Published by David Holladay
Copyright 2022 David Holladay
All Rights Reserved.
This book discusses a Card House Building Design that is easy for children to master. Besides giving clear instructions, the book shows how these designs have been popular for 300 years. The author gives his experience building and destroying Card Houses.
In 1963, when I was ten years old, my parents went out for the evening. A teenage boy named Kearns (I wish I remembered his first name) supervised my siblings and I. He showed us how to build a proper House of Cards based on a unit of six cards. He showed us how one could build large structures made of rows, columns, and many stories of those simple units. I was hooked.
At various points in my youth, I showed great enthusiasm for building these structures. While I occasionally built structures not based on the six-card unit, my main focus was on complex structures based on this simple, modular design. I got very good at construction and devised many interesting variations and delightful means of demolition.
I preferred the term Card House rather than House of Cards. Decades later, HBO complicated computer searches for either phrase. My plan is to write this booklet in two parts. The first part describes my passion for Card Houses. I get to tell some of my best stories about my life. The second part is my guide to construction. It is my hope that every single reader can expand upon my designs and can at some point then write a better instruction manual.
At the very end of 2016, I decided to see what the internet had to say about Card Houses. I was quite surprised to discover that I could not locate any reference to my favorite six-card unit constructions. The designs and images I found were different and appeared to be more suitable for adults. The method I adored had always been much more kid friendly. It was clear that I needed to step in and write this to preserve a dying art.
I am certain that my interests in Card Houses with all the calculations and measurements that I made, helped me get into MIT. At MIT, I met my future wife. Our mutual interests have directed our adult careers. So my blessed life has been made possible by my obsession with six-card unit constructions. Every child that I have ever taught has loved these constructions. It is my hope that this form of active play that engages the mind and the hand will continue to flourish.
The oddest discovery was that when I searched the internet for images, I found that virtually all the old paintings I could find from 1720-1910 that featured Card Houses showed by favorite design. Thanks to Google image search, Wikipedia, and Pinterest, I can document that the six-card unit of construction was very popular during a 200-year period. At this point, I need to allow some pictures to replace a thousand words. I will let a pair of German Gnomes and some old paintings pick up the story.
Die Gnomen und das Kartenhaus by Lothar Meggendorfer (Illustration) and Franz Bonn (Text)
The original German verse translated into English rhyme by David Holladay and Caryn Navy
Two Gnomes named Frog and Fish
see some cards, and for some fun they wish.
Note: the gap on the floor should be .75 inches (use 13° at the top)
Soon, the two happy Gnomes discover
that the cards in the air do hover.
If you put them together just right,
they hold each other up with all their might.
That they did so to them seemed amazing,
two new cards are added to prevent it razing!
Note: the gap on the floor from the wall to the tent should be 7/32 of an inch. (5.5°)
The walls lean against the central tent;
all the cards are secure against an accident!
Fish is not ready to call a stop.
He wants more before they have built the top.
But Frog warns him: "Do not be a clown,
add more and everything comes falling down!"
Note: human hands should bring the roof cards in simultaneously towards the tent.
But see, it works! Fish is glad;
Frog adds another to show he is not mad.
Housebuilders are fond of making large homes;
thus it was for our two eager Gnomes.
Now that they are feeling skilled,
more and more they want to build.
Two additional cards are added without a door,
two walls on the second floor!
And so they repeat exactly a second layer,
above the first floor, a home fit for a mayor.
Note: Gnomes are lighter than humans. Do not attempt this.
Because they cannot reach high enough,
up goes Fish - now able to build more stuff!
Construction now is much more hard;
Fish lifts from Frog one more card.
The construction site has not another card,
and so from further building, they are barred.
Full of joy, because the building is sound,
they both dance around and around;
But before they can say "one - two - three;"
their folly is visible for all to see.
Detail: 
Detail: 
Detail: 
Three paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) showing the construction of Card Houses, suggesting the wide appeal of this form of entertainment. I do not know the year of these three paintings.
Detail: 
Building Houses with Cards, this is based on a painting at the Vauxhall Gardens, approx. 1743
Detail: 
Francois-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775) -- Boy In Blue Building A House Of Cards, With Two Girls
Detail: 
Peter Jacob Horemans (1700-1776) –- Children building a house of cards
Detail: 
Thomas-Gainsborough -- John and Henry Trueman Villebois, 1783
Detail: 
Charles Edouard Frere -- Card Houses, 1867
Detail: 
Albert Chevallier Tayler -- The House of Cards, 1888
Detail: 
Harry Booker -- Children Building a House of Cards, 1889
So, what have we learned? It appears to me that all of these paintings show a style of Card House that resemble the construction techniques that I learned as a youth. But it is crazier than that. What I discovered is that no image after 1910 showed this style of card house construction. What happened to popular culture that caused this shift? The Titanic sinking or the horrors of World I? I have no idea, but it sure sounds like a great Ph.D. thesis topic.
I learned to build Card Houses while living in Beirut, Lebanon. How did this affect things? I have many card decks based on the French design. In many European countries, there is a tax on playing cards, and the regulations fix the design of the picture cards. Secondly, I was learning the metric system, and so I went overboard measuring everything about Card Houses using the metric system. I help share this childhood enthusiasm for things metric; I will use metric units first, and then translate into American units if I feel like it.
I should say that I worked on Card Houses with my brothers, Martin and Peter, and my friend Ned. In particular, I remember various photography projects being being joint projects. I know that Martin came up with the idea of the 4-stick popsicle bomb while on a long hike on the island of Crete. I would like to thank my childhood associates for all their contributions to this effort.
There are two main sizes of playing cards: bridge and poker. Bridge cards are wider than poker cards by 6 mm or a quarter inch. We used poker cards (89 by 57 mm; or 3.5 by 2.25 inches in size). Worn cards work better than slick cards. Plastic cards are too slippery to use.
I quickly learned that building Card Houses was a matter of distances, angles, and experience. Without using trigonometry, I figured out that the ideal angle of the tents is 13° and the ideal angle of the walls is 5.5°. I marked the position of the cards on a piece of paper and then used a protractor. I learned to hold the tent up with a single finger while my other hand placed the walls one by one. Once I stabilize these four cards, I put the two roof cards in by bringing them together at the same time.
When building nearby units to build a large structure, spacing is crucial. For the details, see the Construction Manual.
During the construction of one large building, my watch band was sticking out (not tucked in). I noticed this the moment it caught on the roofline of my building and destroyed the whole thing. I was expecting to be angry, but instead, I was very calm. I started thinking about how such a tiny mistake (not tucking in a watchband), could have larger consequences. It is a lesson that I always remember.
I did develop an attitude that each and every Card House was destined to collapse. Nothing can make a Card House last very long. If you manage to finish the design, the temptation to take it down and start over can be overwhelming. I think I may have kept one up a night or two, but that was quite rare. If they all collapse soon enough, it matters little if they fall by your hand or by your little brother. It matters little if a falls after completion or by a gust of the wind during construction. This is the hardest lesson that I teach when I show kids ages 7-15 about building Card Houses.
I do remember taking a few photographs of Card Houses as a kid. I cannot find these photographs; I must have set them aside for a writing project that went nowhere. I do remember that Martin, Ned, and I took some photographs of collapsing card houses to gain some insight into the process of collapse. We built Card Houses outside so we could use as short a shutter time as we could. We tried to take the pictures in the earliest stages of collapse since otherwise you just get a blurry image of everything falling down. The idea image showed most of the structure intact, with the collapse front expanding rapidly. It took a lot of practice so that we could get the kind of photograph that we wanted. We would be in heaven if we had a high-speed motion camera.
We did make one photo that appeared to show a flaming Card House. In actuality, none of the cards were affected in any way. If readers want to experiment with special effects, please do so, but make sure that everything you do if safe and supervised by a sober adult. My hope is that readers will instead explore all of the options offered with Smartphone photography and various forms of image distribution.
Here I will discuss three forms of destruction:
What can I say? My brothers and my friends got pretty good at flicking cards at a target on the other side of the room. I did notice that the cast of the movie Now You See It (2) appeared to be able to toss cards at incredible speeds with good accuracy. Our efforts were much tamer, but it always surprised me how much difficulty someone has in flipping cards until they have some practice.
Here is an assortment of popsicle stick bombs:
We got very good at quickly making the 4-stick bomb. These can be flipped with good accuracy at a target across the room. The sticks fly around to every crevice in the room. Once play time is over, you keep finding popsicle sticks in every corner of the room. I caution kids to be careful not to drive their parents crazy unless they get full permission before doing this in common areas of the house. Construction details are in the next section of this booklet.
I do remember going to the American University of Beirut "college store" to buy a mechanical alarm clock. It cost me 8 Lebanese pounds (just under $3). It looked something like this:
I also made use of two Meccano (Erector) metal girders and two screws:
There are two windup keys on the back of the clock. I wound them both up. I set the alarm for a time that was 45 minutes to an hour away. I unscrewed the key to wind up the clock, leaving the key that winds up the alarm. I took two Mechanno girders and placed one on each side of the alarm key. I used two screws to hold the girders tightly in place. When I placed the clock face down on the floor, I had a gizmo that would spin the girder in a wide circle once the alarm went off.
Once I had set the trap, I would build a large Card House all around the clock and the horizontal girder bar. My task was (once the Card House was finished) to defuse the bomb. I had some tools made of girders and paperclips. One tool used a paper clip at the end of a girder to hook around the handle of the clock. Another tool was designed to push the top button of the clock to turn off the alarm.
It was a fascinating toy. I imagined that I was someone like James Bond, tasked with defusing a device that could take down a whole building. I remember the time pressure of completing the building task before the time was up and the difficulty of defusing the "bomb." If I rushed the defusing, then it was easy to make a mistake holding the tools and causing destruction via unwanted vibrations. If I was too slow, the alarm went off. I do remember getting the hook around the clock handle; I was seconds away from pressing the "defuse" button when the alarm went off, wiping everything out in a great circular motion. Even then, I knew that it would never have as much fun with any other toy.
Right now, buying a vintage mechanical alarm clock would be a complex undertaking. I am sure that readers can work out something similar with a smartphone set to vibrate, dental floss, and a line of dominos. The previous sentence is not to be taken literally. Instead, I am just saying "use your imagination."
At age 14, I had a significant accident to my left hand. played with bomb making. An accident which left me with fewer fingertips. I had two emergency surguries the first day. I need to offer Dr. Sameer Ibrahim Shehadi my undying thanks for doing such an excellent job in putting my hand back together.
Rehab
electric eye, fan and switch/ mirror
The million dollar idea.