The photograph on the left is of a Travel Edition of the game of Scrabble. The travel edition is identical to the "standard edition" except for the types of materials used. The Travel Edition has US Patent #2752158. This copy was donated to the Museum in 1978.
The container box is made of a blue plastic. It is hinged, has rounded corners and a white catch used to hold the sides together when closed. When closed it is 18cm long x 24cm wide x 4cm high, and on both sides there is blue and gold lettering identifying the game.
When open, the box is 24cm wide x 36.5cm long x 2cm high. On the left side of the open box is a section 23.5cm long x 5.2cm wide x 1.4cm deep. This section holds the tiles. A clear plastic section cover holds the tiles in place during transit. An identical section on the right side of the opened box holds the racks in four imbedded tracts.
The board, divided into two equal halves by a ridge-forming hinge, is in the center of the opened box. The board is a printed matrix of 225 cells or a matrix of 15X15 - just as in the "standard edition". The playing surface is 25cm x 23.5cm. However, the board is smaller than the standard edition and each cell in the travel edition is approximately 1.5cm square. The entire board is covered with a clear hard plastic film that is ridged along each cell - a system used in the "deluxe edition" and the "Braille edition". The ridges act as frames in which a player places a tile, and prevent the tiles from moving when the game is played in transit in an auto, train, plane, or boat.
The 4 "racks" (right of photograph) are used to hold a player's tiles. Racks (1.5cm wide x 10.2cm long) are made of clear plastic and include a ridge running along the width to enable the tiles to stand semi-upright while facing a player. The "tiles" (left of the photograph) are made of natural wood (1.2cm square x 5cm thick). Stamped in the center of each tile is a letter of the alphabet, and in the bottom right corner is a numeric point value for the tile. There are 100 tiles in the set, and their distribution is the same as in the "standard edition".
Last update June 1, 2010