Every sense contributes

From the beginning of the humankind, there were people who were keen to train their brain. Problem solving, according to them, was helping them to train their brains as if it was a kind of muscle. The more senses that are engaged in the problem solving, the better the results of training are. When you observe small children, which haven’t still fully developed, you can see that they use a lot the trial and error technique. In adults, where the senses are fully developed, the sight is enough to find similarities in the colours, the texture or shape and hence the right pieces. This fact is where the big  companies rely on, and try  to create new challenges for the puzzlers. Because of this nowadays you can find puzzles that have different textures and stimulate the other senses as well, such as the touch, with products that are made or simulate materials like wood, fabric, metal etc. Lastly it is worth to mention, that today you can also find products enhanced with augmented reality. 

The invension of the jigsaw puzzle

There are many people who claim to have made the first jigsaw puzzle. But most historians credit the invention to John Spilsbury, an engraver and cartographer from the UK. The first “puzzle” was made in 1762 (or in 1766 according to other sources) where he gave his product to children, in order to help them study geography. It was a map, which he named “dissected map” where with the help of a ground/basic map, he cut, using a handsaw, the lands thus creating the pieces which the students had to put together. He continued producing puzzles, until 1769 when he passed away. The motives he made were 8. World map, Europe, Asia, Africa, The Americas, England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. His idea, had immediate success and was copied from others and extended in more teaching subject such as farmer life and religion.  

This method was really loved by the counts and royals, because in this manner they would easily learn not only the names of the other nobles as well as who they were and who their neighbours were. Thus, the jigsaw puzzles were an important game for the rich families. Even king George III had in his collection a map of his reign as a jigsaw puzzle (aka dissected map).

The idea was not only important for nobles. In the aspect of education it was very important because the concept of playful teaching and learning thought play was not so well known or in practice at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYCvhidIdtE

19th Century

In the beginning the puzzles were made out of hard wood. The pieces were not interlocking, and the manufacturers of the time to reduce the cost would do this only on the border so that the puzzlers would have a steady frame. The inner pieces were simpler with curved lines. 

Around the 1850s the puzzles were very popular among children and adults, as we can tell from the sources of the era. Nevertheless, the puzzles saw a big increase in popularity at the end of the century, for 3 main reasons. 

1. The lithography technique was more sophisticated and though this technique there existed a very high quality of print. These techniques were ideal for puzzle manufacturing since the pictures were more detailed and with more vibrand and vivid colours. 

2. The plywood was far more economical from the other solutions. Furthermore, its layers were far easier to cut in more complicated pieces. 

3. The tread saw which was invented at the time, allowed the manufactured to produce even more sophisticated shapes in a very shorter time. With the help of these tools the producers could make products which really challenged the puzzlers. 

Because of all these reasons, the makers could make puzzles with higher difficulty, giving more of a challenge to the consumers.  Some exampled are the adding of straight lines, or corners in the picture. Furthermore, they could add whimsical pieces which passed in the theme (or not) of the puzzle. With this technique pieces that matched exactly the shape of objects that were in the picture making the puzzle even more difficult to solve, because the colours were not expanding to more than one piece. This whimsical pieces were very popular among the children and the adult consumers. Most of the time they were related to the theme of the puzzle. For example a piece shaped as an elephant in a picture from Africa. Even today there are manufacturers that are making products with such pieces. 

20th century

In the beginning of the 20th century new companies were introduced in making puzzles. During the recession, in the USA, the sales of wooden puzzles were dropped. Their popularity instead was steadily increasing. New techniques were developed, such as the production of die cuts. With the use of them, the production cost was drastically decreased, and this allowed the massive production. This way the jigsaw puzzles were providing amounts of entertainment time to the public. The puzzle was made, scrambled and made again or given to another family or to the community. If anything the puzzles were cheap. In fact, they were so cheap that there were companies that gave them for free. It was used as a means of advertisement, since the consumers would stand in front of picture for hours. This trick was adopted by many train and ship companies. Steam engines and tourist destinations were the themes of this idea. At that time the jigsaw puzzles started to have the final image on the box. Earlier it was thought that if someone was to use the picture as a reference to solve the puzzle, he was cheating. 

The puzzles, in general, were made out of wood until the break of the WWII in 1939. At that time there was a shortage of wood, making the companies to turn to other solutions such cardboard for the production of their puzzles. At the beginning the quality was very low, but despite that fact, the puzzles were even cheaper. This way it was very easy to acquire them. 

Nowadays jigsaw puzzles are still produced out of wood. But these products are considered of high quality and contain the whimsical pieces of that period. The pieces are more sophisticated, and offer unique experienced to the users. Generally the classic puzzles (out of cardboard) are the majority in the market. Nevertheless, companies are working on new ideas in their attempt to attract a more extended audience. Pictures, triptych, puzzles that continue in another puzzle, pictures with riddles or mirror images are only a small fraction of the ideas that are already out in the market, expanding the variety of options for our hobby giving us always chances to try out something new. 

Lastly it is worthy to mention that in 2020 the period of the enclosure because of the pandemic, the branch of the jigsaw puzzles showed a significant increase. The reason is that jigsaw puzzles are a very good way to entertain your self, practicing social distancing, in the safety and comfort of your home.