Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun

by Various

THE PUZZLING RINGS.

This name, by the way, describes the puzzle, but it has been so many times christened, that no list of names could claim to be a complete list. The puzzle is smart and neat, but the parts have to be so nicely fitted, that it would not be easy for an amateur to make it. It may be purchased at a small cost at any toy-shop. The following is its description:—In a flat board of wood, bone, or metal are a certain number of holes—more or less, according to the size of the puzzle. In each hole a wire is loosely fixed, beaten out into a head at one end, to prevent the wire slipping through the hole; and the other end is fastened to a ring, which is also loose. Each wire has been passed through the ring of the next wire previously to its own ring being fastened on; and through the whole of the rings runs a wire hoop or bow, which also contains, within its oblong space, all the wires to which the rings are fastened, the whole presenting so complicated an appearance as to make the releasing the rings from the bow seem to be an impossibility. The puzzle, nevertheless, is to take off the rings.

Fig. 11.—The Seven-ring Puzzle.

The following is the plan to be followed:—The instructions given are for removing the rings from a seven-ring puzzle (Fig. 11), that being the simplest form in which the puzzle is made; but it should be noted for general guidance that if an even number of rings are on the bow, the first and second are to be brought down together; if odd, the first one only. To proceed:—Take the hoop in the left hand, and hold the puzzle so that the first ring to be taken off is at the end farthest away from that hand. Draw down the first ring from the bow, and drop it down through the bow, so that it may be between the board and the bow; proceed similarly with the third ring; replace the first, by passing it up through the bow; bring it (the first) to the end of the bow, bearing in mind that the wires supporting the rings must be perpendicular between the two sides thereof; bring down the rings 1 and 2 together; then bring down No. 5; take up 1 and 2 together; bring down 1; take up 3 and 1; bring down 1 and 2 together; bring down 4; take up 1 and 2; bring down 1 and 3; take up 1; bring down 1 and 2 together; and bring down 7; which completes the seven-ring puzzle.

To put the rings on again:—Put on 1 and 2; bring down 1; take up 3; and then 1; bring down 1; and so on, always taking up the first or outward rings.

The seven-ring puzzle is, as already stated, the simplest of these puzzles, as the ten-ring puzzle is usually the most complicated. To perform the ten-ring puzzle it has been computed requires no less than 681 moves. The instructions given above apply equally well to both, if only the note as to an odd or even number of rings to be removed is remembered.

The puzzle of the Balls and Rings (Fig. 12) has points of similarity with the above, and also with that of the string and balls puzzle. The balls and rings puzzle is very ingenious, and should be asked for at the toy-shop. It consists of a round frame of mahogany, about two inches in width and a quarter of an inch thick. In this frame, and at regular intervals, are holes, between which are placed, on the one side of the frame, rings, and on the other side, balls. The rings and balls are made fast with a cord, which passes through each ring and each ball, and also through all the holes in the frame, the ends of the cord being tied in a cross. The puzzle is to reverse the position of both the rings and the balls from one side of the frame to the other.

Fig. 12.—Balls and Rings Puzzle.—a, Plan; b, Side View.

As indicated in the String and Balls puzzle, the key to this and similar puzzles is to be found in a loop of string, which is usually concealed in some part of the puzzle. The loop should be pulled out or through the wood, and passed over the ball nearest to it; the solution of the puzzle will then be apparent.