Jigsaws & Puzzles

A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture. more...

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Jigsaw puzzles were originally created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, and then cutting that picture into small pieces with a jigsaw, hence the name. John Spilsbury, a London mapmaker and engraver, is credited with commercialising jigsaw puzzles around 1760.

Most modern jigsaw puzzles are made out of cardboard, since they are easier and cheaper to mass produce. An enlarged photograph or printed reproduction of a painting or other two-dimensional artwork is glued onto the cardboard before cutting. The pieces are then punch-cut with complex metal dies.

Typical images found on jigsaw puzzles include scenes from nature, buildings, and repetitive designs. Castles and mountains are two traditional subjects. However, any kind of picture can be used to make a jigsaw puzzle; some companies offer to turn a personal photograph into a puzzle.

Variations

Jigsaw puzzles typically come in 500-piece, 750-piece, and 1,000-piece sizes; currently the biggest commercially available size is 18,000 pieces. The most common layout for a thousand-piece puzzle is 38 pieces by 27 pieces, for a total count of 1,026 pieces. The majority of 500-piece puzzles are 27 pieces by 19 pieces.

Children's jigsaw puzzles come in a great variety of sizes, rated by the number of pieces.

A few puzzles are made double-sided, so that they can be solved from either side, which adds a level of complexity, because one cannot be certain that the correct sides of the pieces are being viewed.

There are also three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles. Many of these are made of wood and require the puzzle to be solved in a certain order; some pieces will not fit in if others are already in place. Also common are puzzle boxes: simple three dimensional jigsaw puzzles with a small drawer or box in the center for storage.

Puzzle pieces

The method of cutting pieces varies from puzzle line to puzzle line. Many puzzles are termed "fully interlocking". This means that adjacent pieces are connecting such that if you move one piece horizontally you move all, preserving the connection. Sometimes the connection is tight enough to pick up a solved part holding one piece.

Some fully interlocking puzzles have pieces all of a similar shape, with rounded tabs out on opposite ends, with corresponding blanks cut into the intervening sides to receive the tabs of adjacent pieces. Other fully interlocking puzzles may have tabs and blanks variously arranged on each piece, but they usually have four sides, and the numbers of tabs and blanks thus add up to four.

Read more at Wikipedia.org