by Kate Hsieh
Ever go in someone’s living room and find a half-completed jigsaw puzzle on the table? It doesn’t really take a puzzle freak to be overwhelmed by the urge to try to fit in another piece or two. What makes puzzles so irresistible? That’s the real puzzle. How did puzzles first come to be? Whose idea was it anyway? What kind of person would try to cut a picture into irregular pieces and willingly spend hours trying to put it back together? The first puzzle was created in London by a mapmaker whose name was John Spilsbury, sometime around 1762. He glued a map to a thin piece of wood then used a handsaw to cut out the map into little pieces along the borders of different countries. Spilsbury’s creation was an immediate success. (It was a priceless idea, though not to the unlucky Spilsbury, who died at the age of twenty-nine without seeing the great success puzzles were to become.) The subjects of puzzles were usually geographical, like a European map, or historical, like portraits of kings. Since the original purpose of his creation was to assist the teaching of geography, there was no reason to cut the pieces into complicated shapes. And puzzles were primarily purchased by upper class parents, who wanted their children to benefit from the latest teaching methods. Puzzles had yet to develop into a mass phenomenon. A single puzzle could cost as much as an average worker earned in a month. It wasn’t until 1840s that puzzle makers in Germany and France began to cut their puzzles in the interlocking shapes so familiar to us today. They also replaced expensive and unwieldy wooden boards with pasteboard, and therefore reduced the costs. Still, only upper-middle class consumers could afford them. In the early years, most puzzles had fewer than fifty pieces because the cutting was a long and difficult process. But the situation got better for puzzle makers in 1876 with the invention of the “jigsaw.” Puzzles could now be made more quickly and easily, with far more pieces, including smaller ones. The improved technology enabled the mass production of puzzles, and led to the decline of prices. Now that low-priced puzzles were obtainable for every class of consumer, puzzles soon became all the rage. Now we come to the last few pieces of our puzzle-the twentieth century. North America was caught in a puzzle mania. During the Great Depression, when most other forms of entertainment were impossible, Americans set a record by buying six million puzzles a week. Although that kind of intense interest eventually waned, sales numbers remained stable until 1989, when the revolutionary 3D puzzle appeared. Today, you can buy 3D versions of everything from the Eiffel Tower to the White House, from the Titanic to Apollo 13. For devoted fans, there are some challenging puzzles, such as single-color sets with no picture, or with straight-edged pieces that actually belong in the middle instead of outside. And there are “Impossibles,” puzzles with edge pieces disguised to look like inner ones, or even extra pieces that don’t belong. Do you feel like giving one a try? Now the puzzle of the history of puzzles is complete. Puzzles are indeed a mind-challenging and fantastic recreation. Everyone enjoys the pleasure of finding the right piece and watching the pieces come together into a beautiful picture. I don’t know about you, but I suddenly have a craving for a puzzle, so why not come along with me to get one and have a great time. a
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May 2024
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