A New or Improved Puzzle.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Feb., 1894-Accepted, 24th Mar., 1894
A New or Improved Puzzle.
I, GEORGE BARKER, of 77 Colmore Row Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention
as communicated to me from abroad by Edwin Elihu Blanchard of 19 Liberty
Street, Troy, New York U.S.A. Inventor and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
The puzzle or toy comprises a frame A-having a plurality of cross-bars B, B1, B2,
severally provided with threading passages or apertures a, b, c, d, e, f, a cord C,
having the stop C¹, at one end and threaded through the apertures in the cross-
bars, and a plurality of washers or disks 1, 2, 3, 4, supported upon the cord which
passes through an aperture in each disk.
The object of the puzzle is to change the positions of the washers upon the
cord relatively to the cross-bars, by threading the cord through the apertured
cross-bars and disks, without entirely withdrawing the cord from any of such
apertures.
For convenience in threading, the cord may have a needle D, attached to its
free end.
In Fig. 1 of the drawings the cord is shown threaded through cross-bars and
disks alternately, with the disks on opposite sides of the middle cross-bar within.
the frame.
From this position they can be transferred to adjacent positions on the cord.
outside of the frame, as in Fig. 2, by the following steps:
First, return the free end of the cord through all the cross-bars and disks along
the original course of the cord, doubling the cord in all the threading apertures and
forming a loop in the cord outside of the aperture f, which can be prevented from.
passing through such aperture by inserting a finger in the loop.
The free end of the cord, which is thus made to pass out from the aperture a, is.
next passed through the disks only, in numerical order, emerging from the aperture
in disk 4.
The cord is then threaded through the cross-bars only, passing successively
through apertures a, b, c, d, e, f, emerging from the latter aperture which still
contains the loop formed in the cord by the first operation.
By holding the free end of the cord in one hand and pulling upon the stop at the
other end of the cord, the loops formed in the cord by the threading operations
will be destroyed, leaving the disks adjacent to each other on the cord outside of
the frame, as shown in Fig. 2.
To cause the disks to resume the positions shown in Fig. 1, the steps, from the
position shown in Fig. 2, are as follows:
The free end of the cord is returned through the apertures in the frame in the
order f, e, d, e, b, a, and through the adjacent disks 4, 3, 2, 1, the loop in the cord
being retained outside the aperture f, by the finger as before.
The cord is then passed back through the aperture a, in cross-bar B, returned
over such bar and passed through the aperture in disk 4; then through aperture b,.
in cross-bar B¹, back over such bar and through aperture in disk 3; then through
apertures c, d, in cross-bar B2, and through aperture in disk 2; then through
aperture e, in cross-bar B', and the aperture in disk 1; and then passed out.
through aperture f, which contains the loop first formed.
By pulling upon the ends of the cord, the loops can be destroyed, leaving the
disks in the position shown in Fig. 1.

page_text: By similar steps the disks can be made to assume various positions on
the cord.
Having now particularly described the said invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, what I claim as new is:
A puzzle consisting of a frame having a plurality of cross-bars severally
provided with cord-passages, a plurality of disks or washers each provided with a
cord-passage, and a cord threaded through the passages in the cross-lars and disks
and provided at one end with a stop, substantially as described.
Dated this 19th day of February 1894.
GEORGE BARKER.