"In continuation of the process of polishing, the card-boards are passed between revolving rollers of moderate warmth, one being of iron, the other of paper cut edge-ways; they are next subjected to two bright iron-faced rollers; and finally, to the number of ten or fifteen at a time, they are interleaved with thin sheets of copper, and effectually milled by being passed about a dozen times between two large and powerful cylinders. After being thus thoroughly polished, for the purpose of being flattened they are subjected to the pressure of a hydrostatic press of eight hundred tons, worked by steam.
"It may appear surprising that so much labour and machinery, and such circuitous means—requiring the operation of four distinct cylindrical machines, as well as a hydraulic press, all worked by steam,—should be required for effecting an object apparently so simple as that of polishing and flattening a card-board. It is, however, found that this end cannot be attained in a more expeditious manner, but that the means adopted must be gradual, though increasingly powerful in their different stages.
"The boards being printed and pasted, polished and flattened, are next cut up into single cards. The apparatus by which this is effected, and by which perfect exactness in the size of the cards is preserved, may be briefly described as a pair of scissors from two to three feet long, one blade of which is permanently fixed on the table. The card-board, being placed upon the bench, is slipped between the blades of the scissors, and pushed up to a screw-gauge adjusted to the requisite width; the moveable blade, by being then closed, cuts the card-board into eight narrow slips, called traverses, each containing five cards. These traverses then undergo a similar operation at a smaller pair of gauge-scissors, where they are cut up into single cards, to the amount of thirty thousand daily.
"All that now remains is the making-up into packs. After assorting the cards, the workman begins by laying out on a long table a given number (say two hundred) at one time; he then covers these with another suit, and so on consecutively until he has laid out all the cards that constitute a pack; so that by this operation two hundred packs are completed almost simultaneously. The best cards are called Moguls, the others Harrys, and Highlanders,—the inferior cards consist of those which have any imperfection in the impression, or any marks or specks on the surface.
"It may be necessary to remark that the Aces of Spades are printed at the Stamp Office, whether the cards be for exportation or for the home market,—the paper for printing being sent to the Stamp Office by the maker; and an account of the number of aces furnished by the Stamp Office is kept by the authorities. Before cards are delivered by the manufacturer an officer is sent to seal them, and a duty of a shilling per pack is paid monthly for those that are sold for home consumption. But as they are not liable to duty when intended for exportation, the card-maker enters into a bond that they shall be duly shipped, and an officer is sent to see them put into the case, and to seal it up."
FOOTNOTES:
[220] He says that the name is pure Egyptian, and that it is composed of the word Tar, signifying road, way; and the word Ro, Ros, Rog, which means royal: thus we have Tarog—Tarocchi—the Royal Road. By such a road as this Mons. Court de Gebelin seems to have arrived at much of his "recondite knowledge of things unknown."—See his Monde Primitif, huitième livraison, Dissertations mêlées: "Du jeu de tarots, où l'on traite de son origine, où l'on explique ses allégories, et où l'on fait voir qu'il est la source de nos cartes modernes à jouer."—Tome i, pp. 365-94. 4to, Paris, 1781.
[221] "Une dernière citation achevra de démontrer que les cartes et les naibi sont bien la même chose; le Traité de Théologie de Saint Antoine, évêque de Florence en 1457, porte: Et idem videtur de chartis vel naibis; et encore dans un autre endroit du même ouvrage: De factoribus et venditoribus alearum et taxillarum et chartarum et naiborum."—Précis Historique et Explicatif sur les Cartes à jouer, prefixed to the specimens of cards published under the title of 'Jeux de Cartes Tarots et de Cartes Numérales, du XIVme au XVIIIme Siècle,' by the Society of Bibliophiles Français. Imperial 4to, Paris, 1844.
[222] The word Tarot has been supposed to be a corruption of Tarocchi. Cards marked on the back with lines crossing lozenge-wise, and with little spots, are called Cartes Tarotées; and in France card-makers appear to have been formerly called Tarcotiers. Menestrier conceives that it was from these "lignes frettées en forme de rezeuil" cards were named Tarcuits, and Cartes Tarautées. He says that Tare,—defaut, déchet, tache,—signifies properly a hole, un trou; and he derives it from the Greek τερειν, to bore. From Tare he also derives Tariff, a ruled book for entering the duties on goods. Mons. Duchesne says that Tarot "vient en effet de l'Italien tarrochio, dont à la vérité nous ignorons encore la signification."
[223] Mons. Duchesne thus accounts for those cards being called Atous: "Ces cartes sont dites a tutti, à tous, c'est-à-dire supérieures à toute autre, et n'appartenant à aucune couleur." In other games at cards, the French Atout has the same meaning as the English Trump.