said magazine. The cards engaged by the fingers 18 drop upon the belt 15 and move with same until they are deposited in a receptacle 19. The conveyer belt 15 is lifted by two wedge-shaped ele20 ments 20, 21 one of which is fixed to the belt 15 itself, while the other is connected to the casing 22, the element 20 riding over the element 21 as the adjacent finger 18 approaches the magazine 16 or 17. By adjusting or re²⁸ moving the wedge 21 alterations in the shuffling proportion in definite succession may be caused.

Fig. 3 shows a further modification of a machine according to the invention. In this ⁸⁰ construction two magazines 23 and 24 are provided for receiving the cards to be shuffled. The card feeding device consists of an oscillating frame 25 driven by an eccentric 26. Fixed to this frame 25 are fingers 27 and 28 “ in such a manner that at each oscillation of the frame 25 cards are fed from the magazines 23 and 24 to the receptacle 29. By means of screws 30 the fingers 27 and 28 may be so adjusted as to feed several cards from the mag⁴⁰ azine at a time, whereby the shuffling proportion may be altered.