The Hammond Electric Bridge Table was an electromechanical automatic card shuffling machine that dealt playing cards at random to four bridge players. The mechanism was built into a card table. The main concept of the machine was as a labor saving aid for bridge players in dealing out the hands. The invention was an offspring from the Hammond Clock Company as an additional product. It was a popular device when first introduced at the pre-Christmas season of 1932. That was short lived, however, and production lasted only a couple of years.