Samuel J. Murray

Life & Legacy

Samuel J. Murray (March 7, 1851 – August 23, 1915) was a New York printer's apprentice, inventor, and businessman. At the time of his death at age sixty-five, Murray was vice president and treasurer of the United States Playing Card Company, and a director of the W. B. Oglesby Paper Company of Middletown, Ohio. His block of stock in the United States Playing Card Company was said to be worth $1,000,000.
Called "a mechanical genius, the marvel and admiration of the technical and inventive world", Murray made his mark on the United States Playing Card Company by creating and installing manufacturing equipment, such as an automatic punch machine which "increased the output of cards fourfold" and reduced labor costs by sixty-six percent. With the automatic punch machine, great sheets of paper were fed into the machine and came out as complete packs of playing cards, printed in four colors.