Puzzle History

Puzzles: An Ancient & Evolving Pastime

As humankind evolved, so did their curiosity.

• Early Forms: Puzzling is an ancient human activity, possibly starting with spoken riddles, codes, and brainteasers.

• Labyrinths: Around 4,500 years ago, labyrinths were popular in Egypt and Greece, designed to confuse and challenge.

• Chinese Puzzle Objects: From 1,000 B.C., intricate Chinese puzzle objects, i.e., the Lo-Shu Square and Ba-gua, were valued for both their challenge and craftsmanship.

• Locking Puzzles & Archimedes: Around 200 B.C., locking puzzles emerged globally. Archimedes used puzzles like his 14-piece square dissection (Ostomachion) to solve geometric problems.

The Birth of the Jigsaw Puzzle

The history of jigsaw puzzles dates back to the 18th century when they were initially crafted as educational aids. 

• John Spilsbury (1762): The first known predecessor of the jigsaw puzzle was created by London cartographer John Spilsbury. He mounted maps on wood and cut each county around its border to make individual pieces. This allowed students to piece the maps back together as a way to learn geography.

• Dissected Puzzles: These early puzzles were called "dissected puzzles." Soon after their introduction, dissected maps expanded beyond geography. Educators began using puzzles to teach history, religious stories, and even anatomy. The painstaking process of crafting each piece by hand made these puzzles relatively rare and expensive, but their educational value ensured their continued use in elite schools across Europe.

• Early Puzzles Not Interlocking: Importantly, Spilsbury's early puzzles and those that followed did not interlock, making them much more delicate to assemble.

• Ravensburger (1891): The "Geographical Puzzle" was the first puzzle produced by Ravensburger, a major puzzle maker today.

• Educational to Entertainment: Originally educational tools, puzzles quickly became popular entertaining games for all ages.

• Sam Loyd: An American puzzle maker known for popularizing the sliding block puzzle (15 puzzle).

Key Innovations Driving Puzzle Growth

Although cardboard puzzles were available as early as the early 1800s, they were initially perceived as lower quality compared to traditional wooden puzzles. As a result, wooden puzzles remained dominant for much of the 19th century, particularly among wealthier buyers who valued their durability and craftsmanship. However, significant advancements in manufacturing allowed for the mass production of puzzles, reducing costs and making them more accessible to a wider audience. The major innovations that made this possible were:

• Lithographic Printing (c. 1796): Allowed high-quality, detailed, and brightly colored images to be printed directly onto wood, expanding the range of images beyond drab maps.

• Plywood (1797, industrialized by 1850s-60s): Samuel Bentham patented the first machine to produce veneers for plywood. Plywood's cross-graining process made it:

  • Dimensionally stable (less warping, shrinking)

  • Consistently strong

  • Stiffer

  • Easier to cut intricate shapes

  • More affordable

• Treadle Jigsaw / Fretsaw (1855): This mechanical, foot-powered saw (nicknamed "jig" for its rapid motion) allowed for faster and more intricate piece cutting than hand-cutting. The term "jigsaw puzzle" appeared in 1906. The modern electric jigsaw was invented in 1947 by Albert Kaufmann.

• New Cutting Techniques: Puzzle makers became more adventurous, adding straight edges in the middle, dissected corners, and whimsical shapes (called whimsies). A whimsey is a recognizable piece cut into a shape related to the puzzle's image (e.g., a monkey in a jungle scene). Named because Victorian designers cut them "on a whim."

Increased Popularity & Social Impact

• • Adult Puzzles Emerge (c. 1900): A puzzling craze for adults swept the US by 1908.

  • Early Challenges: Adult puzzles were difficult:

    • Pieces cut exactly on color lines (no transition pieces).

    • Non-interlocking pieces (easy to disturb and more challenging).

    • No guide picture on the box.

  • High-Class Pastime (Early 1900s): Craftsmen hand-cut puzzles from wood using fine tools such as marquetry saws. The puzzles were primarily made from mahogany or other hardwoods, making them durable but costly. Making puzzles was labor-intensive and expensive. Due to their handmade nature, no two puzzles were exactly alike, and puzzle enthusiasts prized these unique pieces as works of craftsmanship. All these things made the puzzles expensive ($5 for 500 pieces in 1908, when the average monthly wage was $50), which made them a luxury only high society could afford.

  • Parker Brothers Innovations:

    • Figure Pieces: Introduced recognizable shapes (dogs, birds), making puzzles slightly easier and more appealing.

    • Interlocking Style: A significant improvement that reduced the risk of pieces spilling or getting lost. Parker Brothers even stopped game production in 1909 to focus on puzzles.

  • Great Depression Resurgence (1930s): Puzzles became immensely popular, especially among the lower classes:

    • Escape & Accomplishment: Offered an escape from troubled times and a sense of achievement when unemployment was high.

    • Affordability: Unemployed craftsmen made and sold/rented puzzles locally. Drugstores and libraries offered rentals (3-10 cents/day).

    • Advertising: Companies used puzzles to promote their brands. Companies distributed promotional puzzles as advertisements for their products, further boosting their popularity.

  • Victory Puzzles: Started putting finished images on boxes, a practice previously considered "cheating."

  • Shift to Cardboard (1939): Due to plywood shortages during WWII, puzzles transitioned to cardboard. Initially, lower quality, but it made puzzles cheaper and more accessible. The perception of cardboard puzzles gradually shifted as their affordability and high-quality printing capabilities made them appealing to a growing number of households. By the mid-20th century, cardboard puzzles had largely overtaken wooden puzzles in mainstream popularity, and they became a popular form of inexpensive entertainment.

The Golden Age of Puzzles

From the 1950s to the 1980s, puzzles became a household staple. Some of the improvements that brought this about were:

• Printing Technology: Advances in printing technology enabled the production of vibrant, high-quality images on puzzles. 

• New Themes. Jigsaw puzzles took on new themes, from famous landscapes and works of art to pop culture references. Puzzles of iconic locations, space exploration, and even cartoon characters became widely available. 

• Speciality Puzzles. Puzzle companies introduced specialty puzzles such as 3D puzzles, shaped puzzles, and even double-sided puzzles to challenge enthusiasts further. Brands like Ravensburger, Springbok, and Milton Bradley became well-known names in the puzzle industry.

• Resurgence of Vintage Puzzles. Collectors also began to take an interest in vintage puzzles, driving up the value of early hand-cut wooden pieces. Some rare puzzles from the 19th and early 20th centuries are now highly sought after by enthusiasts and can fetch significant prices at auctions

Mass Production & Modern Era

Leading into the new millennium, manufacturing and marketing advances led to:

• • Lower Prices: Mass production and cardboard significantly reduced prices.

  • Promotional Giveaways: Retailers offered free puzzles with purchases to keep brands in customers' minds.

  • Weekly Jigsaw Puzzles: "Jig of the Week" retailed for 25 cents and became a popular weekly buy.

  • Par Puzzles (1932): Founded by Frank Ware and John Henriques during the Depression. Dubbed the "Rolls-Royce" of jigsaw puzzles, they focused on high-quality, customized puzzles (including cutting names/birthdates as whimsies), and unique challenges like irregular edges and misleading titles, catering to affluent clientele.

The Digital Revolution

The advent of computers and mobile devices has revolutionized the world of jigsaw puzzles, introducing new ways to play and engage with this classic pastime. The rise of digital technology has brought jigsaw puzzles into the 21st century, offering unprecedented convenience, flexibility, and new features. 

Here's a breakdown of the key advancements:

• Portability and Accessibility: Players can now enjoy jigsaw puzzles anywhere, anytime, without the need for physical space or worrying about lost pieces. This has made puzzling far more accessible to a wider audience.

• Customizable Difficulty: Digital platforms allow for easy adjustment of difficulty levels, from a few large pieces to thousands of tiny ones, catering to all skill levels.

• Timed Challenges: For those who enjoy a competitive edge.

• Hint Systems: To assist when a puzzler gets stuck.

• Auto-Sorting: Digital tools can help sort pieces by edge, color, or shape, streamlining the initial setup (which can be a time-consuming part of physical puzzling).

• Multiplayer Modes: A significant innovation allowing friends and family to compete or collaborate remotely, transforming a solitary activity into a social one.

• Personalization: Many services enable users to upload their own images (photos of family, pets, vacations, etc.) and convert them into puzzles. This adds a unique, sentimental, and highly customized element to the puzzling experience.

• Vast Image Libraries: Digital platforms offer an almost endless supply of images, far surpassing the variety available in physical puzzles.

• Online Platforms for Jigsaw Puzzles. These platforms exemplify the social and collaborative evolution of digital puzzling:

• Solo or Collaborative Play: Users can choose to work on puzzles individually or invite friends via private links for a shared experience, bridging geographical distances.

• Communal Challenges: Public rooms allow players to collaborate with strangers from around the world, fostering a sense of global community around puzzling.

• Diverse Content and Customization: These platforms typically offer a continuously growing collection of images and customizable piece counts, ensuring there's something for every skill level and preference.

• Progress Saving: Registered users can save their progress, making it convenient to return to a puzzle at any time without losing work.

Integrating Digital and Physical Experiences

The innovation isn't limited to purely digital puzzles; some advancements are bridging the gap between the physical and digital realms:

• • Augmented Reality (AR) Puzzles: Companies are revolutionizing the landscape by creating traditional jigsaw puzzles that incorporate augmented reality. When viewed through a smartphone or tablet camera, specific elements of the physical puzzle come to life with digital animations, information, or interactive content. This fusion adds an extra layer of engagement, surprise, and interactivity, appealing to users who appreciate both the tactile experience of physical puzzling and the dynamic nature of digital enhancements.

  • Computational Design for Physical Puzzles: Companies that blend art, science, and technology in physical puzzle design. They use custom software, inspired by natural patterns, to generate intricate and often non-traditional interlocking pieces for their wooden jigsaw puzzles. These laser-cut wooden puzzles, produced in a solar-powered studio, represent a unique fusion of traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge computational design, resulting in one-of-a-kind tactile puzzles that challenge conventional shapes.

Final Thoughts

This historical account illustrates how puzzles have evolved from ancient brainteasers to the sophisticated and widely beloved jigsaw puzzles of today, driven by both human ingenuity and technological advancements. One thing is certain—jigsaw puzzles, in all their forms, will continue to bring joy and challenge to generations to come.