One of the oldest and most fascinating puzzles comes, like so many quaint things, from the Far East where, over four thousand years ago, a learned Chinaman named Tan made the invention which forty centuries have been unable to improve or alter. Worthy of a civilization that invented Chess, Tan’s puzzle has lived on unchanged through the ages, affording amusement and thought to men of such ability as Napoleon, who, during his exile on St. Helena, used to spend hour after hour with the little black geometric figures.
Fig. 1.—Showing dotted lines marked off for black pieces in tangram puzzle.
Fig. 2.—Showing square dissected and numbered for tangrams.
Take a perfect square of stiff cardboard of any size, say five inches, and see that the angles and sides are true. Now, very carefully mark it off according to the dotted lines in [Fig. 1], which may be explained thus. ABCD is the square. Rule a line from B to C, and mark off M and H halfway between B and D and C and D respectively, and join M and H. Find G the midpoint of MH and join AG. Mark K and F, midpoints of CE and EB respectively, and join KH and FG. Having thus marked out the card, take a very sharp knife and cut the cardboard along the dotted line. You will then have the seven pieces as shown in [Fig. 2], which are numbered for convenience sake. Having colored these pieces dead black with India ink on both sides, you are ready to start the great Tangram Puzzle.
Fig. 3.—Showing original Tan presenting puzzle to his wife.
Fig. 3a.—Showing how Tan can be fitted together.