The Cube Puzzle
"When I was 16 years old, I designed the basic idea for the cube puzzle. The puzzle consists of 3 parts: 1) The 'innards' - 24 pieces in the standard 24-piece burr shape 2) The 'shell' - 41 pieces, mostly surrounding the 'innards', which fill out the cube shape, and also form the locking mechanism to hold everything together 3) The 'key piece' - the cross-section of this piece is rectangular - half as thick as the other pieces which are cut from a square rod.
The workings of the puzzle are as follows:
a) The 'innards' pieces are irregularly shaped, and must be moved in some particular sequence in order to free the 'key piece' b) The 'key piece' is removed c) This unlocks the 'shell', which then comes apart d) The 'innards' come apart in a rather chaotic fashion.
I created about 6 different designs for the 'innards'. The one sold today as 'The Cube' is the third of these designs, and the one which has proved to be the most popular." -Bill Cutler
My Title
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A giant copy of the Cube Puzzle (24 cm) in pine, by Maurice VigourouxPhoto courtesy of Guillaume Largounez
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