Everybody
has had a go at these at some point in their life – from simple childish ones
made of bricks to complex tiny pieces that need a magnifying glass to
see. Some people become addicts and are prepared to work on just one for
days.
Origins
They were
invented by a cartographer called John Spilsbury in the 1700s.
Inside the Strong Museum of Play in New York, is one of his original jigsaws
called ‘Europe Divided into its Kingdoms.’ This 1766 puzzle, which
depicts a map of Europe, is widely accepted as the world’s very first jigsaw
puzzle. Spilsbury created his ‘dissected map’ as he called it, as an
educational tool for children, by pasting the map onto a thin mahogany board
and then cutting the pieces along the geographical lines. Examples of
Spilsbury’s dissected maps are rare, and only a few are known to exist in
public collections.
The clever
bit about his invention isn’t just the picture and how you piece it together,
but the wood it was made from. Wood reacts to changes in its environment
by expanding and contracting. Wood usually expands across the grain, which is
usually easily seen by the growth rings. Because trees grow in a
circle, the regularity of the grain in a board depends on how the board is cut
from the tree. The Spilsbury puzzle has paper attached to both sides, and
not only did Spilsbury pay attention to the grain of the wood for his puzzle,
but he made sure that the grain of the attached paper was oriented in the same
direction so that the two materials would move in tandem when responding to
changes in their environment.
Wood
became Card
Early
nineteenth-century puzzles were made for the children of wealthy families as
educational aids and were made of mahogany or cedar. In the late 1800s, Raphael
Tuck, a German furniture dealer (now better known for Christmas card
production), together with his sons, took advantage of printing improvements at
the time and produced jigsaws that were printed on plywood or thick card and
introduced boxes with picture examples of the completed puzzle on the front.
Why is
jigsaw puzzle called jigsaw?
The puzzle
is so named because the picture was cut into its pieces with a jigsaw, which
cuts intricate lines and curves. But this wasn’t invented until the
1880s, so before that, they were cut by hand, and were known as ‘dissected
puzzles’. In the early 20th century, puzzle companies used large hydraulic
cutting machines to manufacture jigsaws, but the more economical roller press
manufacturing process soon took over, and, more recently, newer technology has
brought the laser-cutting process into the picture.
‘Puzzle-Doers’
Today~
However, a
‘puzzler’ is not the correct term - the official term that describes a person
who puts jigsaw puzzles together is a ‘dissectologist’. Famous ones
include the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was renowned for her preference for puzzles
without a guide picture. Bill Gates is another - and in fact he and his
(ex) wife were so competitive that they would buy two the same and race to see
who finished first. Another is actor Patrick Stewart, who is said to
frame all his completed ones.
Hardest? In 1964, American puzzle-producing
company, Springbok Editions, released Convergence, a jigsaw puzzle inspired by
Jackson Pollock’s painting. Despite only having 340-pieces, this puzzle was
considered ‘the world’s most difficult puzzle.’
Largest? With over 40,000 pieces,
‘Memorable Disney Moments’ is confirmed by the Guinness World Records as the
largest commercially made puzzle in the world, both in number of pieces and
overall size, measuring 6.7m by 1.9m and weighing approx. 20 kilos.
Smallest? The smallest jigsaws by piece size
are those produced by Selegiochi (ITA). Their 99-piece nano-puzzles have shapes
with an average surface area of just 0.361 sq cm. The finished size is
6.5cm x 5.5 cm – smaller than a playing card (pass me the tweezers and my
glasses please).
Fastest
dissectologist? Deepika Ravichandran reputedly holds the Guinness World Record for the
fastest puzzle solver – she completed a 250-piece oval puzzle in just 13 mins
and 7 sec – and without a guide picture!
Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man.