From the Vault: Autobridge

Autobridge Playing Board, circa 1938

From time to time, I may post some items from my game collection. First up is this exceptionally strange piece of cutting-edge solitaire bridge-playing technology, circa 1938.

You close the little sliders, then put the sheets under the frame. A sequence of numbers appear in a little window when all the sliders are in the start position. You open each door in number order, revealing the current card in play.

Each sheet even contains game commentary by Ely Culbertson.The whole item was manufactured of Textolite by General Electric, for Autobridge Inc. I don't recall where I got this, but I think it came in a lot with some other games, perhaps from Sid Sackson's collection. (Sid was a major game designer and collector.)

And if you think such technology is just a relic of the pre-computer age, you'd be wrong.