RUBIK’S CUBE HISTORY
Erno Rubik, a lecturer in the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest, Hungary, was passionately interested in geometry – the study of 3D shapes – in construction and in exploring the hidden possibilities of combinations of forms and materials in theory and practice.
Rubik’s favorite teaching method was to communicate his ideas using models made of paper, cardboard, wood or plastic, challenging his students to experiment by manipulating clearly constructed and easily interpreted form. It was the realization that even the simplest elements, cleverly copied and manipulated, a plethora of different forms that would eventually lead to the Rubik’s Cube.
Completed
Rubik down to a three-dimensional object, with a high aesthetic value, not only richer in configuration variations and more a mental challenge than any puzzle to create life, but would also remain, self-contained, all frequent changes.
This goal seemed absolutely impossible at first. After conceiving the idea of the 3×3x3 Rubik’s Cube first tried to hold together the elements of a simpler, 2×2x2 cube, by means of an elastic rubber construction that threaded its way through all eight elements. But he simply could not operate the device.
Inspiration hit on a sunny summer day in 1974, when Rubik was watching the river Danube flows. His eyes were attracted by a number of stones, whose sharp edges have been rubbed and smoothed away over time, producing curves of large but simple beauty. He decided that the interior of the Cube elements had the same rounded shape.
The interior mechanism, which is cylindrical in fact, it took some time to build. For ease of manipulation, the balance between density and looseness to be just right, tolerances had to be precise. Finally, the outside of the fifty-four separate elements because of their color.
Many different decorative patterns, numbers and symbols and various color combinations were tried, but none of them worked, as six simple but different colors, one for each side of the cube.
Erno Rubik Cube shown it to his students. He showed some of his friends and students to play with her and the effect was surprising: once someone had handled the Cube it was difficult to return them! People found the Cube absolutely imperative law from the very beginning.
The obsessive interest in friends and students in the Cube Erno Rubik surprised many, and it was months before any thought was given to the possibility of having it produced for sale.
Hungarian Rubik got a patent for the Club in 1975 – he called it “Bűvös Kocka” – “Magic Cube”. Eventually, toy manufacturing company Politechnika took the responsibility of the equipment itself for mass production and making the puzzle available to the Hungarian public.
Given the complex internal structure of the cube, and economic conditions in communist Hungary, this was no easy undertaking. Fortunately, Politechnika, President and Chief Engineer Lehel Takacz Ferencz Manczur saw a huge potential in the Cube and were happy to accept the challenge.
The process of converting by hand Rubik’s Cube in thousands of low-cost, mass-produced units, despite the best efforts of all concerned, painfully slow.
It took almost three years, but finally, towards the end of 1977, the first test batches of Magic Cubes appeared on the shelves of toy shops in Budapest.
In 1978, without any promotion or publicity, the Magic Cube began very slowly gaining in popularity. At the beginning of 1979, there was growing interest in the Magic Cube throughout Hungary.
Hungary was firmly “behind the Iron Curtain” at the time and the growing popularity of the Cube, the Western world can not penetrate some time.
Two men of Hungarian origin living in the West, were absolutely integrated in the initiating events that eventually enabled the Cube to the trip from behind the curtain.
Dr. Laczi Tibor, born in Budapest, was employed by a major German manufacturer of the computer and discovered the Magic Cube on a business trip to Hungary. He was absolutely fascinated by her, and sensing the potential attractiveness for the consumer, brought it to the Nuremberg Toy Fair in February 1979 in hopes of finding an interested party, the German distributor of toys. He was not a success, but met with an individual at the fair, which was also destined to become a decisive influence on the history of the Cube’s it.
Tom Kremer was a successful and respected toy and game inventor himself and ran his own marketing and Licensing Company, Ltd. seven cities, London, England.
The two men decided, there and then, to join forces and to the success of the Hungarian international Cube try to reproduce.
Dr. Laczi went back to Hungary to get on the prevailing Hungarian bureaucracy whilst Tom Kremer depart on a world tour of toy manufacturers.
He was convinced that the entire commercial, the Magic Cube’s potential to realize it had the marketing muscle have the promotional power and distribution of a large international company. Unfortunately he found none of the movers and shakers in the field shared his enthusiasm. Although impressed by the Cube, the general view within the industry was that the outlook was poor. It was too difficult to construct, “quiet” and “cerebral”.
After many rejections, Tom Kremer succeeded Stewart Sims, vice president of marketing at the Ideal Toy Corporation, to come to Hungary for the Magic Cube in her homeland. It was September 1979, at which time the Cube had gained a sufficient degree of popularity can be seen from the streets of Hungary, and occasionally – and it was immediately clear that the puzzle was a source of absolute fascination.
After five days of negotiations between Mr Sims and communist organization, which is largely unaware of the operation of a free market, with Tibor Laczi and Tom Kremer working hard on the head above water to keep the negotiations, an order for one million blocks was signed.
As the New Year of 1980 loomed, the Magic Cube was finally on its way to wide distribution in the West.
In the meantime, word on the Magic Cube, the dissemination of the academic circles in the western world. David Sing Master, a mathematician based at South Bank University in London, England, first encountered the puzzle at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki in August 1978, and brought some to England for distribution among interested friends and colleagues, particularly in academic circles.
He wrote a newspaper article about the Magic Club in June 1979, the first to appear outside Hungary, which helped the puzzle to the attention of academic circles worldwide.
A few thousand Magic Cubes had found their way outside the Hungarian borders, but the vast majority of people in the West remained ignorant of the existence of the puzzle.
Last Bridget wrote: “A simple approach of The Magic Cube” in 1980 – and it was published by Tarquin Publications Diss, Norfolk. Cube was the first book in England? Meanwhile Pentangle, puzzle experts over Wallop, Hants, introduced small numbers Magic Cubes. But nobody could guess what would happen!
The Magic Cube made her international debut at the toy fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg and New York in February 1980 and January. Erno Rubik was on hand to show his creation, and made an immediate impression on Cube trade buyers.
Orders came in thick and fast, but there was one major problem – the Hungarian Cubes did not meet Western quality standards and packaging. Drastic changes were needed in the manufacturing process. The implementation of these changes were slow.
Finally a new, lighter Cube, easier to manipulate than previously emerged.
Ideal Toys decided to rename the Magic Cube. “The Gordian Knot” and “Inca Gold” were considered, but the company finally decided on “Rubik’s Cube” – simple, distinctive and give credit where it was due. The first Rubik’s Cubes were exported from Hungary in May 1980.
One of the first Rubik’s Cubes – Toy of the Year 1980 and 1981 in the United Kingdom. The first shipment arrived here just before Christmas 1980 and the British Association of toy retailers, noting the intense interest in the product, voted the most toys. A shortage in supplies resulted in many cheap imitations appear. The country was finally complete with Rubik’s Cubes in the spring of 1981.
The Rubik’s Cube swept the world in 1981 – and even on the cover of the Sunday Times’ review of the year!
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