Historien om gåter

Allerede i 1760 dukket denne populære og fordelaktige formen for underholdning opp nesten samtidig i Frankrike og Storbritannia. Lim et bilde på papp og skjær det i små uregelmessige biter. Opprinnelig var bildene lærerike, enten ledsaget av korte tekster som egner seg for ungdom å lese, eller for å lære historie eller geografi til det fremvoksende borgerskapet.

In 1762, during the reign of Louis XV in France, a salesman named Dima began to sell map puzzles with small success. This kind of map puzzle, which requires rearranging the pieces, is a very elegant recreation. That same year, in London, a printer named John Spearsbury came up with a similar idea, inventing the enduring puzzle. With the utmost ingenuity, he glued a map of England to the back of a thin dining table, then cut the map precisely into small pieces along the edges of the counties. The idea could lead to huge fortunes, but poor Spearsbury didn't get it, he lived to be 29 years old and didn't see the huge success of jigsaw puzzles. The real significance of his success was that he opened two important markets for his inventions: the burgeoning middle-class consumers hungry for knowledge and status, and the harsh British schools of his time.

Spearsbury levde i en tid da evnen til å lese kart var et symbol på en gentleman. Stikksagmani har blitt presset til topps av Grand Touring-arrangementet, en gigantisk begivenhet som beskriver et helt Europa. Fra dette perspektivet er puslespill bruken av puslespillbrikker for seriøst å studere geografien til hele Europas - land, fyrstedømmer, fylker, byer, tettsteder, elver og så videre. Å kunne kart den gang var like stolt som å ha din egen hjemmeside nå.

Of course, not everyone is adamant about puzzles. Contrarians and social critics alike mock the rich for being boring enough to do nothing but spread a pile of cardboard scraps on the table. More than a decade later, puzzle makers began to incorporate historical themes into their puzzles. In 1787, an Englishman named William Dutton made a jigsaw puzzle of portraits of the kings of England, from William the Conqueror to George III. Education and memory are also part of the entertainment, because to successfully arrange all the pieces, you must know the correct order of these kings. However, at that time, jigsaw puzzles were only a game of rich people, and they were not yet popular. Hand-painting, hand-coloring, hand-cutting make puzzles very expensive, equivalent to a month's salary for an average worker.

1789 saw the French Revolution usher in modern Europe, and saw the birth of the modern puzzle in the hands of John Wallis. This imaginative Briton invented brightly colored landscape puzzles. New puzzles require more focus and patience to put together. The new puzzle heralds the end of the era of exquisitely crafted, but expensive, Spearsbury puzzles. Wallis' reproduction techniques soon made his new puzzle a model for a developing trade based on his original printing plate.

På begynnelsen av 1800-tallet ga nye industrielle teknikker for masseproduksjon puslespill en bestemt form. Tidligere klumpete og klumpete gåter besto av jevne-kantede arrangementer av biter som kunne trekkes fra hverandre ved den minste vibrasjon. Rundt 1840 kuttet tyske og franske puslespillmakere puslespillbrikker med låsemaskiner, en form som er kjent for moderne puslespillfans. De erstattet hardtrefiner med myktre, kryssfiner og papp, noe som reduserte kostnadene betraktelig. Til slutt ble de lave-oppgavene akseptert av forbrukere fra alle samfunnslag, og satte snart i gang et puslespill-vanvidd blant barn, voksne og eldre.

Puzzles quickly became a well-established, mass-market entertainment product that consumers could buy anywhere. Puzzles are used at this time not only for education and entertainment, but also for commercials and political propaganda. The First World War (1914-1918) is a good example. Inexpensive jigsaw puzzles featuring brave warriors desperately fighting for king and country, were popular on both sides of the war and sold well. Jigsaw puzzles have become a way to get closer to people's inner world, into their homes, and to spread information. Puzzles and newspapers, radio, and soon the first generation of television became a simple and direct form of mass media. Should people be encouraged to travel by train? Many puzzles showing majestic trains and happy tourists appeared. Every new invention and trend—steamboats, planes, automobiles, and the latest and most daring women's swimsuits—has appeared on the puzzle.

Etter den økonomiske verdenskrisen i 1929, var den store depresjonen som feide over Nord-Amerika toppperioden for puslespillets ufeilbare popularitet. Gå ned til nærmeste aviskiosk for bare 25 cent for et puslespill på 300-biter, og du kan glemme det harde livet ditt og hengi deg til drømmer om å sette sammen en lykkelig dag. De rike og berømte hengir seg også til denne vanviddet. I New York tjente to{4}}av-selgere, John Henry og Frank Ware, en formue med originale Spearsbury-puslespilldesign. Hva er deres hemmelighet? Høykvalitets gjengivelse av utmerkede skinner. Henry og Ware etablerte snart bånd med Astors, Vanderbilts, Bing Crosby og Marilyn Monroe, og virksomheten blomstret.