Educa 42000 Around The World Puzzle

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  $579.99 

A jigsaw puzzle is a tile puzzle that requires the assembly of mosaic pieces, often irregularly shaped, and interlocking, each of which typically has a part of an image. When the puzzle pieces are put together, a complete picture is created.

In the 18th century, puzzles were made by painting an image onto a flat, rectangular piece of wood and then cutting it into small pieces. Despite the name, a puzzle has never been used. John Spilsbury, a London-based cartographer, and engraver are credited with marketing puzzles around 1760.

Since then, they have mostly been made from cardboard. Typical puzzle images are natural scenes, buildings, and repeating patterns – castles and mountains are common, as are other traditional designs. However, any image can be used. Craft puzzle makers and companies using technology for unique, short-term puzzles use a wide range of themes, including optical illusions, unusual art, and personal photographs. In addition to traditional two-dimensional flat puzzles, three-dimensional puzzles have entered mass production, including spherical puzzles and architectural replicas.

A range of puzzle accessories including boards, boxes, frames, and roll-up mats are now available to support puzzle enthusiasts. Although most assembled puzzles come apart for reuse, they can also be attached to a backing with adhesive and displayed as art.

History – Educa 42000 Around The World Puzzle

“Europe divided into her kingdoms, etc.” by John Spilsbury (1766). He created the puzzle for educational purposes and called them “Dissected Maps”.
John Spilsbury is believed to have produced the first puzzle around 1760, using an inlay saw.

The first puzzles, known as dissections, were produced by mounting maps on hardwood sheets and cutting along national borders, creating a useful puzzle for teaching geography. [1] The royal housekeeper Lady Charlotte Finch used such “sectioned maps” to teach the children of King George III and Queen Charlotte Cardboard puzzles appeared in the late 1800s but were slow to replace wooden ones because the Manufacturers believed that cardboard puzzles would be perceived as low quality and because profit margins on wooden jigsaws were higher.

British printed puzzle from 1874 – Educa 42000 Around The World Puzzle

The name “jigsaw” was associated with the puzzle around 1880 when jigsaws became the preferred tool for cutting shapes. Since jigsaws are distinct from jigsaws, the name appears to be a misnomer.

Pieces of the wooden jigsaw, cut by hand
Puzzles became very popular during the Great Depression, providing an affordable, long-lasting, and recyclable form of entertainment.  It was around this time that puzzles evolved to become more complex and attractive to adults. They were also given away in product promotions and used in advertising, with customers completing an image of the promoted product.

Sales of wooden puzzles declined after World War II as improved wages led to price increases, while improvements in manufacturing processes made cardboard puzzles more attractive.

Demand for puzzles saw a surge, comparable to that of the Great Depression, during the COVID-19 pandemic home stay orders

Modern construction – Educa 42000 Around The World Puzzle

Cardboard puzzle pieces
Most modern puzzles are made of cardboard as they are easier and cheaper to mass produce. An enlarged photo or printed reproduction of a painting or other two-dimensional artwork is glued onto cardboard, which is then fed into a printing press. The press forces a series of hardened steel blades with the desired pattern, called the puzzle nut, through the board until it is completely cut.

The puzzle nut is a flat board, often made of plywood, with cut or burnt slots of the same shape as the knives used. The blades are placed in the slots and covered with a compressible material, usually foam rubber, which expels the cut puzzle pieces.

The cutting process is similar to making shaped cookies with a cookie cutter. However, the forces involved are vastly greater: a typical 1000-piece puzzle requires over 700 tons of force to push the die through the board.

Beginning in the 1930s, jigsaw puzzles were cut using large hydraulic presses that now cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The precise cuts provided a good fit, but the cost limited puzzle production to large companies. Recent roller pressing methods achieve the same results at a lower cost.

New technology has also enabled laser cutting of wooden or acrylic puzzles. The advantage is that the puzzle can be cut to any size or shape, with any number or the average size of pieces. Many museums have acrylic puzzles laser cut from some of their artwork, allowing visiting children to piece together puzzles from the images on display. Acrylic parts are very durable, water-resistant, and can withstand continuous use without degrading the image. Because the print and cut patterns are computer-aided, missing parts can be easily reproduced.

In the early 1960s, Tower Press was the world’s largest manufacturer of puzzles. it was acquired by Waddingtons in 1969.[9] Many smaller puzzle makers work in craft styles, making and hand-cutting their creations.

The biggest puzzles

The largest puzzle in the world measures 5,428.8 m2 (58,435 sq ft) with 21,600 pieces, each with a maximum size of 50cm x 50cm according to the Guinness Book of World Records. It was completed by 777 people on November 3, 2002, at the former Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport.

The biggest puzzle: most of the pieces

2011 Guinness Book of Records by CYM Group with 551,232 pieces
The puzzle with the most pieces had 551,232 pieces and measured 14.85 x 23.20 m (48 feet 8.64 x 76 feet 1.38 inches). It was assembled on September 25, 2011, at the Phú Thọ indoor stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, by students of Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics. It is listed by Guinness World Records as the “biggest puzzle – most pieces,” but as the intact puzzle was divided into 3,132 sections, each containing 176 pieces, which were reassembled and then linked, the claim is controversial.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_puzzle