MagicPuzzles.org

Here are a few miscellaneous mechanical puzzles

This is DinoTry by William Waite.  This was a limited production run, so they are no longer available from Waite.  I believe Waite used this puzzle for the International Puzzle Party’s puzzle exchange.  To participate in the puzzle exchange, you have to make about 100 copies of your puzzle.  In exchange, you get 100 different puzzles back.

The International Puzzle Party is a by-invitation party of puzzle enthusiasts that grew out of house parties held by Jerry Slocum.  I believe Slocum has the largest collection of mechanical puzzles in the world.  If it’s not the biggest, it’s certainly one of the biggest, with over 30,000 puzzles.  By contrast, I have a little over 100 mechanical puzzles.  I was fortunate enough to get an invite to this year’s party after submitting my application to Slocum.

The object is to form a dinosaur out of the 4 pieces.   The site explained that this was an extremely difficult puzzle requiring lateral thinking.  I figured, hey, it’s only 4 pieces, how hard can it be?

The answer, it turns out, is really hard.  I emailed Waite my solution attempts.  They were both wrong, but he was kind enough to indicate the correct solutions.

This is DemonDino.  It’s a similar puzzle, also by William Waite.  Again, I was not able to solve it correctly.

This is the one piece packing puzzle.  It won the “Puzzler’s Award” (basically, the People’s Choice) at the 2001 International Puzzle Party.  It was made for a while by Bits and Pieces.  The version I have was made last year by Eric Fuller of Cubic Dissection.  The object is to seat the cube inside of the frame, as shown.  Magnets prevent it from seating incorrectly.  It’s an elegant, but not difficult puzzle.

The above shows a classic puzzle that I found out about in a magic lecture.  Alright – the first mention of my two hobbies intersecting (although technically the YOT from my previous post started off as a magic trick)!  The lecturer was Mark Wilson, the magician who created magic on TV.  I think he was in his mid 80’s when I saw him a year or two ago.

Wilson emphasized performance and entertainment.  He and his wife distributed ropes and corks, and taught us all a few rope tricks and this puzzle with 2 corks.  The corks are rubber corks with his name printed on them, but the puzzle can be done with anything that has a similar shape, like batteries or tubes of lipstick.  The object is to start with the corks in the crotches of the thumbs, as shown above.  Then, simultaneously use the thumb and index (or middle) finger to grab the cork of the opposite hand, winding up with the corks and hands separated:

It’s surprisingly hard to figure out.  The best puzzle solver in the office, Mike Butler, refused to try this because he had seen it before and failed to figure it out.  However, despite the fact that I learned it at a magic lecture, it’s not a magic trick.  You can do it exactly as described.

By the way, I grew up in Michigan and did my undergrad at the University of Michigan (class of ‘91). I now live in California!

This is the jumping King Tut from Bits and Pieces.  It is similar to the One Piece Packing Puzzle in that the object is to seat the mummy in the cask despite opposing magnets.  The solution is different, though.

Puzzle boxes and locks are not the only secret-opening puzzles.  Here are a few more.

This is the lighthouse puzzle from Bits and Pieces.  It’s small and brass, and I believe it’s based on a design described in “Puzzles Old and New” originally published in 1893 by Professor Hoffmann.  According to the online Puzzle Museum,

“HOFFMANN’S original book was effectively a catalogue of most of the mechanical puzzles available in Victorian London in the 1890s together with their solutions, plus many excellent new and classical puzzle posers.”

Some of the mechanical puzzles described in the book are thus referred to as Hoffmann puzzles.

The point of the lighthouse puzzle is to remove the ring.  No external tools can be used, though it’s very tempting.  It’s not hard, but it is clever.

This is the YOT.  The object is to remove the silver dollar.  This was one of the first mechanical puzzles I got since I started collecting recently.  I probably got it soon after the Moroccan puzzle box.  My wife and I spent about a week trying to open this up.  I had to resort to looking at the solution.  It turns out I had thought of the correct solution early on, but not followed through appropriately, and instead I got sidetracked on all kinds of weird ideas.

This is “All Hail the King”.  I got it from Mr. Puzzle in Australia when the American dollar was trading well against the Australian dollar.  It’s designed by Marcel Gillen.  It’s an aluminum chess king, though it’s much larger than the ordinary “regulation” size chess king.  I got lucky and was able to solve it when most of my coworkers were not (though Mike Butler, our “champion”, solved it quickly).

This is a small puzzle bolt that I purchased from Will Strijbos.  The object is to remove the ring.  It’s not difficult.  I actually had just seen a version of this puzzle that belonged to Jon Thorn, one of my coworkers.  Jon made it himself out of a monster-sized bolt.  Jon’s version was hard to reassemble, since one of his relatives had used a large wrench on it in an attempt to open it.

All of these puzzles are metal.  I like that because it makes them unlikely to be accidentally damaged – unless you decide to use a tool like a big wrench to try and open it up.

Here’s the first group of puzzle boxes that my wife photographed.  It includes the Moroccan puzzle box.  It’s the first box I bought, and it got me hooked!  I immediately showed it to my wife, father-in-law and coworkers, who all loved it.

I got it off of eBay for around $40. The Moroccan puzzle box is made of thuya wood. It has what is called a Sorrento style design. The Sorrento design is seen in old puzzle boxes, in which the front design is disguised as a set of small book spines.

I also want to write about the 8  “small boxes” from the Karakuri creation group. These are, in my opinion, the best values for puzzle boxes (along with #11 Moroccan box and #8 “magic” box). They are relatively inexpensive ($35-42 each, available from Karakuri Creation Group or Izumiya.

Even though they are small (around 2″ on each side), many have mechanisms based on more expensive boxes created by the Karakuri creation group, so you get all of the puzzle at a fraction of the price. As with all the Japanese boxes I’ve seen, the workmanship is absolutely fantastic.

Japanese puzzle boxes trace their origins to boxes made in the Hakone region of Japan.  They traditionally had about 54 moves, and supposedly the difficulty in opening the box served as a lock to protect important documents or tools.  While this is the explanation provided on several Japanese sites, I don’t buy it.  If you really want to get inside, it’s easy to destroy one of these boxes.

In any event, the traditional puzzle boxes are primarily souvenirs of the Hakone region.  The construction of all the boxes I’ve seen are superb.  They normally range from about 4-72 moves, with 2-16 sliding panels.  In general, the more moves, the greater the cost.  They tend to follow a certain logical opening pattern that is not too hard to figure out.  I have a 54 move box which has 12 sliding panels.  Even with that many moves, it tended to follow a certain pattern which made it possible for me to solve in around 30-60 minutes.

This is a Karakuri “small box”.

Karakuri small box #1. This was pretty tricky for me to solve, but not as hard as #2.

Karakuri small box #3. Simple, but with an intricate mechanism.

This is a Karakuri “small box”.

Karakuri small box #2. This is my favorite “small box,” since it’s the hardest. It took me a while to figure out how to solve it.

Karakuri small box #7. This has a very unusual and satisfying mechanism.

Karakuri small box #8. This is easy to solve, but has a very unusual mechanism.

Another Karakuri “small box”

Akio Kamei is the most famous designer of modern “trick” puzzle boxes.  These often require less moves to open than a traditional puzzle boxes.  However, they are often more difficult because you don’t know what the mechanism is!  They can incorporate magnets, sliding pins, etc.  There are a great variety of different mechanisms.

The Karakuri creation group is a group that started as Akio Kamei’s fan club.  Kamei was joined by a number of other Japanese designers.  I strongly recommend checking out their web site.

The designs are very high quality, with prices to match.

Some of Kamei’s designs are available more cheaply as reproductions from Bits and Pieces.  The quality can be good or poor.  Fortunately, Bits and Pieces has a very good return policy – or at least they did.  I have not tried to return anything to them after they went out of business and then came back into business this past year.

This is designed by Akio Kamei, and manufactured by Bits and Pieces. It looks like a book. It is not difficult to open, but there are 2 different ways to open it that reveal 2 different compartments.

This is designed by Akio Kamei, and manufactured by Bits and Pieces. My particular box is not manufactured well. It is loose, and tends to almost solve itself.

Some other small puzzle boxes:

This is a “magic billet box” designed and patented by Mr. Krusen. I got it on eBay, but now the boxes are also available at www.magicbilletbox.com. It is machined out of aluminum, so it’s sturdy. For that reason, it’s one of my favorite boxes to show people who have never seen a puzzle box. It’s a clever design – baffling at first, but not overly difficult. It incorporates several magnets.

The “magic” box. I think I got this from creativecrafthouse.com. I think this is an old, classic design whose inventor is unknown. For that reason, it has a number of manufacturers, and can be purchased cheaply. For example, I think Daiso stores carry a version of this, as well as DealExtreme.com. Even though it can be purchased for $3, it is not necessarily easy to solve. I had to work at it for quite a while before I got it. I’ve shown many people who’ve struggled with it, and very few got it right away.

This is a Haselgrove box, designed by Jennifer Haselgrove. It’s not really a box because there is no internal compartment to put anything in. It is based on an ancient Egyptian locking mechanism.