Sources page biographical material

5.H. COLOURED SQUARES AND CUBES, ETC.
5.H.1. INSTANT INSANITY = THE TANTALIZER

Note. Often the diagrams do not show all sides of the pieces so I cannot tell if one version is the same as another.

Frederick A. Schossow. US Patent 646,463 -- Puzzle. Applied: 19 May 1899; patented: 3 Apr 1900. 1p + 1p diagrams. Described in S&B, p. 38, which also says it is described in O'Beirne, but I don't find it there?? Four cubes with suit patterns. The net of each cube is shown. The fourth cube has three clubs.

George Duncan Moffat. UK Patent 9810 -- Improvements in or relating to Puzzle-apparatus. Applied: 28 May 1900; accepted: 30 Jun 1900. 2pp + 1p diagrams. For a six cube version with "letters R, K, B, W, F and B-P, the initials of the names of General Officers of the South African Field Force."

Joseph Meek. UK Patent 2775 -- Improved Puzzle Game. Applied: 5 Feb 1909; complete specification: 16 Jun 1909; accepted: 3 Feb 1910. 2pp + 1p diagrams. A four cube version with suit patterns. His discussion seems to describe the pieces drawn by Schossow.

Slocum. Compendium. Shows: The Great Four Ace Puzzle (Gamage's, 1913); Allies Flag Puzzle (Gamage's, c1915); Katzenjammer Puzzle (Johnson Smith, 1919).

Edwin F. Silkman. US Patent 2,024,541 -- Puzzle. Applied: 9 Sep 1932; patented: 17 Dec 1935. 2pp + 1 p diagrams. Four cubes marked with suits. The net of each cube is shown. The third cube has three hearts. This is just a relabelling of Schossow's pattern, though two cubes have to be reflected which makes no difference to the solution process.

E. M. Wyatt. The bewitching cubes. Puzzles in Wood. (Bruce Publishing, Co., Milwaukee, 1928) = Woodcraft Supply Corp., Woburn, Mass., 1980, p. 13. A six cube, six way version.

Abraham. 1933. Prob. 303 -- The four cubes, p. 141 (100). 4 cube version "sold ... in 1932".

A. S. Filipiak. Four ace cube puzzle. 100 Puzzles, How do Make and How to Solve Them. A. S. Barnes, NY, (1942) = Mathematical Puzzles, and Other Brain Twisters; A. S. Barnes, NY, 1966; Bell, NY, 1978; p. 108.

Leeming. 1946. Chap. 10, prob. 9: The six cube puzzle, pp. 128 129 & 212. Identical to Wyatt.

F. de Carteblanche [pseud. of Cedric A. B. Smith]. The coloured cubes problem. Eureka 9 (1947) 9 11. General graphical solution method, now the standard method.

T. H. O'Beirne. Note 2736: Coloured cubes: A new "Tantalizer". MG 41 (No. 338) (Dec 1957) 292-293. Cites Carteblanche, but says the current version is different. Gives a nicer version.

T. H. O'Beirne. Note 2787: Coloured cubes: a correction to Note 2736. MG 42 (No. 342) (Dec 1958) 284. Finds more solutions than he had previously stated.

Norman T. Gridgeman. The 23 colored cubes. MM 44:5 (Nov 1971) 243-252. The 23 colored cubes are the equivalence classes of ways of coloring the faces with 1 to 6 colors. He cites and describes some later methods for attacking Instant Insanity problems.

Jozsef Bognár. UK Patent Application 2,076,663 A -- Spatial Logical Puzzle. Filed 28 May 1981; published 9 Dec 1981. Cover page + 8pp + 3pp diagrams. Not clear if the patent was ever granted. Describes Bognár's Planets, which is a four piece instant insanity where the pieces are spherical and held in a plastic tube. This was called Bolygok in Hungarian and there is a reference to an earlier Hungarian patent. Also describes his version with eight pieces held at the corners of a plastic cube.