Object Details
maker
Ideal Toy Corporation
IDEAL TOY CORP.
Description
Rubik’s Zwillinge (usually translated twins) is a double or "Siamese" combination of two Rubik's cubes. The two cubes overlap along one row of three small cubes. The large cubes are colored the same as a traditional Rubik's cube, yellow, orange, green, red, blue and white.
The puzzle remains in its original packaging. The packaging includes mention of Arxon, the German branch of the Ideal Toy Corporation, and a copyright date of 1983 for Ideal. It also implies that the Hungarian inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, Erno Rubik, also invented this puzzle.
From contemporary sources it appears as if Tony Fisher of Ipswich, England, invented what became known as Fisher’s Siamese Cubes in late 1981, before Ideal had produced Rubik’s Mate. Fisher has said that solving this puzzle is different, although not necessarily more difficult, than solving the standard Rubik’s Cube.
This puzzle is among Rubik’s Cube related items from the Cube Museum, which operated in Grand Junction, Colorado, from 1988 to 1991. For more information about the Rubik’s Cube and other twisting puzzles that use the same or similar mechanisms see 1987.0805.01.
Reference:
TonyFisherPuzzles [Siamese Rubik’s Cubes Puzzle] website.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Cecil Smith
Date made
1983
ID Number
2006.0061.11
catalog number
2006.0061.11
accession number
2006.0061
Object Name
puzzle
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 14.5 cm x 10.1 cm x 10.1 cm; 5 23/32 in x 3 31/32 in x 3 31/32 in
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Twisting Puzzles
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematical Recreations
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1301125