Puzzles

February 26, 1933 - Amanda and Herman came after Emelia and Art after breakfast.  Martha was here for dinner.  Uncle Hans, Aunt Lena, Hans, Lillie and Martha here for supper.  Martha and Hans went with Ray and I to Hoskins to the dance.  I surely had a good time.
February 27, 1933 - Oh!  I'm tired today.  I guess the kids at school could tell that I've had a busy weekend.  I worked one of Walkers' jig-saw puzzles tonite.  I took me an hour and a half.  Started having an hour noon again.
February 28, 1933 - I played Dare Base this noon.  Ronald and I bumped into each other.  I guess the shock of the bump was so great that Ronald wasn't able to work this p.m.  Bill Maas' and Herbert Behmers were here for supper.  We played Rook and worked jig-saw puzzles.

I'm going to ask Mom and Nancy here since I will forget to ask them in person when I next see them -- do you know the last names of some or all of Grandma's students?  With Mr. Lautenbaugh stumbling upon this blog, likely due to that last name showing up, perhaps others might land here and find something of interest, so last names would be most helpful.

More on them below, but my earliest memories of doing jigsaw puzzles was at Uncle Chris and Aunt Ethel's.  I would go to Norfolk with Grandma to visit, but I was little and "old people" talk got dull fast.  It seems Uncle Chris always had a puzzle on a table in the living room, so I kept busy with that while the grown-ups talked in the kitchen.  As promised, from Wikipedia:

     The engraver and cartographer John Spilsbury, of London, is believed to have produced the first jigsaw puzzle around 1760, using a marquetry saw.  Early jigsaws, known as dissections, were produced by mounting maps on sheets of hardwood and cutting along national boundaries, creating a puzzle useful for the teaching of geography.  Such "dissected maps", were used to teach the children of King George III and Queen Charlotte by royal governess Lady Charlotte Finch.

     The name "jigsaw" came to be associated with the puzzle around 1880 when fretsaws became the tool of choice for cutting the shapes. Since fretsaws are distinct from jigsaws, the name appears to be a misnomer.  Cardboard jigsaw puzzles appeared during the late 1800s, but were slow to replace the wooden jigsaw due to the manufacturer's belief that cardboard puzzles would be perceived as being of low quality, and the fact that profit margins on wooden jigsaws were larger.

     Jigsaw puzzles soared in popularity during the Great Depression, as they provided a cheap, long-lasting, recyclable form of entertainment.  It was around this time that jigsaws evolved to become more complex and more appealing to adults.  They were also given away in product promotions, and used in advertising, with customers completing an image of the product being promoted.

     Sales of wooden jigsaw puzzles fell after World War II as improved wages led to price increases, while at the same time improvements in manufacturing processes made cardboard jigsaws more attractive.

     According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, doing jigsaw puzzles is one of many activities that can help keep the brain active and may contribute to reducing the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

     Most modern jigsaw puzzles are made out of paperboard since they are easier and cheaper to mass-produce than the original wooden models. An enlarged photograph or printed reproduction of a painting or other two-dimensional artwork is glued onto the cardboard before cutting. This board is then fed into a press. The press forces a set of hardened steel blades of the desired shape through the board until it is fully cut. This procedure is similar to making shaped cookies with a cookie cutter. The forces involved, however, are tremendously greater and a typical 1000-piece puzzle requires a press that can generate upwards of 700 tons of force to push the knives of the puzzle die through the board. A puzzle die is a flat board, often made from plywood, which has slots cut or burned in the same shape as the knives that are used. These knives are set into the slots and covered in a compressible material, typically foam rubber, which serves to eject the cut puzzle pieces.


     New technology has enabled laser-cutting of wooden or acrylic jigsaw puzzles. The advantage of cutting with a laser is that the puzzle can be custom cut into any size, any shape, with any size (or any number) of pieces. Many museums have laser cut acrylic puzzles made of some of their more important pieces of art so that children visiting the museum can see the original piece and then assemble a jigsaw puzzle of the image that is also in the same shape as the piece of art. Acrylic is used because the pieces are very durable, waterproof, and can withstand continued use without the image fading, or the pieces wearing out, or becoming frayed. Also, because the print and cut patterns are computer based, lost pieces can be manufactured without remaking the entire puzzle.

And there you have more than you ever knew you wanted to know about jigsaw puzzles.  Iversen alert -- my next post will begin with March 1933.  There will be a Howard Iversen mention in March sometime.