US1236378A - Puzzle. - Google Patents

Description

F. L. ORDWAY.

PUZZLE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 13.1916.

1,236,378.. Patented Aug. 7,1917.

'3 Bryant street, Salem,

FRANK L. ORIDWAY, 0F SALEM,1VIASSACH (INCJ, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSE oririe USET'IS, ASSIGNOR T0 PARKER BROTHERS TTS, A. CORPORATION OF MAINE.

PUZZLE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK L. ORDWAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at No. county of Essex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Puzzles, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to the improvement 'of puzzles of that class wherein a plurality of heterogeneous pieces are intended to be fitted together to form a complete design. For examplea colored picture is mounted on a thin sheet of wood and sawed into pieces, the problem being to fit these pieces together again after they have been mixed. Such a puzzle or game is commonly known as a picture puzzle and for convenience I shall use that word herein in an exemplary sense. The purpose of my invention is to improve such devices by making them in suchiashion that the interest of the user will be more. quickly aroused, more easily held and longer maintained.

in the accompanying drawing I have shown an illustrative picture puzzle with the parts fitted together the dotted lines mark in the joints between the various pieces.

Tieferring briefly to the mechanical features of construction disclosed and disregarding for the moment the reasons for their use and their peculiar utility, it will be seen that the pieces into which the picture is out, while heterogeneous, may be roughly divided into two classes. The first comprises pieces of irregular and arbitrary shapes. Among such pieces are those marked 1 which are wholly arbitrary in form although some, by having their division line out some object in the picture as at 2, give indications of their relative positions. As has been customary in such pictures certain objects of the picture such as the boot at 3 may be cut out separately and form com plete and separate pieces. e The second class of pieces I may conveniently term symbolic forms in that they are so shaped that they may be readily recog- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 13,

Patented Aug. *2,

191?. 1916. Serial NO. 109,029.

nizedor even named apart from any character1st1cs they may have because of the parts of the picture or design which they bear. Such forms may include regular geometrical figures such as the cross shown at 4, more complicated but symmetrical figures as shown at 5, letters as at 6, familiar conventlonalized designs such as the spade 7 and outlines of common objects, for example, the chair 8, pipe 9, boot l0 and gooseell.

These symbolic forms, as 1 term them, are distributed throughout the puzzle but preferably l dispose several in. those parts oi? the pictures which are of a more or less uniform appearance such as skies, herbage, roads and the like. For example, in the picture shown there is the ground of the inn yard which would be of a uniform brown and have few distinctive marks serving to link one piece to another. I have herein illustrated a number of the symbolic forms as cut from the street. It will be noted that one of these forms is a boot 10 which resembles the boot 3 which isan object in the picture.

ical features embodied in my invention, it will now be possible to discuss the principles which underlie their use. In doing this we may treat separately the case of a beginner who first starts to use one of these puzzles and the case of a person who is familiar with devices of this nature and habitually uses them. Let us first consider the impression given a person sitting down to one of these puzzles which is presented to him in the form of a heap of heterogeneous pieces. It would be a decidedly discouraging matter to attempt to push forward into the task of fitting these ieces together if there were not certain things to arouse the interest and to give the player a feeling that he was accomplishing something or had fair promise of doing so. This want is supplied to a certain extent by the picture itself in that the player recognizes certain objects in the picture on separate pieces and because these objects with division lines cut across them furnish hints independently of the shape of the pieces as to how they should be fitted together. These hints are due in part to the Having thus briefly described the mechan- Kidd such as I have described, without sacrificing the necessary diliculty of the puzzle, in-

creases the number of centers of interest and the number of points of approach which are open to the player. That is, when he first examines the pieces from the heap, his attention is not only attracted by such objects as a mans face and the like, which are objects of the picture, but by other objects which have a familiar recognizable form independent of the picture and he will lay these pieces out as initial points about which he can commence to form the complete design. Consequently he is not so likely to be discouraged by'the apparent magnitude of the task before him but will be led. on to attempt the puzzle.

It will furthermore be noted that in most pictures there are certain parts which are not of such a nature that when divided into comparatively small portions they will have noticeable characteristics. Such, for example, is the ground of the in yard illustrated in the drawing. In these portions of the icture practically no aid is given by simi arity of color or colored forms. It is, therefore, a tedious and difiicult matter to match together the pieces which will form the ground, but by incorporating into this part of the picture certain symbolic forms such as thearrow, locomotive and the like here shown an interest is aroused in a part of the picture not in itself possessing much appeal. It is convenient to note here the variation provided bymaking one of these symbolic forms similar to an actual object in the picture. Thus in the example shOWn a boot 10 is formed-of the neutral color of the.

ground as well as the'boot 3 which is actually a boot in the completed picture. Such complications as this materially add to the pleasure of the one playing with the puzzle.

If we now consider the case of a player who has completed one puzzle, we will appreciate further advantages arising from the use of symbolic forms. It is my inten-, tion to provide a number of puzzles in each of which are certain of the forms that is, there will be a certain common factor of these forms in the various puzzles of the set.

'The person who has solved one puzzle, on

approaching another, will recognize certain of the forms which he has fitted into another picture and will at once desire to see how they are brought into another design. An advantage different from the interest aroused is due to the certain similarity bea user soon acquires a certain familiarity in the geometric'forms used and hence a specialized skill. In the same way it is apparent that frequent contact with various symbolic forms may give the player 'a certain facility in fitting them into the completed design although this facility will not so strongly afiect the puzzle as to make it too easy. The feeling of the player, however, that he is on familiar ound will be of great advantage in inducing him to attempt another puzzle of the set and it is my intention to vary the common factor of these forms in different puzzles. That is, certain forms would be common to the whole series and others would be common only to a fractional part of the series, while still others would occur in another sub-class or division of the whole set, The simplification of the puzzles may thus be graded as desired while plete design, certain of said pieces being of arbitrary shape and certain others, independently of the objects of the design, having symbolic forms individually readily recognizable.

2. A set of puzzles, each puzzle comprising a plurality of heterogeneous pieces .each

of which displays a portion of a design and which collectively fit together to form a whole displaying the complete design, said pieces being bot of arbitrary shape and of symbolic form, individually readily recognizable independentl of the nature of the design, certain of t e latter being reproduced throughout the puzzles of the set.

3. A set of puzzles, each puzzle comprising a plurality of heterogeneous pieces each of which displays a portlon of a design and which collectively fit together to forfn a whole displaying the complete design, said pieces being both of arbitrary shape and of symbolic form, individually readily recognizable independentl of the nature of the design, certain of t e latter being reproduced throughout thepuzzles of the set and others being reproduced throughout subsets of the whole.

4. A puzzle comprising a plurality of variously shaped pieces each displaying a portion of a design and adapted to be fitted together to form a whole displaying a complete design in which appear objects, of various colors, the division lines between certain pieces intersecting such objects, whereby similarity of color and of colored forms 5 will aid the player in fitting together the pieces, and those parts of the design which present a comparatively large expanse of substantially uniform coloring including pieces each of which has a form which, independentlyof the design, represents a fa- 10 miliar object. In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

' FRANK L. URDWAY.

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