US1270181A - Puzzle. - Google Patents

Description

AARON LIUELVEEN, OF STILSON', GEORGIA.

PUZZLE.

Application led November 20, 191?.

To alt whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, AAnon MCELVEEN, n citizen of the United States, residing at Stilson, in the county of Bulloch and Stute of Georgia., have invented certain new and useful Improvement@ in Puzzles, of which the following is n. specification.

My invention relates to puzzles.

My object is to provide n puni/.lc put to gether in auch n wey that it at once appears an utter impossibility to have meemhlw the parte in the way in wl el they,Y nppmiry or to disansenihle them sift. 1 @hey :ire illus assembled.

A further olijert is fo heighten the effect of the delusion hy me {in-g the diil'rrfmr parts of the devine out of pieces of Umterial strik inglj.7 different from euch other in appear ance, so as to instantly preclude the idee (liable to present itself as a problem) that the puzzle may have been eut out in a skilful manner from :i single piece of material., end that its parts have therefore 'never really been separated from euch other.

Another object is to provide e puzzle formed of few and simple parte easily and cheaply made, und which when assembled seem to have been put together so easily that the device while defying' solution tnntelinee one by its manifest simplicity.

An importent feature ol the invention Consists in :t major member having an o .ieuing therein in which opening is receive or is to be reoeived, a plurality of minor pieces having eut-away portions between their ends. with the opening in the major member only large enough to simulteneousl hold all the minor pieces at their interme .inte cutaway portions. Hence, the puzzle presents epparently the impossib e teslr of passing through en. opening of a. given size, a piece of material considerably larger than the opening.,

The novelty of the invention consists in the construction and arrangement of the several parts considered in eonneetion with the nature of the material from which the parts are formed, es will be hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the aecompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a. perspective View of one form of my puzzle.

Fig. 2 is s, vertice] longitudinal section of Fig.

Specincation of Letters Patent.

y 'innnedietelj.Y irsunu; their solution of the Patented June S, 1918. Serial No. 203,0()(1.

sligh fly pur-zle res n in the lam, (il not merel; oi ii minor in formed :it einst Er me Wood lt in no? not gener:if en n Y iff vfefailwinfl in une -w ,i-.tirellv evff'ry kind of wood @n n i :a or other suitable eppure pressed, in eine m' hulk. i L and that when compres :d they will not eine and shape, but will have :i tendciny to retain their coniprersod form; hut the?, when placed in Water they will reridilj.' expend to their originel size and shape.

W' ith this expleinition it easily eeen how the puzzle is Snlved Referring further te thiilmwings. the in:- inerul l. indie-ritrae 'the mejor member of my puzzle which muy In nmfln in en; Shnpemreetangular. z-qunre. round. heurt shaped, otter-end te prwrdrd pr' lily at its Cellher with un ogn-ning e minor members 3 and i of the devine nrc cutaway between their ends to form the notches 5. The upper and lower ends 3* and 4a respee` tively of these minor members are prefer` ably of :i shape and s ize to looselyv fit the opening 2 of the mejor member1 so that any one of said ends approximately fills said opening it pesses through it.

Euch oi' the minor members 3 end 4 is reduced about one half in cross sectional aren et its notched portion, so that when the ends 3a and 4 have been passed through the opening 2 of the mejor member.y the re duced portions` 3b and l of the tngo notched members will he easily received and held in said opening 2, as illustrated in Figs. il

and 2.

square in cross section (at their ends) and are cut away about one half at their notched portions between their ends, just as are the blocks 3 and 4 in the other figures; so that when arranged as in F ig. 4 their reduced portions loosely fill the opening 2". This opening is about three times as long as it is wide in order for the blocks to approximately fill it with their reduced portions when formed and arranged as shown and described.

If it is desired to form one of these puzzles with only three notched blocks, either the block 6 or 8 may be omitted (referring to Fig. 4) together with the portion of the opening 2B into which the reduced portion of the omltted block is now received.

It is not deemed necessary to point out other manifest changes which might be?. made in the size, shape, and number of the blocks, shape of the opening into which they would be received, etc.

In passing the notched blocks 3 and 4 through the opening 2 in order to assemble or' disassemble the parts' of the puzzle, it is simply necessa to compress one or more (asmay be pre erred) of the rojecting ends 3 and 4 oflthe blocks, su ciently to permit the same to pass through the opening 2. This can usually best be done by means of a vise. If a projecting end of each of the blocks be compressed, it is manifest that each will only have to be compressed half as much as if only one block is compressed, and in that case both blocks can be passed through the opening 2 at once. On the other hand, if only one block is compressed1 the other block is placed in position inthe opening first, and then the coinpressed block is entered in position. After the blocks 2 and 3 have been entered in proper position in the opening 2,the compressed portion, or portions as the case may be, is placed in water till it assumes its original size and shape.

Inasmuch as well known means has been devised for cutting a single piece of wood into two or more pieces interlocked or otherwise related to each other in a way that appears impossible to have been eii'ectedas, for instance, a wooden bottle with a ball inside it larger than the neck of the bottle-Some persons will at first sight con- Y clude that this puzzle belongs to that class of devices; and it is best that their minds should be forestalled in the outset against any sucherroneous opinion, in order that `the pizzle may make its strongest possible appea to them as something apparently imossible that has yet actually been done. romV the foregoing description it will be seen that if but one of the notched'blocks of my device be femm@ of soft resilient wood, such for installxtl as white pine, the other parts may be fo ed of nen-resilientmaterial such as metal, and each piece of a different kind of metal if so desired. However it is thought that the real secret of the puzzle will remain more completel hidden if the notched blocks, at least are a I formed of wood, since if only one sott wooden block were used with a number of metal blocks some active minds would quickly conclude, since metal had been largely employed in the construction of the device and was manifestly the most desirable material to be used if possible, that that one block of soft wood had been used from necessity and not from choice; and hence they would at once suspect that the solution of the puzzle lay in that piece of wood. i

In view of the fore oing, it is thought that the best possible eect can be produced and the secret of the puzzle kept most fully hidden by forming all 'the notched blocks of wood, and having each block formed of a different kind of wood from the blocks ad- Lacent to it, and each different kind of wood eing of a strikingly different color to give as great a contrast as possible in colors. No artificially colored blocks should be used since the use of artificial colors would tend to defeat the very object sought in providing blocks having contrastin colors.

Of course, at least one b ock should a1- ways preferably be of some soft wood such as white pine or bayr wood since soft woods are much more easlly compressed, and are less liable to become split or otherwise damaged in being compressed.

In Fig. 4 I have indicated the blocks 6 and 8 (which are separated from each other) as formed of white wood such as white pine; the block 7 of red Wood; and the block 9 of black wood, as ebony. In Figs. 1 and 2 I have indicated the block 3 formed of red wood, and the block 4 of white woodwwhitc pine.

Nice mechanical workmanship ma be disi played by making the major mem r 1 of my device out of metal, but in that case care should be exercised to select a metal that will not easily rust when the device is placed in the water to rexpand the compressed blocks.

Having thus disclosed my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is 1. A device of the character described, comprising a major member having an opening; anda plurality of minor members designed to be received thereinto, said minor members having reduced sections between their ends and being formed of materials 2. A device 0f the character described, coniprising a major member having en opening; and a plurality of miner members adapted to be received thereinto, Said minor members having reduced sections between their ends and being formed of materials whose natural colors contrast with each other, one at least of said members being formed of resilientl material, the opening of the major member 10 being of a size to sinnlltaneously receive the reduced portions only of the minor members.

3. A device of the character described, comprising a major member having a central Opening extending transversely therethrough and a plurality of elongated miner members having reduced sections midway between their ends and designed to be received at their reduced portions into said transverse opening of the major member, said minor members being formed 0f resilient woods and made similar to each other in Shape and size but contrasting with each other in their natiira colors, the opening' in the major member being of a size to simultaneously receive the reduced portions only of the minor members.

In testimony whereof I affix m signature.

AARON' MUALVEEN. Witnesses:

RUB. WRIGHT, CLIFF Peoc'ron.

Images