|
|
Any story about interlocking puzzles has to start with the traditional six-piece burr puzzle.
This puzzle is known by several names, including the "puzzle knot," the "Devil's Knot"
(Teufelsknoten in German), the "Chinese Cross,"
the "Lock of Luban" (Luban Suo
魯班鎖)
or the "Lock of Kongming" (Kongming Suo
孔明鎖).
The term "burr" is thought to have been first used by Edwin Wyatt in Puzzles in Wood (1928), but
Wyatt seems to use the term as if it was already commonly understood to apply.
Supposedly whoever coined the term did so because the puzzle resembles the clinging
burrs of some plants.
Like other well-known vintage puzzles, the burr has acquired a probably-fanciful backstory,
and details of its history are lost.
Some say it is a Chinese invention, along with the Patience Tanglement, the Sliding Piece Puzzle
known as "The Huarong Path," and the Tangram, and date it to ancient times
(see Wei Zhang's Chinese Puzzles Blog,
and the website of the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco,
for info about an exhibition).
The earliest relevant U.S. Patent seems to be
1225760 - Brown 1917.
However, a traditional six-piece burr appears in Hoffmann's 1893 book Puzzles Old and New
in Chapter III as No. XXXVI "The Nut (or Six-piece) Puzzle."
Jerry Slocum and Dieter Gebhardt put together a compendium of puzzle advertisements found in the
1785 catalogue of the merchant Peter Friedrich Catel, who established a retail store in Berlin in 1780.
The 1785 catalogue contains an ad for a traditional six-piece burr puzzle called "The Small Devil's Hoof"
(in addition to an ad for the Large Devil's Hoof which is a 24-piece cage burr).
In his 2007 book Geometric Puzzle Design,
Stewart Coffin discusses the six-piece burr in chapter 7, and reports that Jerry Slocum's New Findings on the History of the Six Piece Burr
traces the six-piece burr back to Germany in 1698.
One early depiction of the six-piece burr puzzle and specific pieces
occurs in a Spanish book from 1733 by Pablo Minguet y Irol (b. 1700 d. ca. 1775) with a rather lengthy title that begins
Engaños à Ojos Vistas.
Also see the 1728
Cyclopedia of Ephraim Chambers
(online at the
University of Wisconsin Digital Collection; additional commentary at
www.cyclopedia.org).
You can see a six-piece burr in the lower left area of the
frontispiece by John Sturt,
which is a modified and left-to-right inverted copy of a
1698 engraving
entitled "L'Académie des Sciences et des Beaux Arts" by Sébastien Leclerc (or Le Clerc).
In his Sources in Recreational Mathematics,
David Singmaster says that
James Dalgety was the first to note this picture.
Read about this engraving, at the
University of Oxford.
Stewart Coffin's book
The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections
hosted on John Rausch's site
contains a good introduction to this type of puzzle.
Martin Gardner discusses burrs briefly (as an introduction to the puzzle sculptures of Miguel Berrocal)
in his 1989 book Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers, and most of the key puzzle authors mention the puzzle.
There have been sporadic fits of research into the six-piece burr, including an extensive analysis by hand by the Dutch
mathematician J. H. de Boer, and work by Tom O'Beirne and Arthur Cross,
but
Bill Cutler has performed the definitive computer
analysis,
and the statistics cited below are based on his analysis.
There is a distinction made between burr puzzles that contain no
internal "holes" or voids - termed "solid" burrs,
and those that do contain one or more - termed "holey" burrs.
Also, there is a distinction made among the pieces which can be produced without
hard-to-manufacture blind (or internal) corners
versus those that cannot.
The 59 "easy" pieces are called "notchable" and there are only 25 of them that can be used to build
solid burrs.
Those 25 pieces can be put together in 314 ways.
There are 369 general pieces that can be used to produce 119,979 solid burrs.
Of those 369, 112 can be used in duplicate and 2 in triplicate, making a useful set of 485 pieces.
The 59 notchable pieces can be used to make 13,354,991 assemblies, most of which are holey.
Overall, there are 837 pieces that can be used to produce an estimated 5.95 billion constructible puzzles.
So, to make a traditional six-piece burr, six pieces, usually but not always distinct, are selected from the
overall set of 837 possible such pieces, and interlocked in a characteristic 2x2x2
pattern along 3 orthogonal axes - see the photo at upper left.
The burr shape is tricky to envision without an example in front of one, but it gets easier with practice.
Bill Cutler has done extensive analysis on both the
"holey" six-piece burr
and
all six-piece burrs in general,
and Bill
offers several burrs for sale.
Jurg von Kanel created the wonderful
Burr Puzzles Site hosted at IBM Research.
Jurg's site offers a
solution analyzer applet
and
historical info about burrs.
Bruno Curfs' site
offers additional analysis.
Ed Pegg wrote a
good survey article about burrs.
Peter Roesler's site also discusses burr puzzles, and has
an interesting history of Willem van der Poel's Grandfather 6x6x6 burr.
You can see some burrs at
John Rausch's Puzzleworld
and at
Wayne Daniel's site.
You can use
Andreas Roever's
Burr Tools
to model, solve, and design burr puzzles.
If you're interested in collecting 6-piece burrs, I suggest you first check out the
"Puzzle Will Be Played" site
to get some idea of the variety available.
Look under "Interlocking (6 piece burr: traditional)."
Though they may be sold under different names and by different vendors,
burr puzzles that use the same set of six pieces are isomorphic and have identical solutions
(although using pieces longer than six units might eliminate some solutions).
That site also provides a comprehensive
catalogue of burr pieces.
The "level" of a burr puzzle is the number of distinct moves
(a shift of one or more pieces as a unit, usually by one unit in one direction)
that must be performed to remove the first piece or pieces - there can be a concatenation of figures usually separated by dots -
these are the numbers of steps to remove successive pieces.
All solid burrs are level 1 - they come apart without any preliminary shifting.
Burrs with internal holes, of which there can be from 1 to 20, can achieve higher levels, and one goal of research has been
to delimit what is possible in terms of level complexity.
I admit that, early on, I didn't like burr puzzles. But as I read more about them, and tried various designs,
my appreciation for them grew.
I put together the diagram below to try to summarize and organize some of the facts
I learned about this category of puzzle.
1 A A A [p] 1
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
/ /|
+ + |
/ / +
+----+----+----+----+----+----+ |
| | |
| | +
+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Key |
|||||
18 B B L [p] 2
+----+ +----+----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|
35 C E 1
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +-/ / +
+----+----+ / +----+----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|
52 D P J [p] 2
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Side Tray |
103 F S H 1
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +---+--/ / +
+----+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Half-Tray |
120 G U 1
+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+---+--/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Three-Quarters Tray |
256 J X B [p2] 3
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Tray |
86 E H 1
+----+ +----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + | | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|
154 H K I [p] 1
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Toaster |
188 I M M [p] 2
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The (Bottle) Opener |
871 M T K 2
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +
+----+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | +----+--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Barbells |
928 V L D 2
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Tongue |
1024 Y Y F [p2] 3
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Y |
792 R D 2
+----+ +----+----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ + |
/ / +--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + + | | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
911 N C G 2
+----+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+----+ | + + |
/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + + | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
824 T R C [p] 2
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
975 O Q E [p] 2
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
888 U W 2
+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + +----+--| | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
1007 Q V 2
+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+-/ / +
+----+----+ / +----+ |
| | +----+----+ | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
| The Walls | The Offsets | The Clubs | |||
960 X N 2
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +-------| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
992 W O [p] 2
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +----+-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
359 L F 1
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+----+ |
| | + +--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
615 K G 1
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +--| / / +
+----+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | +----+ | | |
| | | | | +
+ + | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
856 S J 1
+----+ +----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+----+ |
| | + + +--| | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
943 P I 1
+----+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | +----+ + | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
| The Fingers | The Notched Half-Trays | The Fingered Clubs | |||
56
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + +--| | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Triple Slide |
72
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+----+ | + + |
/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+----+ |
| | +----+----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Interrupted Slide |
88
+----+ +----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Piston, Hordern,Dozen, BB31-10-40 |
94
+----+ +----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | +----+ + |
/ / +-/ / +--| / / +
+----+ / +----+ / | +----+ |
| | + | | + +--| | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+ +----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Triple Slide |
109
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ +----+ + |
/ /|----| / / +
+----+----+----+ | | +----+ |
| | + +--| | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
BCL6000 |
112
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | +----+ + |
/ /| | +-------| / / +
+----+ | |/ | +----+ |
| | +----+ +--| | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Interrupted Slide |
126
+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ +----+ + |
/ / +-/ /|----| / / +
+----+ / +----+ | | +----+ |
| | + | | + +--| | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+ +----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
STC#36 |
128
+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +------------| / / +
+----+ / | +----+ |
| | + +--| | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Hedgehog, Kaldeway |
156
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + | + + |
/ / +--| / / +-/ / +
+----+ / | +----+ / +----+ |
| | + +--| | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Triple Slide |
160
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
(many) |
192
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +----+--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
#G |
224
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +----+-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
JVK, Millable 5.4 |
412
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + | + + |
/ / +--| / / +-/ / +
+----+ / | +----+ / +----+ |
| | + + | | + | | |
| |/ /| | |/ | | +
+ +----+ | + +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
(many) |
448
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +----+--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
Interrupted Slide |
736
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +----+-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
BCL6000, #G |
464
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | +----+ + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
Brown's |
576
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+ |
| | + + +--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
D. Kriz II |
511
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ + + |
/ /|-+----+----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | +----+ |
| | +----+ | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
Interrupted Slide, #D, F#73 |
476
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ + + |
/ / +--| / /|-+-/ / +
+----+ / | +----+ | +----+ |
| | + + | | + | | |
| |/ /| | |/ | | +
+ +----+ | + +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
Prog. Nightmare |
702
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +-/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + | | + + | | |
| |/ | | | / | | +
+ +----+ + | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
BC-CCU10, Mega-6 |
512
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
(many) |
768
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
(many) |
551
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +--| / / +
+----+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + + | | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
BC-L5N |
624
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | +----+ + |
/ /| | +----+--| / / +
+----+ | |/ | +----+ |
| | +----+ +----+--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
BC-CCU10 |
704
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +----+--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
(many) |
499
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ +----+----+ + |
/ /|-+-/ / +
+----+----+ | +----+----+----+ |
| | +--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | + + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
BC-CC5H |
757
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+----+ +----+ + |
/ /|-+-/ / +
+----+----+----+ | +----+----+ |
| | +--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | + + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
Prog. Nightmare |
760
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + +--| | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+----+ | + + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
Baffling, Brother |
800
+----+ +----+----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+----+ + |
/ / +--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+ |
| | + + +--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Brown's |
820
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+----+ |
| | + +--| | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
STC#36 |
832
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+ |
| | + +----+ +--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Brown's, G4 |
976
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | +----+ +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
D. Kriz II, Enigma, #G |
880
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | +----+ + |
/ /| | +----+--| / / +
+----+ | |/ | +----+ |
| | +----+----+----+--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Dubois/Gaby |
883
+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ +----+ + |
/ /|-+-/ / +
+----+----+ | +----+----+----+ |
| | +--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
BC-CCU10 |
922
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Piston |
926
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + +----+ | + + |
/ / +-/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + | | + + | | |
| |/ | |/ / | | +
+ +----+----+ +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
BC-CC5H |
956
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ / +----+ |
| | + +--| | + | | |
| |/ /| | |/ | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Prog. Nightmare, BC-CC4H |
990
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +-/ / +----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | +----+ | | |
| |/ | |/ / | | +
+ +----+----+ +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Interrupted Slide |
996
+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + |
/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+----+----+ |
| | +----+--| | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Baffling |
1008
+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | +----+----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
(many) |
1015
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ +----+ + |
/ /|-+----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | +----+----+ |
| | +----+--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
(many) |
1021
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+----+ + + |
/ /|-+----+-/ / +
+----+----+----+ | +----+ |
| | +----+ | | |
| |/ / | | +
+ +----+ +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Prog. Nightmare |
1 A A [p]
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
/ /|
+ + |
/ / +
+----+----+----+----+----+----+ |
| | |
| | +
+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Key |
256 J X [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Tray |
256 J X [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Tray |
256 J X [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Tray |
928 V L
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Tongue |
928 V L
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Tongue |
| This set of pieces appeared in a French puzzle (I don't have) called "Charpente Diabolique" (the Diabolical Structure). The pieces include: 1, 3x256, and 2x928 (AJ-VV-JJ or ALLXXX). The colorful burr on the right I have from "Melissa & Doug" uses the same set. It is very easy to construct - in fact this is possibly the easiest of all 6-piece burrs. |
|
1 A A [p]
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
/ /|
+ + |
/ / +
+----+----+----+----+----+----+ |
| | |
| | +
+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Key |
256 J X [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Tray |
824 T R [p]
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The |
975 O Q [p]
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Offsets |
928 V L
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Tongue |
1024 Y Y [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Y |
 This small plastic red burr is one of my older puzzles - I don't recall where I got it. |
Licorice Stix - Reiss (1974) |
This is a small plastic burr pendant, made in China. |
 This set also appeared as "Dohikus." (I don't have this.) |
52 D P [p]
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Side Tray |
792 R D
+----+ +----+----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ + |
/ / +--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + + | | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The |
911 N C
+----+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+----+ | + + |
/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + + | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Walls |
824 T R [p]
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The |
975 O Q [p]
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Offsets |
1024 Y Y [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Y |
I got this aluminum burr called "Rainbow" from Bits and Pieces - it came in a nice black drawstring pouch. It was designed by Paul Eibe. |
This is DNORTY from Pentangle. The name derives from the bold piece letters given in my table above: 52 (D), 911 (N), 975 (O), 792 (R), 824 (T), 1024 (Y). |
This is a Toyo Glass puzzle called "Tongari Kun and Roppongi." Not only is there a burr, but it must be assembled inside the glass container. The mouth is too small to pass the burr in fully assembled form. Remember, there are 6 different ways to construct this burr - you must find one that permits construction within the container! |
|
|
|||
To resolve all six different solutions, I found it helpful to ask myself,
"What sits in the notch of piece #52, and then which piece is opposite #52?"
I found the following:
|
1 A A [p]
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
/ /|
+ + |
/ / +
+----+----+----+----+----+----+ |
| | |
| | +
+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Key |
188 I M [p]
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The (Bottle) Opener |
824 T R [p]
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The |
975 O Q [p]
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Offsets |
1024 Y Y [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Y |
1024 Y Y [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Y |
The vintage Japanese Yamato Block Puzzle. |
This is "No. P19 Joe's Puzzle" from Wm. F. Drueke & Sons of Grand Rapids Michigan. There is no date on the box but it seems fairly old. |
This is a small brass burr, called the "Ultimate Puzzle," made for Chadwick Miller and dated 1969. It came with a small black case with a question mark on the front. |
In this aluminum burr, piece 824 is fixed to the base. I think this came from B&P. |
||
88
+----+ +----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|
512
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
|
704
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +----+--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
|
960
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +-------| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
992
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +----+-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
1008
+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | +----+----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
|
This is Bruce Love's Dozen, (the version without the D's) purchased from Bill Cutler, and made from Maple by Jerry McFarland. This burr is special because it is the only burr at the highest level, 12. Unfortunately the solution is not unique - there are 89 ways to put these pieces together, and most of them don't achieve level 12. Note that there are no other level 12 burrs (for any length stick), and no level 11 burrs at all. |
88
+----+ +----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|
512
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
|
768
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
|
922
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
1008
+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | +----+----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
1008
+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | +----+----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
|
| This is Peter Marineau's "Piston" burr, so named because of the large number of times pieces must be moved back and forth during the solution. This burr is special because it achieves the highest level possible for length-6 pieces, level 9 (i.e. it requires 9 moves to release the first piece), and the solution is unique - it has no other solutions at lower levels. I made an example from Lego. I also bought a version made from six exotic woods, by Thomas Moeller. It is quite large - each piece measures 1.5" x 1.5" x 4.5". Check Bill Cutler's site for availability. |
624
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | +----+ + |
/ /| | +----+--| / / +
+----+ | |/ | +----+ |
| | +----+ +----+--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
|
702
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +-/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + | | + + | | |
| |/ | | | / | | +
+ +----+ + | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
|
768
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+----+ | +----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
|
883
+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ +----+ + |
/ /|-+-/ / +
+----+----+ | +----+----+----+ |
| | +--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
1015
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ +----+ + |
/ /|-+----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | +----+----+ |
| | +----+--| | |
| | | | | +
+ + | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
1024 Y Y [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Y |
| This is Bill Cutler's Computer's Choice Unique 10 burr. I don't know who the craftsman is - I bought it as part of a group of hand-made puzzles. This burr is special because it is one of 18 burrs that have a unique level 10 solution, the highest level achievable for six-piece burrs with unique solutions. The pieces must be length-8, however, not length-6. |
|
120 G U 1
+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+---+--/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Three-Quarters Tray |
160
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ | + + |
/ / +--| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
|
256 J X B [p2] 3
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Tray |
512
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
|
880
+----+----+ +----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | +----+ + |
/ /| | +----+--| / / +
+----+ | |/ | +----+ |
| | +----+----+----+--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
960 X N 2
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | +----+ | + + |
/ / +-------| | +-/ / +
+----+ / | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ + | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
|
This small black plastic burr I found in a puzzle shop in Prague during IPP28 is a copy of the Philippe Dubois/Gaby Games burr that requires 6 (or 7, depending on how you count) moves to release the first piece. It is one of the "Fearsome Four." |
463
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + + | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
|
564
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+----+ |
| | + | | |
| |/ | | +
+ +----+----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
|
760
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + +--| | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+----+ | + + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+----+ +----+----+
|
909
+----+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + + | | |
| |/ / | | +
+ +----+ +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
927
+----+ +----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ +----+----+----+ | + + |
/ /| | +-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + + | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
1016
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+ + |
/ / +----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+----+ |
| | + +----+--| | |
| |/ /| | | +
+ +----+ | + + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
| I bought this plastic burr in Japan. I believe it was made by Tenyo. It is number 4 in a "Family" of burrs - this one is called "Brother." This burr uses six general pieces: 463, 564, 760, 909, 927, 1016. It has no holes, and comes apart in one move into two 3-piece halves. This might be #72 in Filipiak's list (c.f. Anthony S. Filipiak, 100 Puzzles - How to Make and Solve Them, 1942, p. 86). |
|
|
This set of twelve pieces is called the "6+6=Cube." It was designed by Kozy Kitajima. The pieces include: 1, 52, 103, 120, 188, 256, 911, 928, 992, 960, and 2x 1024. There is only one way to build two burrs at once. The twelve pieces can also be combined to form a cube, with holes. |
1 A A [p]
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
/ /|
+ + |
/ / +
+----+----+----+----+----+----+ |
| | |
| | +
+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The Key |
188 I M [p]
+----+ +----+ +----+
/ /| / /| / /|
+ + | + + | + + |
/ / +----+-/ / +-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ / +----+ |
| | + | | + | | |
| |/ | |/ | | +
+ +----+----+ +----+ + /
| | +
| |/
+----+----+----+----+----+----+
The (Bottle) Opener |
512
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+----+ + /
| | +--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+----+
|
832
+----+ +----+----+----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | +----+----+ + |
/ / +----+--| / / +
+----+ / | +----+ |
| | + +----+ +--| | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
|
975 O Q [p]
+----+----+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ +----+ | + + |
/ /| | +----+-/ / +
+----+----+ | |/ +----+ |
| | + +----+ | | |
| | | / | | +
+ + | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
Offsets |
1024 Y Y [p2]
+----+ +----+
/ /| / /|
+ + | + + |
/ / +----+----+----+-/ / +
+----+ / +----+ |
| | + +----+----+ | | |
| |/ /| / | | +
+ +----+ | +----+ + /
| | +----+--| | +
| |/ | |/
+----+----+ +----+----+
The Y |
| This burr's wooden length-12 pieces are stained a dark color. The burr comes in a box with a fitted slip-out cover. At some point I saw it referred to as "G4." The pieces used are: 1, 188, 512, 832, 975, 1024. |
|
The light brown burr is perhaps the more difficult of this group, but we've seen it already -
its pieces are the familiar "Six Way" set: 52, 792/911, 824/975, 1024.
The white and two (identical) dark brown burrs all employ the familiar "Chinese Cross" piece set: 1, 256, 824/975, 928, 1024.
Wayne Daniel made this nice set of 42 of the notchable pieces which can be used to make 314 solid burrs,
of Mahogany wood,
with a Walnut box.
Each piece is 0.75" square and 2.5" long, so his unit cube is 3/8 inches on an edge, and these are "length 6."
The set includes a series of cards listing the six-tuples of each of the 314 burrs, and giving assembly hints
by telling the adjacent pairings.
Unfortunately, I have found that certain holey burrs that are constructible from the notchable set, cannot be made to work
using Daniel's set - his esthetic beveled treatment of the ends of the pieces, while fine for the 314 solid burrs, prevents
certain necessary movements when trying the holey burrs.
In particular, designs which use the "jutting jaw" technique as in the JVK 25.1 design, don't open far enough to allow
the 3/8" cubie of a piece to pass through.
|
|
The book 100 Puzzles - How to Make and Solve Them, written by Anthony S. Filipiak,
was published in 1942 by A. S. Barnes and Company.
In his book, Filipiak includes a section on the "Six Piece Burr Puzzle," beginning on page 79.
He says that though he has over a thousand mechanical and manipulative puzzles in his collection,
his favorite puzzle is the six piece burr.
He gives diagrams for 38 burr pieces, and lists his "prize collection" of 73 burr puzzles using those pieces,
"collected the world over by correspondence, travel, and research into ancient books of magic, tricks, games,
and puzzles."
He admits "no doubt there are a few more to be added."
I have not reproduced all 73 designs here, but I highlight Filipiak designs like this.
Filipiak's notes seem to contain several errors: his pieces #2 and #32 appear to be duplicates of what I call #18;
his #10 as drawn equals my #463, but that interpretation results in several of Filipiak's designs having no solution - from its
position in his list it might be a mistaken drawing of my #911, the complement to its neighbor #11 which is my #792.
Filipiak missed pieces #35 and #86, but there are only 3 uses of #35 among the 314 solid burrs, and few of #86.
He also missed the pair 856/943, but neither of those are used often, either.
Several of the designs in his list of 73 puzzles, when I checked using Jurg's applet, have no solution - maybe
the wrong pieces were listed,
or as previously noted, the actual configuration of the pieces themselves are open to interpretation.
Or, perhaps Filipiak himself hadn't bothered to actually construct all of the designs -
but that seems unlikely given his enthusiasm.
I cannot imagine that his editor could have checked the work, however!
Anyway, herewith my list, also "collected the world over!"
|
The recent history of discovery related to the burr puzzle seems to me like the history of world exploration - at first, the "known world" was small and encompassed some well-traveled areas, beyond which lay either the "edge of the world" (for those who thought they had seen all the burrs and only "a few" remained to be found), or a "terra incognita" that stretched off into the hazy distance. Decades, perhaps even centuries, of exploration served to extend the frontiers of what was known, with some impressive voyages of exploration by intrepid souls using relatively primitive technology. But it was not until the computer age and Bill Cutler that a "satellite view" became available, delimiting the "globe" and showing its full extent - 35 billion assemblies. Most of that area is "water" - assemblies that cannot be constructed. Roughly 17% is "land" - the 5.95 billion constructible burrs. The "Old World" of the solid burrs stretches across 119,979 assemblies, and features many well-known cities and well-traveled routes. Cutler's satellite view has identified several impressive peaks in the larger world beyond, and much ground remains unexplored. Are the burr pioneers really "inventors?" Or, like the explorers of old, are they really more "discoverers?" I don't claim to have "invented" any unique burr puzzles myself, but like others I have spent some time exploring the world that Cutler delimited. In particular I have been interested in finding high-level (holey) burrs that can be made with the notchable set, at length 6. Bruno Curfs has utilized computer analysis performed by Keiichiro Ishino, and makes several output files available at his site. Bruno mentions and discusses several burrs already. |
The core:
+----+ / 1 /| +----+ | +----+ | | +----+-/ 2 /| | |/ 4 5+----+ | + + | | + | 3 / | | | | +----+----+ + | +--| 6 7 8 | + | |/ + +-|/-+----+ | | + 10 | 9 |/ +----+ |
Of the 314 solid puzzles that can be made with the 25 notachable pieces, there are 158 that use the key piece #1.
If you start with 6 Y pieces and make one key piece, you use up 10 of the 20 "floating" interior cubies.
The "core" shown here is then composed of the 10 interior cubies
that remain to be distributed among the other 5 pieces.
Imagine that the key piece goes into the page resting on the plane formed by the core
cubies labeled 4,5,6, and 7.
The other 5 pieces would start as instances of the "minimal" piece #1024 (Y), and acquire some share of
the 10 cubies of the core.
Note that no single piece can have all 10 - this would result in a second key piece,
which some reflection should convince you
doesn't work.
I have chosen an arbitray orientation for the other 5 pieces, which I'll call P1 through P5,
resulting in the particular core shape shown.
Other shapes are possible.
Imagine P1 through P5, oriented around the core as follows.
|
| 1 and 3 | 2 and 8 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 and 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | x | x | x | ||||
| P2 | x | x | x | x | |||
| P3 | x | x | x | x | |||
| P4 | x | x | x | x | |||
| P5 (opp. key) |
x | x |
| P5 plus | (none) | 5 | 7 | (5,7) | (9,10) | (4,5,9,10) (6,7,9,10) |
(4,5,6,7,9,10) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| equals | Y | W | X | V | J | I | H |
| P5 plus | (none) | 5 | 7 | (5,7) | (9,10) | (4,5,9,10) (6,7,9,10) |
(4,5,6,7,9,10) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| equals | Y | W | X | V | J | I | H |
| plus 2 equals |
Q or U | S | P | not possible | G | E | not possible |
| Here is a list of the 17 configurations employing one of E,G,Q,U,P, or S opposite A. All require an M. |
There are only 5 other configurations that use M - these do not require its rotation.
All are very easy.
|
|
|
|
|
The next smallest class should be the AI configurations. The I piece used 4 out of 10, leaving 6.
1/3 and 2/8 still must be assigned as pairs, but 4 and 5 can be independently allocated to different pieces.
The possibilities: 6/0/0/0,
4/2/0/0,
4/1/1/0,
3/2/1/0,
2/2/2/0,
2/2/1/1.
There are 16 AI configurations as follows:
|
V uses only 2, leaving 8 - the pairs
1/3, 2/8, and 9/10, and 4 and 6.
The 16 AV configurations:
|
On the left is Knobulus by Haba.
On the right is
the vintage Jane's Puzzle by Drueke.
Both are examples of the classic 6-piece diagonal burr.
(The plastic "Lady" burr shown later on is another example.)
The earliest relevant U.S. patent is
393816 - Chandler 1888.
Also see
779121 - Ford 1905.
The diagonal burr puzzle can be made from 6 identical pieces, each having two notches,
but sometimes appears with a key piece that really isn't necessary.
It can be [dis]assembled either by exploding/collapsing all the pieces simultaneously,
or the pieces can be composed into two 3-piece halves that will easily slide together.
This clever version of the diagonal burr is called Insoma.
It has a hollow center in which a Soma Cube must be constructed simultaneously with the burr, since
all but one of the Soma pieces are connected to the burr pieces!
Designed and made by
Mr. Puzzle Australia (Brian Young),
and purchased at the NYPP 2008.
These are examples of the Diagonal Star.
It can be derived from the diagonal burr by beveling the ends of each of the pieces.
The shape is formally known as the first stellation of the rhombic dodecahedron.
(See Steven Dutch's site
for a nice explanation of stellations of polyhedra.)
After the traditional six-piece burr, I would say this is one of the best-known and most widely manufactured designs.
The earliest patent seems to be Swiss -
CH245402 -
Iffland 1946; Iffland's design includes the unnecessary key piece.
Read more about this puzzle in
Chapter 7 of Stewart Coffin's The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections.
The rhombic dodecahedron also has a
second
and
third
stellation.
Clever variations exist where the inside is hollow, forming a cubic cavity.
This is called the "Asteroid" from Bits and Pieces. It has the same internal structure as the diagonal burr, but
the pieces have been rounded off on the outside.
It's not very precisely made, so it doesn't hold together very well.
This is The Ball by Charles O. Perry. I got it at the MoMA shop when I used to work in Manhattan. The brass pieces are cylindrical, with curved ends. The notches are cylindrical, too. It relies on a small spring-loaded ball-bearing and a corresponding detent to hold the key piece in place. I found an acrylic version, too - the MoMA shop sells it. |
 This 6-piece burr has the same internal structure as the Perry Ball (without the detent and spring/ball), but this is made of Kel-Tec bullets! Fortunately they're not live rounds. This was an advertising premium at a gun show. |
Skor Mor's Log Jam - this is a rounded version of the diagonal burr. There was a brown plastic version, too, called Stumpa 1. |
 These are examples of a common 3-piece design known as O-C-C, after the shapes of the three pieces. The OCC design was described by Edwin Wyatt in his 1928 book Puzzles in Wood (pp.24,25) - he called it the Three-Piece Cross. It has been produced in wood, and also in plastic as the Triple Cross by Skor-Mor. Here is a link to Jurgen Koeller's page showing the solution. |
Only a few other three-piece burr designs can be considered at all well-known.
They are discussed on
Jurg von Kaenel's site.
One other common design employs two notched pieces, and a piece with a rounded shaft that allows
the piece to be rotated in place.
I made a copy from Lego, and
posted photos on Brickshelf.
This design was also described by Wyatt in Puzzles in Wood, on page 26. This is also the simplest form of a Pagoda or Japanese Crystal puzzle. |
|
The Three Piece Not designed by Frans de Vreugd and made from Sapelle and Padauk by Eric Fuller. Masquerades as the innocent OCC, but it's NOT. Eight steps to remove the first piece. |
 This is Neptunus from Arjeu (CT1101). It is made of three notched plates. |
|
 Triple Play - designed by Jim Gooch and made by Eric Fuller, from Walnut and Redheart. The solution requires an unconventional move, and Eric says some people thought it was an impossible object. |
 The Schaekel Knot, made of Kingwood, by Tom Lensch, and purchased from CubicDissection. It was designed by Oskar van Deventer. |
|
Just the Three, designed by Jack Krijnen and made by Eric Fuller, from heavily Quilted Sapelle. A nice sequential level 7.2 assembly - according to Eric, the highest level possible for this form factor. |
The Slideways Burr designed by Ray Stanton and made by Eric Fuller, from Curly Maple. The 3 identical pieces assemble with coordinate motion. Note: this looks like the Improved Segerblom three-piece burr discussed on Jurg's site. The original design by Wilhelm Segerblom was published in the April 1899 Scientific American, and is described in Slocum and Botermans' Puzzles Old and New on page 66, as well as in the Book of Ingenious and Diabolical Puzzles on page 73. |
|
|
||
|
||
Invented by Nob Yoshigahara, this little burr is a poseur - read about it on Jurg's site. A gift from Peter Wilshire at IPP-29 in SF. Thanks, Peter! |
I got this 3-piece burr, made of acrylic, at IPP 29 in SF. |
|
| Several other unconventional designs using three pieces are shown on Ishino's website. | ||
 This is a boxed burr I got from Tom Lensch. Each face of the outer box is attached to one burr piece inside the cube. Freeing the key piece requires a trick. The burr pieces used are: #1, #256, #888, #911, #928, and #1024. The box definitely makes it easier to solve, since the faces are distinctly fitted. The mahogany wood is really beautiful. |
 This is a 4-piece burr in a box from Arjeu, variously known as the "Secret Box" or "Pandora's Box" (I also made a copy from Lego). It employs (2x) #792, but the other two pieces have notches where Jurg's system does not allow them (beneath positions 1,4,5, or 8). |
 This is the "Combustion" burr from B and P. My first became hopelessly jammed; I obtained another. |
 "Life at 21" |
 Burr in a Cube |
 This puzzle from Bits and Pieces is called Hard Core and was designed by Frans de Vreugd. |
 This boxed 6-piece burr is called Quantum Entanglement. It has a unique level 48 solution. |
 The red puzzle is a 3-piece boxed burr called the Swiss Cube. There are two versions - easy and hard - they look the same from the outside, but their pieces are differently notched. I have both. The red and blue puzzle in a clear cube is called the U.S. Cube. It has six interlocking pieces. All created by Jurg von Kaenel. |
 Innowoo Cube (?) |
 Yin Yang - Pelikan An unusual six-piece burr inside a hollow ball. The Yin-Yang symbols are attached to the ends of the burr pieces. Purchased from Puzzlewood.de. |
 Nested Burr Four CubicDissection |
 Prisgon from Philos, designed by Markus Goetz Purchased in Prague. |
This is Swirls 1, designed by Bram Cohen. Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer at IPP 29 in SF. Four pieces in a cage - a very difficult puzzle! |
Choreographed Motion, designed by Andreas Roever Purchased at IPP 29 in SF. The four pieces have angular cuts, and multiple pieces must be moved at once. Clever, and not overly difficult. Nicely made from acrylic. |
This is Quintuplets, designed by Franklin Gonsalves. Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer at IPP 29 in SF. |
 Shackman Clown - part of a fairly rare set of figures. Discussed in Slocum and Botermans' "The Book of Ingenious and Diabolical Puzzles" on page 86. |
 A group shot of several other Kumiki burrs in my collection. |
 The Cornered Cube from Wallingford Toy Works is a very large version of the usual kumiki cube, with a beveled corner. |
||||||
 a wooden kumiki barrel |
 an octagonal "barrel" |
 "Hidden Passage" |
||||||
|
||||||||
 a plastic ball |
 a newer plastic ball |
 The "Gold Moon" I got in Japan |
||||||
The Chuck puzzle, according to Slocum and Botermans in Puzzles Old and New on page 74,
was patented by Edward Nelson in 1897
(U.S. Patent
588705 - Nelson 1897).
The design was improved and developed by Ron Cook at
Pentangle Puzzles.
Pentangle offers a
series of chuck puzzles - the simplest is the Baby Chuck with 6 pieces.
The Woodchuck (shown here) has 24 pieces, the Papa-chuck has 54, the Grandpapachuck has 96,
and the Great Grandpapachuck has 150.
Pentangle's Lunatic puzzle, also shown, is a close relative of the Chuck family.
Richard Whiting's website offers a
solution to the 24-piece Woodchuck.
(The knock-off versions are called "Crystal" puzzles but that is a misnomer.)
The Arjeu CT1102, the 51-piece Pagoda from Bits & Pieces, and the Miyako puzzles are examples
of "Pagoda" or "Japanese Crystal" burrs.
(Note that the Tower of Hanoi puzzle is sometimes called the Pagoda puzzle - but here we're talking about burrs.)
You can see the pieces for several sizes of Pagoda puzzle at Ishino's
Puzzle Will Be Played... website.
Peter Kaldeway's website also has a
nice page on pagoda burrs.
A nineteen-piece Pagoda (and a similar 15-piece puzzle) are described in Wyatt's 1928 Puzzles in Wood
on pages 33-37.
Plans for a 51-piece Japanese Crystal are given in van Delft and Botermans' 1978 Creative Puzzles of the World on
pages 77-79.
Slocum and Botermans describe The Great Pagoda puzzle in their 1986 book Puzzles Old and New on page 73.
They state that the simplest has only three pieces. Larger versions then have 9, 19, 33, 51, 73, 99, and 129 pieces.
In general, the nth degree pagoda requires 2n2+1 pieces.
The 3-piece version requires a rotating piece.
I made a Lego 3-piece version shown on
Brickshelf.
The tiny Miyako puzzle is a 9-piece pagoda and does not require a rotation.
You can see more Lego versions at
Maarten Steurbaut's website.
Last time I checked, you could buy a 129-piece pagoda from
Cleverwood,
where you can also find smaller sizes for sale.
Creativecrafthouse.com sells
99-piece and 51-piece versions.
Frik-n-Frak also sells a 99-piece pagoda.
Kajeng Handicraft is an Indonesian distributer
that carries pagoda burrs among other puzzles.
In 1890, William Altekruse patented
(430502)
an interlocking puzzle now known as the Altekruse Puzzle.
You can read about the Altekruse puzzle in Stewart Coffin's
The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections.
Many variations have been made.
The Altekruse can be made with 12 or 14 pieces.
Pentangle
offers a 14-piece version called Hybrid, and a 12-piece version called Holey Cross.
See a solution online at
Casse-Tete et Solution.
The Xeon Molecule by Skor-Mor is a plastic, modern-looking version. I managed to find 3 separate copies - one is all blue, one is red/white/blue, and the third is red/yellow/blue. One of them even came with a solution sheet. On two of them, some of the pieces had broken fins, but the bits were included and I was able to glue them back together. |
The vintage 12-piece Panel Puzzle by Adams is also a version of the Altekruse. This is also called the "Block Puzzle Senior." (I have a Panel Puzzle in the package, and a loose Block Puzzle Senior.) |
 This is Arjeu CT679 - I purchased it from Ishi back when they offered such things. This variation of the Altekruse puzzle uses single pin/single hole pieces, six left-handed and six right-handed. Stewart Coffin describes this variation in his book, The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections. |
 Stewart Coffin developed and licensed the pinned version of the Altekruse puzzle which was marketed by 3M and Avalon Hill and named Frantix. Here are the 12 pieces of the plastic version of Frantix. [John Rausch's Frantix page] |
|
|
 This is called "Iwahiro's Apparently Impossible Cube #1." It was designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa. It was made by Eric Fuller from Chakte Cok wood. |
Duodeciburr Designed and made by Vaclav Obsivac Presented at IPP27 by Rick Eason 12 identical pieces |
TriKubus by Rik Brouwer Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer |
This is the Crystal Cube, designed by Bill Darrah. Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer at IPP 29 in SF. I especially like this design because the pieces are not identical. |
| These are from the (defunct) French company Arjeu, which put out an extensive line of interlocking puzzles in a wide variety of shapes... | ||
 Arjeu CT718 This looks like the "Eighteen Piece Double Cross" described by Edwin Wyatt in his 1946 book Wonders in Wood, on page 31. |
 Arjeu CT666 Here is a link to a solution video on YouTube, and another in lower resolution. |
Arjeu CT16 |
Arjeu CT28 |
Arjeu CT152 La Lanterne From an Ergatoudis auction |
Arjeu CT14 "Criss Cross" (Altekruse) |
| Here are some unusual burrs by various designers, from CubicDissection... | ||
 The Switchboard Burr designed by Jim Gooch and made by Eric Fuller mixes pieces from 3 different styles of burr, and its solution employs a move one does not often see. The woods are: Pau Amerillo (the yellow), Wenge (the dark), and Bocote (the brown striped). |
 This is Stewart Coffin's Octo-Burr design, made by Mark McCallum and purchased from CubicDissection. See the pieces on John Rausch's site. |
Die in Prison (with a central puzzle box), designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels and made by Eric Fuller. The six pieces are made of Bubinga, and the central cubic box is made of Yellowheart. |
 Lassen Risti - made by Eric Fuller |
 RD001 Designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels and made by Eric Fuller at CubicDissection. Gum wood and Ipe. |
Anderson's Delusion Designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels. Made by Eric Fuller from Gum wood and Rosewood, and purchased from CubicDissection. |
| These small but elegant burrs are made from a special plywood, from Pacific Puzzle Works... | ||
Knot Mass 36, designed by Oskar van Deventer. This instance is pretty small, at 36mm. It's made from a 5-ply maple core / maple-top hardwood laminate. |
Tubular Burr Box (aka Space Invaders), designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels. This instance is pretty small, at 36mm. It's made from a 5-ply cherry / maple-top hardwood laminate. |
Oskar's Egg A 3-piece ball inside a 2-piece egg. How does it come apart? |
| These are members of the "Quad Squad" family of burrs with interchangeable pieces, from Viktor Genel... | ||
 Quadrocube - Viktor Genel |
 QuadroPrizm - Viktor Genel |
 Long-Beamed Star - Viktor Genel |
| The burrs below are from a variety of sources... | ||
Easy Livin' designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer at NYPP 2008 This is notable because a copy sold for $11,111 in one of Nick Baxter's auctions! |
 William Waite's Stellar Burr |
 From Davan's, a Rojo |
|
 P24 Marian's Puzzle - Drueke You can see a solution at Richard Whiting's site. |
 Karin's Outline Burr |
 Stewart Coffin's Lock Nut |
 Sliced Burr - Philos |
Vesa Burr Simple - Philos - designed by Vesa Timonen for IPP21. A gift from Bernhard - thanks! |
 Binary Burr - Bill Cutler |
||
 The Blitz - Mr. Puzzle Australia |
 Here is "Sonneveld's Illegal Burr" - Tom Lensch made it. It's "illegal" because a rotational move is required. |
 The Twisty burr, designed by Derek Bosch and made by Tom Lensch. Purchased from Tom at NYPP 2008. |
 The Boston Tea Chest, from Mr. Puzzle Australia. I have one of their Craftsman Range examples in Australian Flooded Gum wood. Six pieces, with a two-step internal locking mechanism. A traditional burr-solving computer program won't help you with this one. |
 This puzzle from Imagin is a knock-off of von Kaenel's Coated Burr idea. You can see a solution on Richard Whiting's site. |
 This is Ozone designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels. It is a six-board burr, with a "hook" attached to each piece. It requires 13 moves to remove the first piece, then 11 for the second. Ronald has designed several unusual burr-type puzzles, and you can see many of them at Bernhard Schweitzer's Puzzlewood site. Richard Whiting has put together a nice page at his site where you can read about several other high-level burrs. |
 This is Frans de Vreugd's design he used for his exchange at IPP25. Frans calls it a Plated Six-Piece Burr. Mr. Puzzle Australia called it Around the Bend. Frans says he developed it while working on Bent Board Burrs. It uses pieces 120, 154, 256, 412, 960, and 1024. Each has a 2x4 unit plate attached to its right end. It is the highest level burr of this type with notchable pieces. It is made from Queensland Silver Ash (the light wood) and Queensland Blackbean. |
 Decemburr - Mr. Puzzle Australia |
 Coming of Age Mk.II - Mr. Puzzle Australia |
 T Time - Davans |
 Maruca - Davans |
 Zinato - Davans |
 Eight Piece Burr - made by Scott T. Peterson |
 Yananose 2x3 Type 0 |
 QED - Pentangle |
TriRods by Serhiy Grabarchuk - from Bernhard Schweitzer |
Willem van der Poel's Grandfather 6x6x6 18-pc burr (rough handmade copy - unknown craftsman) Discussed on Pete Roesler's site, where you can read a brief history of this puzzle. You can see this on Ishino's site, too. This copy has one piece that differs from van der Poel's design - instead of piece "I" there is another "J." |
 Bombay Co. Angles and Edges |
 Dovetail Burr - B&P |
 Double Cross - B&P |
Coming of Age - designed and made by Vaclav Obsivac Presented at IPP27 by Laurie Brokenshire Six pieces made from every possible combination of 3 (out of 18) 1x1x5 Walnut bars, plus 8 1x1x1 blocks. |
I bought this burr in Japan. It is made by the Yamanaka Kumiki Works. It is the "Masu Model." |
I bought this in a department store in Japan. It is called "The Cell" and was made in New Zealand. |
Mixed Pieces Burr #2 - designed by Frans de Vreugd. Purchased from Frans at IPP28 in Prague. |
Double Kongming Lock |
Mercury Star |
The Desert Rose micro-burr, designed by William Waite and made by Allan Boardman, who is well-known for crafting microscopic puzzles. It's only 1/2 inch across! Made from walnut and masur birch. Purchased from William at IPP 29 in SF. |
Flange 99A, designed by Tom Jolly. Purchased at IPP 29 in SF. Laser-cut. Six pieces, only two identical. 8 moves for the first piece. |
Flange 77A, designed by Tom Jolly. Purchased at IPP 29 in SF. Laser-cut. Six pieces, all identical. 4 moves for the first piece. |
|
 George Miller made this version of Frans de Vreugd's "Extreme Torture" separated board burr. It takes 28 moves to free the first piece and then 21 more to free the second piece! Here is a link to the solution on George Miller's site. Here is an article at woodcentral.com by Steve Strickland about making 6-board burrs. |
 Thinkfun now offers an inexpensive and colorful version of the Extreme Torture puzzle. They call it "Gordian's Knot" and it includes a step-by-step reversible solution booklet. You can see a solution on Richard Whiting's site. |
 Sonneveld 9-piece Board Burr - made by George Miller. |
||
|
||||
 Boy |
 Papa |
 Lady |
Brother |
 Fancy Square |
 Knot |
 "Stack Cubes" (A Kumiki Cube) |
Scott T. Peterson
is a talented craftsman who produces high-quality limited editions of
puzzles in fine woods. He and I have been corresponding, and Scott has
made a few instances of my 
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
At IPP28 in Prague, Bernhard Schweitzer had a nice surprise for me - he presented me with a copy of my 2 N's Cube No. 5
that he had made - I believe the wood is Meranti. Thanks again, Bernhard!
The French puzzler Guy Brette also made a copy - see a video on
Guy's website.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
The Juha #6 cube by Juha Levonen (Ishino shows other Levonen designs) |
The Noris Cube designed by George Pfaffinger, made by Philos, purchased from Cleverwood (discontinued). |
The nine-piece Improved Mehandros Cube by Michael Toulouzas of Greece. Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer. |
||||||||||||
 Three Trapped Sages - designed by P.F. Ramos and Rafael Abad Purchased from Puzzlewood.de. This was entered in the IPP 2006 Design Competition. Maneuver the three maple pieces free of the frame. |
This is the Cubed Burr II designed by Tom Jolly. I bought this instance, made from English Brown Oak, from Eric Fuller. This is a 6x6x6 cube of six large pieces. The basic plan is that of a traditional six-piece burr, but the pieces have been heavily modified and augmented to form a cube. It requires ten moves to free the first piece. There is only one solution. Tom also designed a simpler version, Cubed Burr. |
The Edge Corner Cube II by Markus Goetz. |
||||||||||||
This is a version of Trevor Wood's Holey Squares Cube puzzle, made by Eric Fuller. It is made from Leopardwood and Honduras Rosewood. |
From William Waite, the Literal Lateral Slide. |
Waite's Wonder A 4x4x4 cube made of only five pieces that fit together nicely and ingeniously. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
 Triple Trouble Purchased from Potty Puzzles. |
 Black and White by Kubi Games Purchased from GPP. |
 Double Trouble Purchased from Pentangle. I really like this one - six different pieces loosely interlock. Each consists of a plank and two or more half-cubes attached in various orientations. They can be assembled using logical deduction. |
I am the proud owner of
Corner Cube #28 by
Lee Krasnow.
It has six dissimilar pieces which assemble only one way.
It is not easy to find the sliding axis to disassemble the puzzle!
My instance is made from beautifully figured Tulipwood, Brazilian Kingwood, Cocobolo, and Bocote.
This is the first relatively expensive puzzle I ever bought directly from the designer/craftsman, in 2003.
|
 My Keyvos is made of Bois de Rose, Wenge, and Mahogany |
 It's not easy to find the right slide... |
 There are six distinct pieces |
 It comes with a certificate |
I have one of Michael's
"Brain Attack" puzzles, too.
It is difficult to overstate the contributions of Stewart Coffin to mechanical puzzle design.
In fact, it is difficult to decide where in this website to put a subsection devoted to him, since his ideas have become
so widely applied across the field.
Many of his primary contributions do lie in this area of interlocking polyhedral assemblies.
Stewart coined the term
Ap-Art to describe
his "sculptures that come apart."
In the 1970's through 1990's Stewart ran a puzzle club of which many of us can only wish we had been members.
With the publication of his The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissectons
(hosted on John Rausch's PuzzleWorld site),
Stewart literally
"wrote the book"
on entire classes of interlocking puzzles that simply did not exist before he thought of them.
Moreover, Stewart has been incredibly generous in allowing puzzle enthusiasts worldwide to utilize his
designs without financial impediment.
For these and other reasons, in 2006 Stewart became the first recipient of the IPP Nob Yoshigahara Award
for "Lifetime Achievements in Design, Craftsmanship, and Popularizing Mechanical Puzzles."
Stewart has a new book out in 2007,
Geometric Puzzle Design.
Several other related books are described, offered, and/or hosted online at
John Rausch's PuzzleWorld site.
I've managed to acquire a few puzzles designed by
Stewart Coffin.
Some are originals bearing his mark "STC" while the rest are copies of his designs made by other skilled woodworkers.
Based on the compendium called Ap-Art, written by Stewart and produced by John Rausch,
I put together the diagram below which is my attempt at showing a "family tree" of Stewart's interlocking puzzle designs.
This is a Double Triangular Prism, based on the Triangular Prism #12. This instance was made by Pelikan - I obtained it from Bernhard Schweitzer. Shown assembled, beginning disassembly, in two halves, and in six dissimilar, asymmetric pieces. |
||||
|
||||
 Twelve Point (33) or Augmented Second Stellation made by Stewart Coffin |
 Perhaps one of Stewart's best-known designs is the simple two-piece Pennyhedron (52). I purchased this one made of Wenge from Stewart at IPP26. |
 Fancy This! (115-A) made by Interlocking Puzzles |
||
 Prism Cell (192) STC 2003 purchased from Stewart at IPP26 |
 Polly-Hedral was made by Stewart in 2006 and was Jerry Slocum's exchange puzzle at IPP26. |
 12-piece Separation (85) made by Thomas Moeller |
||
 Star of David - Improved (37A) six pieces unknown craftsman |
 Four Corners (6) made by Thomas Moeller See U.S. Patent 3885794 - Coffin 1975. |
 Triumph (15) made by Thomas Moeller |
||
Fusion Confusion (15-A) made by Interlocking Puzzles. |
||||
 I purchased this "Multisphere" by Janod from Puzzlemaster.ca. It is Stewart's Scorpius (5). |
 Dislocated Scorpius (16) Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer |
 Broken Sticks (32) Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer |
||
 Nova (8) six identical pieces unknown craftsman |
 Vega (46) six identical pieces unknown craftsman |
 Square Prism six identical pieces unknown craftsman |
||
Scott T. Peterson made this Super Nova (14) in Bird's Eye Maple and African Blackwood. |
 The Hill Introduced at IPP26 in 2006 at Boston. Unusual Coffin design, as a single piece comes out on the first move, then another piece, with the remaining four requiring coordinate motion! |
|||
This is Stewart's Split Star (75), made by Mark McCallum. It is a two-tier design, with a garnet at its heart and outer pieces of bubinga wood forming the diagonal star shape. |
||||
|
I bought this beautiful version of Stewart Coffin's Garnet (60) design, from Cubicdissection. It was made by Mark McCallum. Stewart calls it the dissected rhombic dodecahedron, and it is described in chapter 15 of Stewart's book. There are nine possible distinct asymmetric pieces, and this version is made from pieces A through F. Disassembly is fairly easy, but if you mix up the pieces, reassembly is challenging. My approach is to try all possible groups of three to make a half. The remaining three must form a mating half. A group of three pieces might fit together in several ways, so one must explore the possibilities carefully. 
Starting in the top row, from left to right, the piece IDs and woods are:(A) Macassar Ebony, (B) Bocote, (C) Honduras Rosewood, (D) Holly, (E) Bloodwood, (F) Brazilian Rosewood. |
||||
 Pelikan's Garnet Ball - a spherical version of Stewart's Garnet. This puzzle uses mirror images of pieces A thru F. Purchased from Bernhard Schweitzer |
||||
|
Here is a beautiful version of Stewart Coffin's Augmented Four Corners puzzle (34), made from Canarywood and Redheart by Mark McCallum, and purchased from Cubicdissection: 
|
||||
 Scott T. Peterson has made a Rosebud (39) for me, from Bloodwood and Lignum Vitae, a very aromatic wood. There are six pieces - three "left-handed" and three "right-handed." They are extremely difficult to assemble into the Rosebud configuration. There is, however, a much easier assembly, shown in the center above. |
||||
|
|
||||
Pieces of Eight (77)made by Interlocking Puzzles. (Some nice photos from the old IP website.) |
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
Stewart Coffin
(and Bill Cutler)
both independently came up with the design of 12 interlocking notched hexagonal sticks
(copied by Tenyo's "Papa" puzzle shown elsewhere).
Stewart's version
was produced commercially by 3M, who called it "Hectix."
I've obtained the red/white/blue, white, and clear versions of Hectix.
See U.S. Patent 3721448 - Coffin 1973. |
|||||
 Some of Stewart's other designs were produced commercially in plastic as part of the "Geo-Logic" line. I obtained Tauri, Cetus, Aries, and Uni in 2-in-1 packs, and a Nova separately. The Penta-Logics included Spirus and another Nova. Luckily, all of the pieces are intact. The Tauri is described in Stewart Coffin's book The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections (see fig. 97). |
|||||
 Aries |
 Cetus |
 Nova |
 Tauri |
 Spirus |
 Uni (A real pain to assemble!) |
 The Penta-Logics set allows you to make a "Galaxy 1" (shown, with leftover pieces) and a "Galaxy 2" (not shown). |
The Geo-Logic line also included an "exploding cube" called "Inner Peace" - a six-piece coordinate motion assembly.
I obtained one but with no box.
I did not know what it was until I found a box shot on the web.
Mine includes the inner sphere but I originally thought it was spurious and
I assembled the puzzle without it for my photo.
|
||||
 This is a puzzle called "Rube's Cubic" purchased from IQ Puzzles. It is also described in Coffin's book, as the Pin-hole Puzzle. As Stewart says, it is fairly easy to assemble. |
This is Coffin's Corner Block puzzle, made by Kerry Verne from Yellowheart, Bloodwood, and Walnut (pins). Purchased from CubicDissection. Stewart describes this type of puzzle in his book, showing a set of possible pieces. Coffin's Corner Block uses pieces numbers 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, and 12, and one pin. Stewart says he has been unable to find a selection of pieces that can be assembled one way only. This set has two solutions. |
 This is the "Ancient Key" puzzle, from the Mandalay Box Company. This is a variant of the Corner Block. The Ancient Key uses pieces numbers 1, 2, 3, 7, 11, and 12, and one pin. |
|
|
||
 Arjeu CT442 (Colorado) purchased from Ishi Also known as Electrons, by Janod. |
 Arjeu CT210 purchased from Ishi |
 Arjeu CT795 (Cactus) gift from Jeff Taylor |
 This is Arjeu's Quadro (CT755), purchased from Ishi. It is a simple version of Coffin's Locked Nest puzzle and is described in Coffin's book in Chapter 13 (see figure 130b). |
Tetralott by Markus Goetz (Philos) |
 Arjeu CT5152 aka Achille |
 Tipi - Bits and Pieces |
 Woodn't Cross by Mag-Nif 1974 |
 Charles O. Perry's The Double (my favorite). |
The Aqube, purchased from Puzzlemaster. (I got the Psychodelic version - blue pieces shown for example.) |
||
  4-piece Tetrahedron |
 
5-piece Tetrahedron Padauk and Beech |
 
Dual Tetrahedron |
 
5-piece Truncated Cube The Truncated Cube is surprisingly hefty, and very nicely finished. Very unusual piece shapes. Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba) |
 
6-piece Truncated Cube Padauk |
 
7-piece Truncated Cube Jarrah For me this has been the most difficult of the three truncated cubes. |
 Rhombic Crystal |
 
Sequential Truncated Octahedron Maple |
 Cross in Ball |
 Prismastar |
 Twister 1 |
 UFO |
 The Hedgehog purchased from Cleverwood |
 The Trick Box is also a coordinate motion puzzle - darned hard to assemble. |
 This small 4-piece "Cube Vinco" was a gift from Vaclav at IPP26. |
 Cubetresor |
 This is the Button Prison from B & P. |
This is Two U. It is described on Vinco's website. In addition, there is a nice chart of various types of "half-cube" puzzles. This puzzle reminds me of Coffin's Pieces of Eight. Purchased from Vaclav at IPP28 in Prague. |
This is Vinco's Vidly Half-Cubes. Although technically this isn't an Interlocking puzzle, I show it here since it is another of Vinco's series of half-cube designs. A gift from Vaclav at IPP28 in Prague. Thanks! |
|
This is George Hart's "Screw Cube" - a two-piece interlocking puzzle
George invented and 3D printed with white nylon.
I got prototype number 1 from him at one of Brett's Manhattan puzzle dinners.
It's not too difficult, but everyone who plays with it likes it and is a little stumped at first.
I think it's a classic. Thanks again, George!
|
|||
This is a Muto Cube from Japan. I've seen it on only one other collector's ( Martin Watson's ) site. |
These are Oskar's Matchboxes. The first set I got from gemanigames.com. They're not really matchboxes - the "interior" pieces are solid, not hollow boxes. Also, not all interiors fit easily into all containers and the ends have obvious saw marks with overall finish being mediocre. Still, I am happy to have them and the puzzle is fairly challenging. The solution configuration does fit together nicely. I have wanted this puzzle since first reading about it on page 81 of Slocum and Boterman's Puzzles Old and New way back when, and I was glad to find a vendor selling it. Eric Fuller made the second set, from Madrone and Aformosa woods. These are beautiful - the boxes actually have walls and interiors and the fit is great. |
||
These are Oskar's Cubes. The large wooden version is from Tom Lensch. The small aluminum version is from B and P. You can see the pieces at Ishino's site. |
The Devil's Half Dove-n and the Devil's Other Half Dove-n. Designed by Pavel Curtis. From Puzzlecraft, gifts from LuAnn. |
||
This puzzle is called Six Tabbed Planks. It is made from acrylic. I really like it - the proper configuration can be logically deduced with a little effort, and the assembly is sequential. Unknown designer. Purchased from Pavel Curtis. Pieces shown here. |
Six-piece ball Made by Lee Krasnow - mechanism is identical to the Six Tabbed Planks from Pavel Curtis. |
 Caged Spheres (in purpleheart wood) Also purchased from Puzzlecraft. |
A 4-piece cube with dovetailed pieces. Designer unknown to me. |
This is Arjeu's CT87. This was designed by Oskar van Deventer. Evidently Arjeu never compensated Oskar! Tom Lensch is selling a really nice version. |
Myopic Doves by Rick Eason. |
||
The Dragon Cube, designed by Doug Engel. Issued by Philos. Purchased in Montreal. |
The Tease puzzle cube designed by Sam Cornwell and made from Quilted Sapelle, Wenge, and Carolina White Ash by Eric Fuller. Five pieces, and five moves to get the first piece out. |
This is Oskar's Patchwork Box, designed by Oskar van Deventer and made by Tom Lensch. Purchased from Tom at IPP 29 in SF. |
This cube was included in an auction lot. I didn't recognize it at the time, but after I received the lot I realized this was a copy of the Frankfort Cube I had wanted after I saw it on Casse-Tete et Solution (scroll down to item #33). |
Plato's Secret See U.S. Patent 3695617 - Mogilner and Johnson 1972. See also D0224974 - Mogilner 1972. A puzzle based on tensegrity - "tensional integrity" - a balance between tension and compression. (For another example, see Bathsheba Grossman's "Moon Pi.") A number of sticks with slots at each end, a cord, and a ball for the center. The first challenge is to remove the orb without disconnecting anything. The second challenge is to (re)build the structure - lash the sticks together in the proper pattern to create a polyhedron around the ball. The patent describes a structure with 12 sticks, and mentions 9 and 15-stick versions, claiming that tensegrity structures can be made from any number of sticks. The puzzle has appeared with 10 sticks, forming a dodecahedron (12 pentagonal faces, 20 vertices). I've also seen this called the "Philosopher's Knot" (1975 by whom?), "Plato's Plight" (Mag-Nif 1971), "Cobweb" (Reiss), and "Knit Wit" (Romany 1974). Supposedly it has also been called the "Philosopher's Stone" and "Merlin's Stone" though I have not seen those. You can get PDF solution files for Plato's Secret and other puzzles at Mag-Nif's website. Richard Whiting also has a solution to a version he calls Whiting's Woe on his website. |
A vintage Think puzzle by Chadwick Miller of Massachussetts. Made in Japan. Copyright 1968. |
||
The Kuball. A 3-piece puzzle designed by Viktor Genel. Made by Tom Lensch. See the pieces at John Rausch's PuzzeWorld. |
This is Trickstix, by Harris. See U.S. Patent 2473369 - Harris 1947. The similar cage with rotating sticks and a ball inside is a common design. |
I have had this small plastic red, white, and blue puzzle cage since I was a kid, and I think it was from Adams - it may be either the Locked Blocks or the Oriental Puzzle (also pictured for reference) - I no longer have the packaging. Its pieces are more decorated than the Trickstix. |
The Molecule by Joe Miller. See U.S. Patent 5762336 - Miller 1998. Entered in the IPP 2001 Design Competition. |
Here are several offered by Bits & Pieces at various times...
|
|||
Meiji Cheese Curls, and the "Light" version. |
Several classic puzzles by Mag-Nif and Reiss that I have had since I was a kid. From Mag-Nif: Four Square, Third Dimension, and the Curious Cross in smokey plastic and blue plastic. Some 1974 Reiss puzzles: Equilibrium, Star, and Reiss' version of Curious Cross, which they call Torment. |
||
These two sets of "Brain Benders" from Cardinal (blue box and red box, 3 puzzles each)
include a six-piece Diagonal Star,
a Chuck similar to Pentangle's Woodchuck, above, a traditional 6-piece burr, a wooden version of
an 18-piece puzzle similar to Mag-Nif's Third Dimension, a rods-and-pins "Nest" puzzle similar to the Arjeu Quadro,
and another 12-piece chuck called "Double Cross."
They are cheaply made from softer wood, and I've seen them at toy stores for $3.99 a box.
Similar sets are branded by Pavillion.
This is the
TenGeo
Great Circle Challenge.
This is a selection of "Mighty Midget" puzzles from Mag-Nif:
I got this lot of 3 of the same "Chinese Burr" in different colors, from a French auction.
I gave away two and kept the green one.
Normally the #1 mechanical puzzle rule is "No Force Required!" but this puzzle really
requires some force for the first and later moves.
These 4 "Travel Puzzles" are from Game Kingdom: ball in cage, 6x6x6 sticks, star burr, depth charge:
 Charles O. Perry's Zen |
 This is a Glingle Ball. I've had it a looong time, and NEVER took it apart! |
 The Buffalo Nickel is clever - it is a two-piece (plus "case") interlocking. It made by George Miller, based on a design by Oskar van Deventer. Bits and Pieces marketed this nice metal version. See this article by Oskar on Planar Burrs (PDF file). |
||
 The Lucky Clover from B and P was designed by Oskar van Deventer. It has only 4 pieces but requires many steps to assemble properly. |
 Gravity Well - Bits and Pieces |
 Double Monad (Yin-Yang) - Bits and Pieces |
||
 Butterfly - Bits & Pieces |
 The Ego Sculptural Puzzle is a 6-piece version of the Third Dimension style above. It was offered in a "Good Design" box by Austin Enterprises and Something Else Inc. of Akron Ohio and Ossining NY. |
From Bits & Pieces, a Curly Cube, designed by Vladimir Krasnoukhov. |
||
|
||||
 Entangled Fish - B & P |
 Impossicube - Markus Goetz (B & P) |
Great Collision, designed by Doug Engel. Purchased at IPP 29 in SF. |
||
 This is Mr. Puzzle from Bits and Pieces, which contains several different kinds of puzzles including interlocking (his feet). |
 A Hartley's Humpty Dumpty Egg puzzle U.S. Patent D160283 - Irving Hartley Steinhardt 1950. |
 This is Nanook the Polar Bear. |
 The R. B. Rice Sausage Company Pig puzzle (Lee's Summit, MO). Virtually the same pieces as Nanook, but smaller and less dense. |
 This is Naef's Swiss Cow or Vache Rouge. It was designed by Gerard Petremand in 1978. Six pieces - not difficult, but like all Naef items, pricey. |
 From William Waite, the Camera Conundrum. |
 A hand-carved wood Dragon puzzle from Thailand or Mongolia, I'm not sure. |
 The Sphinx (or Turtle). Getting it apart was somewhat of an ordeal, as some pieces were fused by the sloppy shellac on them - but fortunately I separated them without damaging anything. |
 A vintage locomotive puzzle by Reiss. |
Cicada by Kathy Bass Available from Mr. Puzzle Australia (Brian Young). Obtained at NYPP 2008. |
This is a Trylon Perisphere puzzle souvenir from the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is very small, and I have read that this is the puzzle that gave birth to keychain puzzles (even though it has no chain). Unfortunately its material has not withstood the ravages of time well at all. Many of them I have seen have been somehow damaged or warped. |
As a kid, I had a Bibendum (Michelin Man) keychain puzzle I got at a car show at the NY Coliseum. It disappeared long ago, but after searching for some time, I finally found another one. This puzzle is the last of four "Lost Puzzles of My Childhood" (Drive Ya Nuts, Phony Baloney, Screw Loose, and Bibendum) that originally motivated me to start following auctions! |
A Russian robot. |
Here is a Schmoo, from the old comic strip Li'l Abner. |
A cube, ball, burr, and Kumiki barrel. |
A really nice rocket ship. |
These are from Mefferts. |
|
I've had these two since I was a kid. |
Locomotive |
mini Rubik's Snake |
This bowling ball and pin came in a set of puzzles by Kawada, from Japan. They're small enough to be keychain puzzles, but do not have chains attached. |
At the Jan. 2005 NYPP, I got these from Norman Sandfield, not knowing what they were.
There were originally 4 blue and 4 yellow cubes, but I gave away 2 of each to various folks who wanted them.
All the blues and yellows are each made of the same set of six different pieces.
Since receiving a copy of the CFF newsletter issue 50 (Oct. 1999, Part 4/6), I have determined that they
are all equivalent to the "Tokyo" version of the Wirrel Warrel,
also known as
"Happy Cubes."
Inexpensive puzzle pieces can be cut from dense foam mats.
Several varieties of puzzles in the "Wirrel Warrel"/"Happy Cubes"/Snafooz family have been implemented
using this material.
Happy Cubes were invented by Dirk Laureyssens - read more at the
Cricro site.
Cricro provides a pair of pentagonal faces.
Happy Cubes
are being marketed by
Happy n.v.
Inspired by reading about Happy Cubes in
the CFF newsletter
and following information on
Jurgen Koeller's Happy Cubes page,
I made my own set of generic pieces from LiveCube.
I used 8 cubes each for the 6 centers (in black) and an additional total of 44 yellow cubes to be distributed
about the edges, as required by the various piece configurations.
Snafooz
makes 6-piece cube puzzles where the pieces are cut from
foam slabs.
They are similar to Happy Cubes, but the Happy Cubes are based on a 5x5 square face, while the Snafooz
are based on a 6x6 square.
Snafooz are often issued as corporate promotional give-aways,
and I have accumulated several from various trade shows.
I also have a promotional puzzle based on a 7x7 square.
This is "Mystery Shapes" designed by Oscar van Deventer, issued in 1993 by Binary Arts.
Four cubical puzzles made of six foam pieces each, but with extra confusing ridges running around the faces.
The "Eraser Cube" is made from eraser-type rubber material, and is based on a 4x4 square side.
|
Portrait de Michele (My favorite...) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mini-Zoraida |
|
|
|
|
|
Mini-Maria
|
Mini-David
|
Mini-Cristina
|
Mini-Cariatide
|
This set was sold some time ago (perhaps prior to 1900) as The ZOOZZLER.
(I don't have it.)
If you look carefully at the inside of the box lid shown in the photo on the left,
you'll see the Zoozzler came from the
La Rose Manufacturing Company of Albany, N.Y.
In December 2008 I was contacted by Pete Brady, who discovered a Zoozzler in the back of an old desk,
and after assembling it,
did a Google search on it and found my website.
Pete's copy is shown on the right.
Pete, who is now in his 70's (and still solving burr puzzles!) tells me that his grandfather was
Anthime F. La Rose,
who was born in 1842 in a small town near Montreal, and who died in 1920.
Anthime was raised in French Canada and eventually emigrated to Albany, where
he established his factory at 172 Broadway
and made, among other things like the Zoozzler, furniture, and
phone booths for Western Electric.
There is no evidence of any patent, though the box does carry the words "Trade Mark" -
Pete believes that Anthime produced the Zoozzler in his well-equipped factory.
The box says, "Agents wanted to sell the ZOOZZLER in every town or city - liberal commission.
Special inducements to boys and girls to sell in their spare time."
No phone number appears on any of the packaging, so it may be that the Zoozzler was produced prior to 1900.
Pete says his grandfather was married twice.
After his first wife died, Anthime married Julia, who was born in 1863 and died in 1945,
and in 1899 had a daughter, Katharine, who was Pete's mother.
Thanks for the info, Pete, and for allowing me to share it!
I find this kind of historical background adds a lot to my enjoyment of puzzles.
It is not always easy to feel any connection to our distant ancestors, but a puzzle can
be a tangible link to the past.
Mark McCallum made this beautiful Sphinx Transformed for me.
Thanks again, Mark!
It's a rhombic triacontahedron, a relative of Stewart Coffin's Design No. 72.
The woods include: Kingwood, Spotted Ebony, Bird's Eye Maple, Ziricote,
Ceylon Satinwood, Chakte Viga, Narra, Tulipwood, Redheart, Macassar Ebony, Ebony, and Bocote.
Mark also made the Ring of Diamonds (STC #13-B) in walnut.
The precision is masterful!
Thanks, Mark!
