Artigenda
International Puzzle Day (January)
When: annually.
International Puzzle Day is a special day because there are two of them. This is the day linked to the presumed birthday of John Spilsbury. The other International Puzzle Day takes place on 13 July and is linked to Ernõ Rubik.
Who was John Spilsbury?
Who invented the wheel? Who was responsible for the game of chess? These are questions we cannot answer. For that, there is too little historical evidence to give a good answer. Unless that is found. What historical evidence has been found for that: the life of John Spilsbury. That he is the creator of what we now think of as the jigsaw puzzle makes sense, because the map he made of Europe in 1766 was just that. A wooden jigsaw puzzle. Still, it is not inconceivable that someone had to have been there before.
Source: Wikimedia Comons.
There are not very many certainties about Spilsbury. He was probably born in 1739 and died on April 3, 1769. One assumes a date of January 29 as his birth date. There’s very much doubt about his date of birth. Meanwhile, this date is considered one of the options to go for when it comes to International Puzzle Day.
Born the second son of three sons of Thomas Spilsbury, Spilsbury learnt the trade of engraver and cartographer. This he learnt from Thomas Jeffreys (1719 – November 20, 1771). Jeffreys was not just any mapmaker. He was the mapmaker of King George III (June 4, 1738 – January 29, 1820). His nickname was “Geographer to King George III.” Precisely because of the education Spilsbury received, his first work consisted of engraving maps. After 1766, he came up with the idea of using maps as an educational tool. To do this, he attached a world map to a wooden board and then sawed the countries out of the board. Then the countries had to be put back in the right place. This proved to be a good learning method for children.
Due to the success of this learning method, Spilsbury decided to commercialise his invention. According to him, not only children wanted to take up this kind of challenge. Adults would also like to buy these kinds of cards. This proved to be the case because after his death, Spilbury’s wife Sarah May continued the business activities in n 1769.
The real inventor?
It’s an extraordinary history. Does that make Spilsbury the actual inventor of the puzzle? Actually no, because puzzles are much older. He did, however, come up with a name for his product: jigsaw puzzle. The wooden pieces were cut out with a jigsaw. Hence, the 29th day of January is International Puzzle Day.
