Mention "Puzzles" to many people and their thoughts just go to Jigsaws and Rubik Cubes missing the vast range of objects that have been teaching post Industrial Revolution children the art of Problem Solving for the past 250 years. An INDEX OF PUZZLES featured in past months sorted by PUZZLE CLASS.
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Jump to Main Class | ||
THE TABLE of PUZZLES of the month sorted by PUZZLE CLASS. |
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CLASS |
CLASS DEFINITIONS |
Examples |
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N.B. Every main class includes these two special subclasses: OTHER (-OTH) for puzzles that will not easily fit into the other sub-classes and RELATED (-REL) for non-puzzle but closely related objects. |
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AMB | AMBIGUOUS PICTURES & PUZZLING OBJECTS (AMB) in which something appears impossible or ambiguous. | AMB-ARCH | Archimboldesque Objects | Pictures and objects of one subject made up from unrelated images or objects. |
Archimboldesque Portrait | |||
Oval Box | AMB-HIDD | Hidden Image Pictures (no manipulation required) | Devinettes (obscure outlines), "Spot the Difference", Random Dot Stereograms |
Ha! Ha! I've Eaten the Manx Cat! | |||
Tonbeau du Roi Martyr | |||
French Devinette Plate | AMB-HMAN | Hidden Image Pictures (Manipulation Required) | "Naughty Butterflys", "Find the 5th Pig", Needing coloured overlays, Soot on unglazed part of ashtray |
Ashtray with hidden 4th Card Player | AMB-DIST | Distortions | Anamorphic pictures |
Anamorphic Portrait of King Charles I | |||
AMB-ILLU | Perception Illusions | Optical Illusions, Weight Illusions | |
Is this Rabbit a Duck | |||
AMB-POBJ | Paradoxical Objects (Objects that apparently cannot be made) | Arrow through bottle, Impossible Dovetails, Oskar's "Escher Puzzle", Penrose triangles. | |
Staffordshire puzzle pipe. | |||
Impossible Playing Card Olympics 2012 | |||
The Mysterieuse Pocket Watch. | |||
Ships in Bottles. Harry Eng | |||
Nine Nested Bottles | |||
AMB-TURN | Pictures that require turning to show different images. | ||
Gladstone Donkey Vesta | |||
Fourfold Happiness and Joy | |||
News from the War | |||
AMB-VANI | Vanishing images or areas. Hoopers Paradox. | ||
John Bull's Bobs Vanishing Puzzle | |||
AMB-REL | AMBIGUOUS-RELATED | ||
Metamorphic Swan to Dog | |||
ASS | ASSEMBLY PUZZLES (ASS) (NON-INTERLOCKING) require the arrangement of separate pieces to make specific shapes without regard to the sequence of that placing, they may clip together but do not interlock in 3D. Some have a container and are posed as packing problems. | ||
ASS-CART | Assembly of Cartesian Parts | Pentominoes, Checkerboards, Polycubes, Soma, "Hoffman" cube, "Managon", "Even Steven", Squashed Soma, Laker Cube | |
Mayer's Cube | |||
3 cubed + 4 cubed + 5 cubed = 6 cubed | |||
Nobman Puzzle made by Toyo Glass | |||
T.H.O'Beirnes Cube | |||
ASS-OTH | Assembly of other shapes | Pack the Plums, Apple & Worms, "Phoney Baloney", Gears | |
Early Printing Stool Puzzle. | |||
Geapple Puzzle | |||
Toy Fort is a puzzle | |||
Office in a Box | |||
Olympic Puzzles 1 | |||
Porridge Pot on the Fire" | |||
Round 21 Disk Packing Puzzle competition | |||
ASS-POLY | Assembly Polyhedra & Spheres | Ball Pyramids | |
Stereometry Made Easy | |||
ASS-STRA | Straight Edge/Face Non-cartesian | Tangram, T-puzzle, Triangular & Hexagonal polyominoes, 9-piece ivory cube | |
1817 The First European Tangram. | |||
Napoleon Tangram Puzzle | |||
Fit a square tangram in a round hole | |||
Geometrical Recreations in 15 pieces | |||
DEX | DEXTERITY PUZZLES (DEX) require the use of manual dexterity or other physical skills in their solution. | DEX-BALL | Dexterity. Plain Balls into holes | Pentangle "Roly-Poly" puzzles |
The British Lion Puzzle | |||
Blisters - Inexpensive Puzzle Collecting | |||
Milton Keynes the new city for 1967 | |||
A fake antique | |||
DEX-INLQ | Dexterity in Liquid | Water-filled puzzles | |
Toyo's Spirit Leveler Puzzle | |||
Wilbur Wright Puzzle | |||
DEX-LQOB | Liquid objects | Mercury manipulation | |
Dolly-Kwiz Greater Panama Canal Puzzle | |||
DEX-MECH | Mechanised Decterities. | most Tomy's "Pocketeers" | |
Tomy Pocketeer Puzzle | |||
DEX-MIRR | Indirect viewing by mirror. | Kohner's "Nervous Breakdown" | |
Find the North Pole mirror puzzle | |||
DEX-OBST | Dexterity with sundry obstacles &/or objects | Ramps - bridges - jumping beans - etc. | |
Gas Masks to Puzzles | |||
The Matrimonial Chair | |||
Passive resisters to the 1902 Education Act | |||
DEX-OTH | Other Dexterities | Pneumatic operation | |
Silver Bullet Scenic Puzzle | |||
Krazy Kar Automobile Puzzle | |||
The Jolly Vagabond and the Policeman | |||
Port Arthur Puzzles from the Russian-Japanese War Battleship Fort | |||
Eiffel Tower Puzzle | |||
South African dexterity puzzle with railways fords and kraal huts | |||
The League of Nations. Leave or Remain | |||
The Spanish Trocha in Cuba | |||
Cosmolink - The Psycho-Kinetic Puzzle | |||
DEX-PITF | Path to follow without falling in traps | Silver Bullet | |
Yiddle from World War One | |||
R.Journet Educational Game - The Sea | |||
Sky Pirates - Zeppelin Puzzle | |||
Stanley's March to Kavalli | |||
The North Pole Game | |||
Gallipoli Landings Puzzles | |||
DEX-RTFL | Route following where the Dexterity greatly outweighs the Routefinding. | Superplexus puzzle | |
Crippen Chase Hamiltonian Puzzle | |||
Superplexus Puzzle | |||
DEX-HIDD | Objects concealed from view | Four Generations "Ball in Block", Engel's "Black Box" | |
DEX-ELEC | Electrical & Electronic Dexterities | Nombrex's "Crosso" 1950s, Nintendo "Game & Watch - Vermin" 1980 | |
Nombrex's "Crosso" | |||
DEX-PINB | Pinball related dexterities | Bagatelle | |
DEX-TOOL | Using tools & magnetic tools | Adam's 1940s "Fantom Puzzlers", Ayer's "Suffragette Puzzle" | |
Women's Suffrage Puzzle 1906 | |||
DEX-UNCA | Uncased Dexterities | Cup & Ball, "Le Pendu", "Theo der Turnier", Tomy's "Crazy Maze", Puzzles using Tops | |
Tipsy Toff | |||
FOL | FOLDING & HINGED PUZZLES (FOL) have parts that are joined together and usually do not come apart. They are solved by hinging, flexing, or folding. | ||
FOL-HGCL | Hinged Parts in Closed chain | Flexagons, Rubik's "Magic", "Flexicube" | |
Twiddle word puzzle" | |||
FOL-HGOP | Folding Hinged parts in Open chain | Rubik's "Snake", Strung Cubes, Clinch Cube | |
FOL-OTH | Other Folding Puzzles | ||
FOL-SHEE | Folding sheets & strips | Map Folding, "Jail Nixon", strip polyhedra | |
Frederickson's Decagon to Pentagram | |||
FOL-SPRI | Folding Springy wire and strips | "Why Knots", Mobius Strips | |
Moebius Strip Puzzle | |||
INT | INTERLOCKING PUZZLES (INT) interlock in three dimensions, i.e. one or more pieces hold the rest together, or the pieces are mutually self-sustaining. Many clip together puzzles are "non-interlocking". | INT-CART | Cartesian (Internal Parts along 3 mutually perpendicular axes) | Burrs, Cutler's Burr in a glass, most plastic keychains, JWIP, "Nine of Swords" |
Puzzle Rattle from the Crimean War | |||
Mongolian Burr Puzzles | |||
Ninomiya's Boxed Cage Puzzle | |||
24 Piece Burr in Engine Turned Ivory | |||
Six-Piece Burr | |||
Tramp work Table | |||
Puzzle Ball | |||
Bone Puzzle by Napoleonic prisoner | |||
INT-BOX | Boxes that disassemble | Stickman's "Borg Box", Strijbos Aluminium Burr Box | |
INT-OTH | Other Interlocking Shapes | "Tak-it-Apart", "Plato's Plight" | |
Michelin Men and their Machines | |||
Adriano Mini by Miguel Berrocal | |||
MoonPi 3D Printed Puzzle | |||
Bell's Keychain Puzzle Piano | |||
Packets to Fans and Frames | |||
Bon Ton Laundry Puzzle | |||
Three Olympic Puzzles by Miguel Berrocal | |||
INT-POLY | Interlocking Polyhedral & other non-cartesian geometric shapes. | Coffin's "Saturn", Squashed burrs | |
The Sphinx | |||
Eduard Bakalar - Plato's Secret | |||
Scott's Enigma | |||
Pentapod 3D printed puzzles | |||
INT-REL | INTERLOCKING- Related | - | |
Puzzle Book Rests | |||
JIG | JIGSAW PUZZLES (JIG) are made as if cut or stamped into pieces from a single complete object, and the principle objective is to restore them to their unique original form. | ||
JIG-OTH | Other jigsaws | Stave variable picture, "Toyznet", Bilhourd's incomplete surfaces | |
Van Houten's Hot Chocolate Puzzle | |||
A Puzzle House | |||
A CHAMPAGNE PUZZLE | |||
Puzzle Globe Nuremberg 1800s | |||
Silver Bullet Scenic puzzles | |||
Partridge in a Pear Tree | |||
Puzzle Globe1927 by Geographic Educators | |||
JIG-REL | JIGSAW- related | ||
A Puzzle Nut | |||
Healy Pictorial Completion Test | |||
JIG-STD | Standard Jigsaws | Can include double sided puzzles, & jigsaws with holes & gaps | |
Eurograph jigsaw of World War I trenches | |||
Vera Jigsaw Puzzle Ivory jigsaw | |||
Monkeypuzzle multi layered jigsaw puzzles | |||
Wooden 3D Jigsaws | |||
JIG-SLOP | Jigsaws with non perpendicular/sloping cuts | "Broken Heart", Japanese "Sabre Tooth Tiger" | |
JIG-LAYR | JIG-LAYR Multiple layer Jigsaws | Transparent Escher jigsaw | |
JIG-IDEN | Jigsaws with identical pieces | "Shmuzzles", Ceramic hexagons, Picture Cubes & Blocks | |
JUG | JUGS & VESSELS (JUG) have a mechanical puzzle or trick in their construction that affects the filling, pouring or drinking therefrom. | ||
JUG- STD | Puzzle Vessels standard (built-in tubes to suck) | - | |
Zsolnay Puzzle Jug and Whistle | |||
William Baron's Radioactive Puzzle Jug | |||
JUG- BASE | JUG-BASE Vessels that pour from Base. | Jolly Jugs, Thrift Cups | |
Pour from base Puzzle Jug | |||
JUG-NLID | Lidless Vessels (fill from base) | Cadogan Teapots, Chinese winepots | |
Cadogan Teapots and Chinese Wine Pots | |||
JUG-OTH | Other vessels | Royale's "Self-Pouring" Patent, Spoutless winepots (hydraulic seal) | |
Faience Puzzle Basket | |||
Venetian Glass Puzzle Bowl | |||
JUG-CPLX | Complex Vessels requiring special manipulation | Gemma Patent 2006, Combination JUG-STD/JUG-BASE | |
Crested China Puzzle Jugs and other Vessels | |||
OPN | OPENING & EXTRACTION PUZZLES (OPN) are puzzles in which the principle object is to open it, close it, undo it, remove something from it, or otherwise get it to work. They usually comprise a single object or associated parts such as a box with its lid, a padlock and its hasp, or a nut & bolt. The mechanism of the puzzle is not usually apparent, nor do they involve general assembly or disassembly of parts that interlock in 3D. | ||
OPN-BOX | Opening Containers | Boxes, Purses | |
72 move secret puzzle box | |||
Sorrento Book Boxes | |||
17th Century Sun & Moon Puzzle Snuff Box | |||
Arthur Simpson Puzzle Box | |||
Balkan Puzzle | |||
Ne Plus Ultra Puzzle Match-Safe or Vesta | |||
Iwahara's Trinary Box | |||
Boxwood mechanical puzzle box | |||
The Vault Puzzle | |||
Miniature Michel Mann Armada Chest | |||
OPN-HIDD | Opening/finding Hidden Compartments not originally designed as puzzles | Chippendale Tea-Chests, Poison Rings. | |
The Scannavini Puzzle Cabinet | |||
Mystery Folk Art Puzzle Box | |||
Mystery Folk Art Puzzle Box | |||
The Angel Box | |||
Snuff Ball Puzzle | |||
OPN-LOCK | Opening Locks | Padlocks | |
17th Century Cupid and Lion-skin Casket | |||
Antique Brass Fish Puzzle Padlock | |||
OPN-OTH | Opening other objects | Nut & Bolt, Knives, Pens, Cutlery, Oskar's Keys, Oskar's "Dovetail", "Hazelgrove Box" | |
Ornamental Turned "Find the Queen" puzzle | |||
Florrie Taylor's Tank 1918 | |||
Cutlery Set | |||
Strijbos Red Egg Puzzles | |||
OTH | OTHER TYPES OF MECHANICAL PUZZLES & OBJECTS. (OTH) This group is for puzzle objects that do not easily fall into the main categories and cannot be categorised into sufficiently large groups to warrant their own major class. Included in this group are Balancing, Measuring, Cutting, Math, Logic, Trick, Mystery, & Theoretical puzzles. Also provision is made for puzzles pending classification. | ||
OTH-BAL | Balancing (non-dexterity) | "Columbus Egg" | |
Magic Balancing Egg | |||
OTH-ELEC | Electrical & Electronic (non-dexterity) | - | |
Nombrex - Electronic Noughts and Crosses | |||
OTH-MATH | Mathematical Puzzles (excluding number pattern arrangements) - | ||
Perry's 21 Puzzle | |||
OTH-MYST | Objects whose function or material is a mystery | Wotsits, Creteco spacers | |
Puzzle Napkin Ring | |||
Puzzling piece of Potting | |||
OTH-PEND | PENDING CLASSIFICATION !! | Puzzles awaiting classification | |
Brass & Copper Chessboard puzzle. | |||
Four-way Fan | |||
Puzzles for Dogs | |||
Boat of Bits | |||
OTH-SET | Sets of Puzzles of Mixed Type | Compendiums of mixed type puzzles | |
New & Ingenious Puzzles by John Jaques & Son | |||
Columbian Exposition - Lost puzzles from Saharanpore | |||
Chinese Puzzle Compendium | |||
Ackermann River Crossing Turks and Christians. | |||
The Children's Encyclopedia WONDER BOX | |||
OTH-TRIK | Trick or Catch Puzzles (solution needs subterfuge) | "Infernal Bottle", Some magic tricks | |
Samson Mystery Pig Puzzle | |||
OTH-WORD | Puzzles applied to objects, the puzzle more usually found printed on paper | Rebus, Anagrams, Riddles, Crosswords, Etc. (on Plates, Jugs, Loo Paper, etc.) | |
Puzzle challenge by Johnson Jeweler of Dublin | |||
PARK'S TWELFTH NIGHT CHARACHTERS | |||
Ne Plus Ultra Puzzle Match-Safe or Vesta | |||
Caroline Mary Peachey's 1804 riddle sampler | |||
1809 Handheld Fire Screens | |||
Hieroglyphic Letters in Watercolour | |||
Le Pays des Rebus | |||
John Leech's Puzzle Pictures | |||
Happy Winter Solstice 2012 | |||
Word Counting Puzzle | |||
Staffordshire Pottery Riddle Jug | |||
Peruvian Quipo | |||
OTH-MEAS | Measuring & Weighing Puzzles | Jugs & Liquids, 12 Golf Balls, Archimedes Gold | |
John Bull's Store - A puzzle of Pecks | |||
OTH-CUT | Cutting Puzzles | Cork for 3 Holes, Five Squares Puzzle | |
The Five Squares Puzzle | |||
OTH-LOGI | Logic Puzzles | Cartoon pictures to arrange in order | |
OTH-MAGI | Magic & Conjuring Puzzles | Self-working magic tricks | |
OTH-VIRT | Puzzles whose existence is only theoretically possible. | Such as 4d puzzles, or those which can ONLY be represented on a computer | |
PAT | PATTERN PUZZLES (PAT) require the placing or arrangement of separate pieces of a similar nature to complete surface patterns according to defined rules. The pattern required may be the matching of edges of squares, faces of cubes, etc. The pattern may be colour, texture, shape, etc. Where the pattern is due to differences in shape they must be sufficiently minor not to obscure the similarity of the pieces. | ||
PAT-STIX | Patterns of sticks | Match Puzzles, Jensen's "Tricky Laberint" | |
PAT-EDGE | Matching Edges &/or Corner patterns | Heads & Tails, "Dodeca", Macmahon squares | |
Prize Puzzle Royal International Life-Boat Institution | |||
PAT-NUMB | Arrangements of Number Patterns | Magic Squares, Number Puzzles | |
Magic Square | |||
Magic Squares by Jaques 1852 | |||
Blind Abbess and her Nuns - Manuscript 1865 | |||
PAT-OTH | Other Pattern puzzles | Oskar's "Solar System" | |
Jolikin by Milty Products Salford | |||
PAT-SIMI | Pattern arrangements of similar, points, pegs, or pieces according to predetermined rules | Queens on Chess Board, Josephus, Waddington's "Black Box", "Instant Insanity", "Dodeca", Macmahon cubes, Bognar's "Planets" | |
Canny Skipper a version of the Josephus Problem | |||
The World's Puzzle. | |||
Josephus' Seven Puzzle | |||
PAT-DISS | Arrangement of dissimilar pieces to make pattern according to predetermined rules | "Testa", Skor Mor's "Instant Indecision", Chinese Balls in Ball, Waddington's "Kolor Kraze" | |
PAT-STAK | Stacking, Overlapping & Weaving Patterns | Stacking Transparent Layers, "Lapin", Loyd's Donkeys, Weaving puzzles | |
Question du Lapin. or Silhouettoscope made by Wattileaux | |||
RTF | ROUTEFINDING PUZZLES (RTF) require the solver to find either any path, or a specific path as defined by certain rules. | ||
RTF-ANY | Route Mazes (any path) | Most Hedge mazes, Mazes on surface of a cube, Ball in 4x4x4 cube of cubelets | |
The Lost sheep Puzzle Australia 1889 | |||
Busy Bee Route finding Puzzle | |||
RTF-CPLX | Routefinding with Changing Path &/or Complex Traveller | "Frying Pan" (changing), ;Yankee"(complex), "Tandem Maze"(complex), "Bootlegger"(complex) | |
Dual Alliance between France & Russia in 1894 | |||
1890s Hide and Seek Maze | |||
RTF-OTH | Complex Route Mazes with special objectives | "Worried Woodworm", Colour Mazes, Number totalling mazes, avoiding objects, visiting places en route | |
Mobius Maze | |||
RTF-REL | Routefinding related | ||
Labyrinth on silver stater from Knossos | |||
RTF-UNIC | Unicursal Routefinding | Icosian Game, Konigsburg Bridges | |
Jeu des Ponts de Paris | |||
Sir William Hamilton's Icosian Game and Traveller's Dodecahedron Puzzle. | |||
RTF-STEP | Routefinding Step Mazes | Ring & Hole mazes, "Pike's Peak" | |
Pikes Peak or Bust | |||
SEQ | SEQUENTIAL MOVEMENT PUZZLES (SEQ) are those that can be solved only by moves which can be seen to be dependant on previously made moves. | ||
SEQ-GRP | Sliding & Shunting with Mechanical or Rotating parts (some Group moves NEEDED) | "Tower of Babel", "Missing Link", "Backspin", "Turntable Train", Tomy's "Great Gears", Raba's "Rotascope", "Rubik's" Cube, "Orbit" TWISTY PUZZLES | |
Magic Icosahedron | |||
Erno Rubik's Magic Cube | |||
Jugo Flower Puzzle | |||
Beijing Olympic Sphere Puzzle | |||
SEQ-HOPP | Sequential Hopping & Jumping. | Solitaire, Tower of Hanoi, Counter & Peg moving puzzles | |
Indian Solitaire | |||
Solitaire Boards | |||
Eduardo Lucas: La Tour D'Hanoi (Tower of Hanoi) | |||
Olympic Wander Rings Puzzle | |||
1894 US Presidential Election | |||
Panama Puzzle" | |||
SEQ-OTH | Sequential Miscellaneous Mechanical | "The Brain", "Hexadecimal", "Spin Out" | |
SEQ-PLAC | Sequential Placement | "Psychic Puzzle", "Fit Puzzle" | |
Puzzle of Puzzles by William Darton | |||
Oktostar Puzzle | |||
SEQ-REL | SEQUENTIAL- Related | ||
Star Wars Episode II counter display | |||
SEQ-RIVR | Sequential River Crossing | "Wolf,Sheep & Cabbage" | |
Clergy and Umbrella | |||
SEQ-SIMP | Sequential Simple Sliding & Shunting (No group moves needed) | 15s puzzle, Tit-Bit's "Teasers", "Inversions" | |
Kinsey's Combination Puzzle | |||
Pax Puzzle | |||
Shunting Puzzle | |||
Russian-Japanese War Chifu-Chemulpo Railway | |||
Perplexicon Puzzle | |||
SEQ-ROLL | Sequential Rolling | Rolling 8 Cubes | |
TNG | TANGLEMENT PUZZLES (TNG) have parts that must be linked or unlinked. The linked parts, which may be flexible, have significant freedom of movement in relation to each other, unlike the parts of an interlocking puzzle. | ||
TNG-FLEX | All Flexible Parts | Leather & paper tanglement puzzles | |
The Kaiser's moustache | |||
Scotsman's bagpipe Puzzle" | |||
TNG-R&F | Tanglement of Rigid & Flexible Parts | Hess Wire puzzles, Dalgety's "Devil's Halo" | |
The Mantrap Puzzle | |||
A Cannon not in Hoffmann | |||
The Gordian Knot and its ancestors | |||
Perry's Fish Puzzle | |||
Torbus Toroidal Puzzles | |||
Aeriel Puzzle | |||
Devil's Halo Puzzle | |||
Muroi's Circus | |||
Russian-Japanese War Torpedoes and Prisoners | |||
Jameson Raid - South Africa - Transvaal War | |||
Irish Question 1880s | |||
TNG-RIGI | Tanglement of Rigid & Semi Rigid Parts | Wire PUZZLES, Cast "ABC", Chinese Rings | |
Chinese Rings Puzzle from India | |||
Tricycle Puzzles | |||
Bland's "Egyptian Mystery" | |||
Boodle Alderman Puzzle | |||
Poppy Appeal Puzzle | |||
TNG-RING | Puzzle Finger Rings | Puzzle Rings, Puzzle Bracelets | |
Four-Band Puzzle Rings | . | ||