A house of cards is a structure created by stacking playing cardson top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary element is removed. Structures built by layering in this way, such as Stonehenge, are referred to as "house of cards architecture", which dates back to the Cyclopean and Megalithic ages. The origin of the phrase is debated to be from the 18th century England but some believe that it has an American base.
Description
The structures created using this method rely on nothing more than balance and friction in order to stay upright. Ideally, adhesives or other external connecting methods are not used, and no damage or alterations are made to the cards themselves. The larger the structure, the higher the number of balanced cards that could fail and compromise the integrity of the card building. Professional card stacker Bryan Berg claims, however, that the more cards placed on a tower the stronger it becomes because the weight of the cards pushing down on the base allows occasional cards to stumble without the entire structure collapsing. He also claims that proper stacking technique allows cards to function as shear walls, giving considerable stability to the structure.
World records
The earliest known record for card stacking was achieved by Victoria Maitland, of the United Kingdom. A photograph of her work was published in The Strand Magazine in September 1901. It was a fifteen-story structure. Following the publication of this record, a second was submitted in April 1902 by Rosie Farner of England with a picture of a twenty-storied tower. A third record was submitted by F. M. Hollams of England, with a tower of twenty-five stories, in February 1903. Other record holders include:
Joe Whitlam, of England, with twenty-seven stories, on February 28, 1972
James Warnock, of Canada, with sixty-one stories, on September 8, 1978
Bryan Berg, of the United States, with seventy-five stories, on April 21, 1992
Berg has since kept the record and created many sub-records. He currently holds the world record for tallest house of cards, a "skyscraper" completed at the State Fair of Texas on October 14, 2007. He also holds the record for the largest house of cards, a category Guinness invented for the event, for a replica of Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World. On March 10, 2010, Berg broke his own record by building a replica of The Venetian Macaoresort hotel. He completed it in 44 days, using 218,792 cards. The structure measured, and weighed more than.
