This popular and practical type of entertainment debuted virtually simultaneously in France and England in the year 1760.
A photograph was adhered to cardboard and then chopped into uneven bits. Initially, these images were instructional, either accompanied by brief, age-appropriate sentences or used to instruct the developing bourgeoisie in history or geography. A salesman named Dima started distributing map puzzles unsuccessfully in 1762. These map puzzles, which involved rearranging the pieces, were an extremely refined kind of amusement.
In the same year, a London printer called John Spilsbury devised the everlasting puzzle toy.
In the same year, in London, a printer named John Spilsbury came up with a similar idea and invented the enduring puzzle toy. He extremely cleverly glued a map of England to the back of a very thin dining table and then cut the map into small pieces precisely along the edges of the counties. The idea could have brought in a fortune, but poor Spilsbury didn't get it, and he only lived to be 29 years old before seeing the great success of the jigsaw toy.
The true importance of his accomplishment was that he created two significant markets for his invention: the expanding middle-class customers who were eager for knowledge and prestige and the strict and demanding British schools of his day. Obviously, not everyone was enthusiastic about the puzzle.
Conformists and social pundits alike mocked the wealthy for being too bored to do anything but scatter cardboard pieces around their tables. Approximately a decade later, puzzle designers started incorporating historical themes into their products.
From the 1870s onwards, puzzles gradually changed from an activity associated only with children to a form of adult entertainment.
In a blog post, Amy Pepe of the Geneva Historical Society noted that there were three major jigsaw puzzle crazes in history, the first lasting from 1907 to 1911. In the northeastern United States, in particular, the popularity of jigsaw puzzles skyrocketed.
In May 1908, a New York Times headline proclaimed that 'New jigsaw puzzles threaten urban sanity. People of all ages, rich and poor, are trying to fit jigsaw puzzles.
The card game is forgotten. A Supreme Court justice and a prominent financier are among the leading recent fans of this craze".
However, as Pepe notes, contrary to the sensational title, jigsaw puzzles are not for everyone.
It was an activity associated with the wealthy, who did puzzles in holiday homes and at lavish house parties. At the time, a 400-piece puzzle cost US$4 and the average American worker earned US$12 a week.
As a result, jigsaw clubs and jigsaw rental libraries sprang up. As of now, puzzles have a strong psychological appeal: they distract people from life's problems.
In 2018, a poll conducted by the gaming company Rex found that 59% of respondents found puzzles to be relaxing and 47% found them to be stress relievers.
In other words, for many people, it has a calming effect. Unlike true meditation, which aims to quieten the brain and integrate with the body, solving puzzles requires active brain activity and sometimes even strategy. Solving a puzzle is engaging because it inspires a sense of ambition: to challenge oneself to complete a project and thus gain a sense of achievement.
As in life, a puzzle-related obstacle can feel insurmountable, but with a fresh perspective and a little time to yourself, the problem will be solved.
