Ask Mike: Who created the jigsaw puzzle?
Hey Guys,
Taming chaos and creating art are two of humankind’s strongest instincts. Perhaps that helps to explain the continuing popularity of jigsaw puzzles. I was given a puzzle of New York City for Christmas (thanks, Mom!), and I immediately dove in. Odd, considering that I knew the process would cause inevitable frustration and generous contributions to the swear jar. What sort of mad genius created the jigsaw puzzle? Read on as I put the pieces together…
According to Idea Finder, the jigsaw puzzle dates all the way back to 1767. A teacher in England named John Spilsbury created the first puzzle in an attempt to teach his students British geography. Mr. Spilsbury attached a map to a piece of wood. He then used a jigsaw to cut around the various counties. It was up to students to put the map back together, learn about their country, and hopefully have a bit of fun in the process.
The British Library hosts a brief article devoted to Mr. Spilsbury. It notes that not only did the teacher and map-maker create the first jigsaw puzzle, he also started a trend. “For a good 20 years during the mid 1700s, all manufactured jigsaws were in the form of dissected maps like Spilsbury’s.”
Over the years, the puzzle has evolved quite a bit. There are still map-themed puzzles, but there are also kittens, fire trucks, Simpsons characters, and even Beatles albums. Heck, there are even 3D puzzles. The American Jigsaw Puzzle Association hosts an in-depth history and explains that puzzles were incredibly popular during America’s Great Depression. Why? They offered a lot of entertainment for not very much money. All things considered, they still do.
Puzzles are obviously great for learning about geography. What else could they be used for? Got any ideas? Please leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading,
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They are good for developing relationships of all kinds. Not only do you learn about how the subject matter was created but you learn how one bit relates to the other. Also. if you a have companion to help, you learn a bit more about them and they learn something about you. It is a great way to mend things when there has been a tiff.
I’m a huge fan of jigsaws (have been since I was a kid), and I enjoyed your article, but I wonder if the history doesn’t go back a lot further than the flat, cut-up picture that we currently think of as a jigsaw. What about the 3-D blocks made up of various different-shaped pieces? I’m almost certain that they date back to before the modern idea of a jigsaw puzzle. Think about what a jig-saw actually is… a saw that can cut in any direction… I’m no expert, but I’m willing to bet (and explore the idea) that jigsaw-type puzzles date back to antiquity. 1767 might mark the time that someone actually came up with an automated way to make multiple jigsaws the same without doing it by hand: It’s about the right timeframe for mechanization of such a process, but I doubt that’s the real origin of the jigsaw puzzle.
Now you have me wondering!!!
I grew up in England in the late 60′s, early 70′s, and I tore through puzzles called “jigmaps”, which were puzzles based on the geography of various parts of the world (mostly Continents, if I remember correctly). I’d be interested to know how many puzzles were actually geographical in nature at that point… Aside from putting together actual maps, I’ve since spent many happy hours reconstructing an Alpine scene, or a German castle, or a Nowegian Fjord. I know that my kids won’t mistake that picture for something in Australia… you learn geography in subtle ways, it seems. My guess, though, is that most of the original jigsaws were map-like, since they didn’t have access to other pictures as we do today.
Did you actually end up as a Geographer? Just curious… personally, I’m a chemist, but my fascination with geography is compelling, and I think it might have originated with doing jigsaws…
Pax vobiscum!
Steve
On the personal aspects of gathering around a jigsaw puzzle, I agree with Sophist 1000%! It’s one of the most social activities I know of!!!
duh, the jigzaw puzzle was created by an 8 month old monkey in 1844 france. His name was Chester.
You guys really need to polish up on your history,.
He discovered jigzaw puzzling by breaking up a painting that had hardened unintentionally after letting it out to dry on a summer’s morn. The plaster had formed detailed indentations..The monkey spilled water on it and it formed definite lines. He broke them off into several peices and put them back together. The art collector, a wealth bussinessman at the time from england, decided it would be an excellent venture to capitalize it and proposed the idea to puzzlers and the printing press. Ever since that day, Herny Wislon Woodsworth, patented the jigzaw puzzle.
However, Chester’s descendents, many argue, now in the san diego zoo, are the real holders of the patent due to the fact that it was Chester who first discovered jigzaw puzzling.
Oh, terrible sorry, jigsaw* puzzle.
oh nevermind, I thought you were referring to the jigzaw puzzle rather than the common jigsaw puzzle.
The jigsaw puzzle was invented by FDR, Roosevelt for short (one of america’s presidents if you didn’t know), after being paralyzed from the waste down. He had absolutely nothing to do and partial blindness and dyslexia that made reading for him a chore. So he decided, ontop of his desire for global domination through sneaky super duper sneaky progressive agendas covered up as a desire for progress, to break up art work and put it together again, over and over again due to the fact that he had ABSOLUTELY no life. He decided to do something honestly pointless instead of simply acting and being disingenuos in acting out pointlessness, a revolution in thought. FDR was also an expert in throwing cards and it is rumored he could piss 10 feet away into a glass. He even was said to have killed a man simply by a movement of his wrist and a card going straight forthe man’s eye, who incidently gagged, vommitted, and died of asphyxiation. The wonders of too much time I guess. It is also a legend, that he in fact had mastered a jigsaw puzzle so well, that he could actually rearrange it in under 3 seconds yet it being of 3000 peices, furiously proving to himself how he had no life in the same spirit of today’s rubik cubers. He did it over and over again sadistically and furiously, to prove how much, REALLY, of a loser he ACTUALLY was.
Unfortunately, poor FDR had a stroke, and could not continue his jigsaw puzzling after a long day of frenzied playing and banging his head. Although another story says that a worm came out of his ear when he died and went into the sewer never to be seen again until recently..When it mysteriously appeared on glenn beck’s and thereafter into glenn beck’s ear.
the jigsaw puzzle is a lot like life, you always need to find a way to make something work. to be honest, I hate all puzzles, but when you have nothing to do it is great, like you sayd, it helps fill out the swear jar and you can get a treat when you finish it.