US518061A - Puzzle - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

- J. M. FULLER.

' PUZZLE;

No. 518,061. Patented Apr. 10, 1894.

a l 'I Q 6' y v Unwrap STATES I J UDSON M. FULLER, OF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS.

PUZZLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 518,061, dated April 10, 1894.

Application filed November 28, I893. Serlal No. 492i N modem T0 alt whom it may concern:

3e it known that I, J UDSON M. FULLER, a c1t1zen of the United States, residing at Oak Pa rk,1n the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Puzzles, of which the following 1s a specification.

My invention relates to animprovement in puzzles of the class wherein a surface is provlded with a starting point or goal; the puzzle to be worked out by commencing at the starting pointand following an intricate course, according to prescribed rules, to reach the goal.

My object is to provide, in the above class, an mproved puzzle, in the sense of its affording entertainment of the. kind experienced in the working out of puzzles of its class, but augmented by its novelty.

In the drawings-Figured, is aplan view of a board affording a surface provided with points marking various courses; Fig. 2, an enlarged, broken, perspective and sectional view showing a portion of the board, as preferably constructed, and the implement employed therewith to work the puzzle; and Fig. 3, a

view, the same as Fig. 2, of board and implement.

A 1s a board which may be of any desired material, and provided on its surface with a number of pins or projecting pivots affordmg the points. One of the pins ttoward the lower end of the board'is the starting point, and another of the pins, 8, toward the upper end of the board, is the goal. The puzzle is worked by means of a preferably T-shaped implement B affording a handle q and arms q provided in the ends with loops (1 just large enough to fit over the pins. The pins 10 on the board may be of any desired number, one or more thereof-being at a distance from the pin 1. equal to the distance between the loops q of the implement, whereby when the implement is passed at one of its loops over the pin t its other loop may register with and engage one, or one of two or more, pins 19. A large number, and preferably though not necessarily all, of the pins 19, are so arranged with reference to each other, that the impleof a modified form ment when passed at one loop over any one point and an ultimate.

which the free loop may register, and so on.

ing a purchase to it in each move, the points of the pins, including the pin s, will register at its other loop with one or more of the pins.

In handling the implement it is held at its stem or handle q between the thumb and finger of the operator, and when a pin is engaged 5 5 by one of the loops, that pin operates as a pivot upon which the implement must be turned to engage one of the pins with which it registers at its other loop. In starting, the implement is caused to engage the pin t at one loop and is then turned to engage at its other loop one of the four pins 10 in the dotted circle, indicated; it is then turned, on the pin p selected, to engage one of the pins 19 with 5 The solution of the puzzle consists in reaching the goal 8, and as a false start, or a false selection of pivots at any stage will cause deviation from the right course to the goal, and thus prevent the puzzles being solved, the working out of the puzzle is necessarily very hard to accomplish and consequently particularly absorbing to the operator. A puzzle having the points disposed as shown can be worked out in sixteen moves, a false move at any stage being fatal to the solution of the puzzle. The puzzle may be further complicated by the addition of other suitably arranged points 19, to mark additional true and false courses.

In the modified construction the points are afforded by holes 10' in the board, instead of pins, and the implement B, to be employed therewith, has prongs, vinstead of loops, to engage and turn in the holes. While. it is desirable that the points if, s and 10 shall afford engaging pivots for the ends of theimplement, as this permits the implement to be moved rapidly from point to point by affordmay be-mere surface marks with which the implement employed must register at its ends or at given points marked upon the implement, in pursuing the course to the goal.

My invention is not limited to the arbitrary relative arrangement of points shown in the drawings, as this arrangement may be varied indefinitely, though at least one course must be provided between the points t ands and formed, to produce what may be termed the too true course, with points 10 at equal distances apart, corresponding with the distance be-' tween the points of contact on the implement.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

v 1. A puzzle-device, comprising a board provlded on its surface with pivots, marking the points of a true course between points if and s, and false courses, and an implement, comprising a stem, adapted to be held in the hand, and two laterally extending arms, havngpivot-engaging ends a distance apart colnclding with the distance between pivots in the courses, to engage and turn at their ends

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