December 2011: Jerry Slocum was interviewed on National Public Radio station WFIU “Profiles” program. The one-hour interview can be heard by clicking on Slocum interview.
A Puzzling Collection
by Bruce Whitehill
Published in Knucklebones games magazine July 2006
What is it that some people can figure out in a minute but others may not solve for a month? I’m sure there might be many answers to this question, but I’m thinking of something different: mechanical puzzles. What? You say you don’t know any mechanical puzzles? Sure you do. What about Rubik’s Cube? Or those wire puzzles, such as the two bent nails that are interlocked and you have to twist them apart (and then get them back together). Or those little keychain puzzles—the stagecoach, the car, the bowling pin, the rocket ship and so many others. Or “Instant Insanity”—that’s the one with four blocks, each with different colors on all sides, which you need to line up next to one another so that the same color is not repeated along any one side.
Remember the little wooden puzzles you grew up with, mostly from Japan, shaped like an animal, a pagoda, or a barrel? They were pretty easy to take apart, but a lot more difficult to put back together. Is there anyone who at some time didn’t have a little circular toy with a glass or plastic covering, and some tiny balls inside that needed to be rolled into miniscule holes? Then there is the Fifteen puzzle, where you have to slide fifteen small numbered blocks around until you get them all in sequential order. Do you remember “Soma”—the different shaped blocks that would fit together to form a cube? And all the edge-matching puzzles, consisting of nine square pieces of cardboard that you have to place in a 3 x 3 grid, making sure that each edge matches the edge next to it. There are popular, newer puzzles, like “Rush Hour,” where you have to slide small, plastic automobiles and trucks forward, backwards, and sideways until one piece comes free. And, of course, the arrow-through-the-bottle, which doesn’t require you to do anything except figure out how it was made. (No, two halves of the bottle were not glued together after the arrow was placed into position, nor was the arrow glued.)
These are all mechanical puzzles. You may not have called them that, but that’s what they are—little marvels of craftsmanship that require maneuvering the pieces to arrive at a solution to the puzzle. Two- and three-dimensional mind-benders of manipulation. Or, in the case of the “Impossible Objects,” a puzzle merely asking you to contemplate how it was done. All of us grew up with some of these mechanical puzzles, and some of us (myself included, I am happy to say), grew up with all of them.
There has been a lot of press in recent years about how mental stimulation will ignite the brain’s little gray cells, keep the mind healthy, and even ward off Alzheimer’s. If that’s true, then 75-year-old puzzle collector Jerry Slocum should be mentally alert and problem-solving at 120. He has over 30,000 mechanical puzzles, all of which he has worked on at one time or other, and most of which he can do. With so many puzzles, he has even built his own museum near his home in Beverly Hills.
But don’t try to break in. Even with a key, you still have to figure out how to open the trick door. Once inside, upstairs you will be astounded and surrounded by shelves of large, rare, and exquisite puzzles, plus drawers packed with smaller puzzles and all their variations. Some are relatively easy; others have so many steps, that even if you know the solution, it will take some time to solve the puzzle. There are objects from all over the world, thousands of 19th century French, British, and American puzzles, over 100 carved ivory puzzles from China, and everything from American Indian puzzle purses (find the secret opening) to puzzle drinking vessels (discover how to drink from the lattice-edged vessel without spilling any liquid), to secret opening padlocks (sure, there’s a key, but how do you use it?), to Japanese secret opening boxes. The Japanese made a significant contribution to the world of puzzles, beginning with interlocking puzzle designs from the mid 1800s, about the same time that “burr” puzzles (interlocking geometric shapes) began to appear in Europe. The Slocum collection shows many examples of the best of the world of puzzles, illustrating the use of mathematics, physics, logic, mechanics, geometry, balance, and centrifugal force and magnetism (components in many secret opening puzzles). And so many of the puzzles are pieces of history and works of art.
Jerry Slocum began to solve and save mechanical puzzles at the age of eight, when his parents brought back such intriguing objects from their travels as gifts. In 1955, at age 24, he published his first article, “Making and Solving Puzzles,” which was a cover story in Science and Mechanics magazine. In it, he explained how different types of puzzles appeal to different people. “Plane geometry puzzles…interest women who enjoy sewing, because solving these puzzles is somewhat like arranging paper patterns on cloth….Artists, engineers and draftsmen, because of their ability to visualize in three dimensions, like the wire or burr puzzles….(flat) manipulation puzzles…appeal to people who like to plan things ahead….” Now, fifty years later, the appeal of a large variety of manipulation puzzles has extended to a wide range of people.
The exposure from Science and Mechanics led to correspondence with puzzle enthusiasts from all over the globe. Twenty-three years later, on April Fools Day, Jerry Slocum held his first international puzzle party, inviting his far-flung friends to his home to show, talk about, exchange and solve puzzles. By Puzzle Party #9, the international group had outgrown Jerry’s private home and was moved to a hotel—in Tokyo, beginning a regular rotation from the U.S. to Asia to Europe. In 2005, 350 puzzle people attended the International Puzzle Party (the IPP) in Helsinki, Finland, with 100 taking a post-party side trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. Jerry even organized a Puzzle Party to Outer Mongolia (Ulaan-Baatar, between Northern China and Russia’s Siberia) when he learned that there was a puzzle museum there with over 2000 puzzles, most designed and crafted by the museum’s “curator”; of the many unique pieces, the Mongolian “Ger” (tent residence) is perhaps the most culturally based and became a prized new addition to Jerry’s vast collection.
With his bent for puzzle solving, it is not surprising that Jerry Slocum received a B.S. in mechanical engineering (U. of Illinois, 1954) and an M.S. in Engineering (UCLA, 1957). He worked for 38 years for Hughes Aircraft company, responsible at one point for designing and developing cockpit displays for military aircraft. His innovations led to successes from the aircraft industry being applied to automotive products at General Motors. A noted aerospace engineer, Jerry has been a member of such prestigious groups as the National Academy of Science Air Force Study Board, the SAE Technical Board and SAE Aerospace Board, and the Human Factors Society and The Society for Information Display. He describes his engineering work as a constant attempt to improve upon something, to solve a puzzle.
Yet, while doing his graduate work, it was his minor field of study, Experimental Psychology, which fueled as much of his interest in puzzles as his engineering talents. He understands how people love to solve problems and to figure out solutions to puzzles, especially those that offer some tactile experience. His collection serves as a basis for the inexhaustible amount of research he has done on the history of puzzles and their place in society.
Jerry has been the curator of numerous puzzle exhibits, including at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Indiana University, the St. Louis Science Center, and a traveling exhibit, Puzzles Old and New, seen by over 750,000 people in Japan, Canada, and the U.S. He has lectured extensively on puzzles of the world, puzzle fads (i.e., the Chinese tangram in 1818, the Fifteen puzzle in 1880, and in 1889, Pigs in Clover—a puzzle so popular, it distracted members of Congress in session), and links between puzzles and culture (i.e., secret opening Japanese puzzle boxes and Chinese trick locks). In 1993, to preserve his collection and help educate the public about mechanical puzzles, Jerry Slocum set up the Slocum Puzzle Foundation. The institution aims to promote the study of puzzles, their history, their use in education, and the utilization of puzzles in cultures around the world.
On August 2nd, the Slocum Puzzle Room at the Lilly Library on the campus of Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, will have its grand opening. This celebrates a new stage in the cultural history of mechanical puzzles, as it will be the first time a major research-oriented rare book library will house a world-class collection of mechanical puzzles and books about puzzles. A broad range of Jerry’s puzzles will be displayed in cases especially constructed for them, and the collection will be available to scholars for hands-on use and study. (The gala opening will include a special program by America’s puzzlemaster, Will Shortz, who was featured in the May issue of Knucklebones.) Indiana University’s Lilly Library houses the Gutenberg Bible, the first folio of William Shakespeare, and Thomas Jefferson’s own copy of the Bill of Rights. The university is also home to a world-class laboratory for nuclear physics, an art museum designed by I. M. Pei, and the Mathers Museum of World Cultures. The Slocum collection is in good company.
Jerry Slocum also appeared in good company when he was a guest on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, and on Martha Stewart’s television program, “Martha Stewart Living.” Carson was stumped by eight of Jerry’s puzzles, but Stewart seemed to have more of a proclivity for solving some, one of them very quickly. Jerry has been featured on many other national television shows, and has been a frequent guest on radio, and a popular subject for national magazines and newspapers.
He loves tangrams—Chinese puzzles with seven two-dimensional pieces that are laid out in such a way as to match images shown in an accompanying booklet—and the Fifteen puzzle. So much so that he has written a book about each, delving into the intricate histories of both types of puzzles, and showing how they gained in popularity around the world. In fact, Jerry Slocum has written many books on puzzles, all copiously illustrated, and showing the system of taxonomy and classification he devised, which has been widely accepted.
In addition to his own books, Jerry Slocum has a collection of over 4000 books on puzzles and mathematical recreations, dating back to the 17th century. He relishes his rare finds, such as an 1815 Chinese book printed on rice paper, which discusses the problems of the tangram and its solutions. His library abounds also with periodicals, catalogs, and patent information on hundreds of puzzles.
As his collection of books and puzzles grew and grew, Jerry Slocum’s biggest problem was how to catalog and store his collection. Now, with his classification system, his own museum and his bequest to Indiana University, even that puzzle has been solved.
Puzzle Books by Jerry Slocum
(Many of these books have been translated into various languages.)
Compendium of Checkerboard Puzzles, 1983
Puzzles Old and New (with Jack Botermans), 1986
The New Book of Puzzles (with Jack Botermans), W.H. Freeman and Co., 1992
Ingenious and Diabolical Puzzles (with Jack Botermans), Random House, 1994
The Puzzle Arcade, Klutz Press, 1996
Compendium of Checkerboard Puzzles (with Jacques Haubrich) (3rd edition), 1997
Puzzles from Catel’s Cabinet and Bestelmeier’s Magazine, 1785 to 1823 (with Dieter Gebhardt), 1997
Tricky Optical Illusion Puzzles (with Jack Botermans), Sterling, 2001
Swipe This Pencil, Klutz Press, 2003
The Tangram Book, Sterling, 2003
The 15 Puzzle (with Dic Sonneveld) 2006
Slocum’s Classification of Mechanical Puzzles
Jerry Slocum has devised a system of mechanical puzzle classification used by many collectors around the world. His ten primary categories for mechanical puzzles are:
1. Put-Together Puzzles
The principle object is to put the puzzle together.
Examples are two-dimensional assembly puzzles such as tangrams, Anchor Blocks, jigsaws, “T” puzzles, edge-matching puzzles; three-dimensional, non-interlocking assembly puzzles such as “Soma”; matchstick puzzles; miscellaneous put-together puzzles such as “Instant Insanity” and puzzle rings.
2. Take-Apart Puzzles
The principle object is to take the puzzle apart.
Examples are trick or secret opening puzzles, such as puzzle boxes; secret compartment puzzles; trick locks, keys, matchsafes and knives.
3. Interlocking Solid Puzzles
The object is to disassemble and then reassemble the puzzle.
Examples are figural puzzles (animals and objects) and geometric objects; three-dimensional jigsaws; burr puzzles; keychain puzzles.
4. Disentanglement Puzzles
The object is to disentangle the pieces and then put them back together.
Examples include cast iron and sheet metal puzzles, wire puzzles (such as Chinese Rings), and string puzzles.
5. Sequential Movement Puzzles
The object is to move parts of the puzzle in the correct sequence to solve the puzzle.
Examples are solitaire puzzles, such as peg puzzles in which the pegs are removed by jumping; counter puzzles, in which counters or pegs are rearranged by jumping; sliding piece puzzles, such as the #15 Puzzle and other sliding block puzzles; rotating piece puzzles, such as the Rubik’s Cube; maze and route puzzles; miscellaneous sequential movement puzzles such as the “Tower of Hanoi”; mazes and life-sized labyrinths for people.
6. Dexterity Puzzles
Manual dexterity is necessary to solve these movement puzzles.
Examples include throw and catch puzzles, such as the cup & ball; rolling ball puzzles; maze dexterity puzzles.
7. Puzzle Vessels
The object is to fill a vessel or to drink from a vessel without spilling.
Examples include puzzle jugs and fill-from-the-bottom wine pots, teapots and pitchers.
8. Vanish Puzzles
The object is to explain how an image has changed or a part of the image has vanished.
The prime example is Sam Loyd’s “Get Off the Earth” puzzle.
9. Folding Puzzles
The object is to fold a paper or hinged object to form a specified pattern (both two- and three-dimensional).
10. Impossible Puzzles
The object is to explain how an object was made or why it behaves in a seemingly impossible way.
Examples are the arrow through a glass bottle, or a ship in a bottle.
