How puzzle appeared

We all love puzzles which represent a mosaic consisting of various pieces of different forms. We know that once it was an integral picture cut by means of special technologies, such as laser or press stamp, on hundreds or thousands figured parts just to entertain us. But at its dawn a 'jigsaw' proved to be something more than simple entertainment.

Both kids and adults are interested in this game as it force a player to develop his or her attention, patience, accuracy, and fine motor skills which is quite important for little children. This game also develops figurative and logical ways of thinking, perception, namely distinction of elements on colour, size, form, etc.

The first jigsaw puzzle was invented in 1763, when John Spilsbury, a British engraver and mapmaker, mounted a map on a piece of wood that he then sawn around each individual country. They say that the first jigsaw puzzle constituted the map of Britain and Wales, sawn in accordance with the shires boundaries. Unfortunately, it was lost and the one which survived till today is the 'Card of the Europe divided into Kingdoms' of the year 1766.

He began to paste black-and-white engravings of geographical cards on the magnetic thin panel from the Lebanese cedar and mahogany and cut the turned out sandwich on fine pieces of fanciful forms. This method was introduced to aid in teaching Geography. Each piece contained some geographical information, and, collecting elements one by one, a pupil studied Geography. Despite its high price (more than a monthly wage of an ordinary labour), the novelty had tremendous success, primarily as an educational tool and referred to as a 'Sawn Map'. Subsequently in training such map turned into a type of entertainment. However it was not mentioned about solar system floor puzzle.

Later on puzzles were used to aid in teaching many other Subjects, namely History - each piece contained chronological table with dates of English Kings' and Queens' governance. Then their portraits and images of historical battles and other events were presented in the form of the puzzle game. Gradually this method became popular with other classes.

But only in XIX century they spread Worldwide. Due to a wide circulation of American punching factory - which stamped jigsaw on a cardboard - their production have fallen in price so as puzzles became available to everyone.