The Bridge Movements Encyclopedia. Duplicate Bridge Schedules, History and Mathematics is an essential book for tournament directors as well as bridge players curious about the history of the game of duplicate bridge. This comprehensive volume supplies you with all the movements ever thought of and many hundreds of new ones. Included for each movement are the variations, modifications, origins, authors and history of its development. Each movement is then assessed for its measure of quality, called calibre. The author presents a brand new event type, the Scissor movement - run like any Howell movement. In this type of event the players play as pairs as usual, but also have their teammates as another pair, never meeting each other. This allows the event to be scored both as teams and pairs, producing a winning team and a winning pair. Duplicate bridge players will find the history of their favorite game most intriguing. The book delves into the lives of well-known figures such as John T. Mitchell and Edwin C. Howell. When did they live, what did they contribute to bridge, and what were the politics of their time? In addition, many lesser-known historical figures are examined for their contributions to the development of duplicate movements. For the mathematically inclined there are plenty of interesting oddities. The mathematics of balance of movements, giving the measure of quality, is thoroughly discussed. The controversial debate over movement quality, along with its history, is presented through the ideas and opinions of players and mathematicians. IAN McKINNON is a mathematician, expert bridge player, tournament director, author and computer professional. Through circumstance, around 1970, he started tournament directing at a major bridge club in Sydney which eventually led to him being the senior Tournament Director within the Australian Bridge Federation during the 1970s. He produced his first book, Bridge Directing Complete, in 1979. All those years of experience, and the last ten years of intense research and computer programming, have resulted in this book.

Originally published in 1897. The author was a famous conjuror who many spent many years perfecting the hundreds of tricks and sleight of hand methods described here. Contents Include: SLEIGHTS: The Double Handed Pass - The Force - The Bridge - The Glide - The Color Change, etc. TRICKS WITH CARDS: Magic versus Mnemonics - The Hypnotised card - Cards Shot Against a Hat - The Demon Envelope - The Obedient Card, etc. PREPARED AND MECHANICAL CARDS: The Changing Card - The Torn Corner Card - The Flap Card - The Conjurer as Marksman - The Envelope Card - The Coin Card - A Mysterious Transformation, etc Contains many explanatory illustrations. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.Envelope Card - The Coin Card - A Mysterious Transformation, etc

The perfect book for any adult who loves to challenge their brain but also craves a creative outlet that allows them to use the artistic and inventive side too. Featuring over 120 fantastic puzzles, mazes, dot-to-dots, crosswords, spot the difference, hanjie, sudoku and more, as well as colouring pages, The Adult Activity Book truly lives up to its name and presents a variety of puzzles and activities that will help boost your brain power. Apart from enhancing the brain, you will find that taking time for yourself and concentrating on an activity has real therapeutic benefits too, as it allows you to recharge your batteries and better cope with the stresses we all face every day. All the activities increase in difficulty as you work through the book, and all you need are pens and pencils to get stuck in – so challenge your brain to ever-harder puzzles or kick back and relax with bit of creative colouring.

The original, award-winning Wizard Card Game with new, large index design. Instructions and sample score sheets are included. Oversized scorepad is sold separately.

Wizard Card Game Large Index uses standard Wizard size playing cards with larger numbers and symbols.

Ideal for those who are visually impaired.

Whisper & Venom Compendium Deluxe Hardcover Whisper & Venom is a complete adventure for fantasy RPG's. Intriguing design and immersive gameplay are showcased in elegant writing. It is suitable for any classic fantasy role-playing game system.

This unique backgammon set features Gray's iconic aerial photography of sunbathers and colorful beach umbrellas and includes 30 game pieces, 4 dice, and 1 doubling cube. The Gray Malin Beach Backgammon Set is the perfect gift for backgammon and fine art photography enthusiasts alike. Box dimensions: 12" x 8.75" x 1.75"

Science Fiction Hobby Games serves as a history and guide to tabletop gaming franchises set in original science-fictional milieux. Its subject is the pen and paper role playing games and model and counter based wargames that preceded modern videogames and still evolve alongside them, as well as the gamebooks, board games, card games and postal games that are their less famous cousins. Included are detailed critical overviews of more than a hundred fantastical universes published between 1969 and 2013, along with essays on popular types of tabletop game and the natures of their settings and stories. Throughout, sf games are treated as an integral part of the long history of science fiction, and as a new way of enabling its explorations of the future and other worlds. Based on the author's contributions to the Hugo Award winning third edition of the Clute and Nicholls Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, this book contains an extra 20,000 words on additional games and other topics, specially written for this new version of the text.

"In the early transition from the long-lived flintlock system, handgun development closely paralleled that of the long arms. With the advent of the revolving pistols, however; came patents that created monopolies in revolver production and the through-bored cylinder necessary for self-contained metallic cartridges. The caplock revolvers took on a separate evolution and remained state of the art long after the widespread appearance of cartridge firing rifles and shotguns. They rode in the holsters of of explorers and adventurers across the world and granted safe conduct in the back-alleys of the Industrial West right up until the last quarter of the 19th Century. Handguns possess a mystique distinctly different from that of other firearms. They are tools of personal empowerment-chosen by their owners to provide independence and freedom of movement. In the ambitious, optimistic early years of western industrial civilization they were the emblem of liberty and equality and the bane of repressive governments and social movements. Largely because of the traditions that emerged in the time of the caplock pistols and revolvers, they remain so in the early years of the 21st Century."