thin king

The Enigma Puzzle The Enigma Puzzle is true to its name. This puzzle was designed and patented by Eldon Vaughn in 1975. It is a puzzle that baffles even puzzle grandmasters. It consists of three stringy solid components made of cast metal chained together. One piece is like the treble clef symbol without the vertical part, the second piece is like the capital letter J with a small loop at its curve end, and the third piece is like the capital letter G with two small loops inside its lower part. Each piece has its own characteristics, distinctive design, special shape and intricate features; all together making it such a complex puzzle. It is a puzzle extraordinaire, one which truly challenges the best of puzzle solvers. It is graded most difficult, at level 6 on a scale of 1 to 6, a grading for Hanayama huzzles. This enigma puzzle, like other cast metal puzzles, is solved by disassembling and reassembling its components, from and to its original form. And no physical force is required or allowed, any movement and shifting of the pieces in the process of solving it is free and without restrictions. Many puzzle lovers have had a go at it, some have succeeded, some have solved it but were unable to remember how it was done, some sought for the solution, some abandoned it, and others have declared letting it went with the wind; yet some others are still trying to solve it. What is the intrigue, why is it so difficult to be solved. What is its allure, that puzzle lovers spent money and time and cracked their brains to solve it. It is simply a toy, it is made of three stringy pieces of metal, they are intertwined but not fixed, together it looks like a mess of twisted wire. It has no hidden parts, every bit of it is visible. Yet, to separate the parts is very exacting, and it is equally challenging to restore the parts to their original arrangement. Be that as it may, those who have been humbled by its complexity and those who have unravelled its mystery would appreciate its special design with all the cunning oddities. And watching it being dismantled and restored is also captivating and fascinating, a beautiful graceful step by step procedure. It is a wonder how such a puzzle can be imagined or conceived at all.

In the world of peace and of disorder 

Puzzles activate the mind, exercise the brain, maintain and enhance its functions and capabilities. There are all kinds of puzzles, natural and created; liquid and solid; mental puzzles, puzzles made of paper, of plastic, wood and metal. Puzzles are mostly made for fun, for enjoyment and for leisure; puzzles are the best panacea for boredom and the grand thief of time. Of all man made puzzles, the cast metal puzzles are unique; they are capable of being replicated exactly, each piece being of the same dimensions, and possessing the same intricate characteristics, being cast from a mold to possess any requisite intricate precision thinkable. They are rigid and are durable, being able to withstand inadvertent mishandling, and last as long as the quality of the metal they are made of. Puzzles come with different levels of complexities, and cast metal puzzles are graded on scales of 1 to 10, or 1 to 6, with the highest number being the most difficult. These can be bizarre, very deceptive, oddly shaped and tricky. All sorts of difficult puzzles exist, and two lovable models are notable, The Enigma and The Equa cast metal puzzles, both belonging to level 6 standards. Level 6 puzzles are most suitable for diehard puzzle lovers and excellent for passengers on long journeys with time to kill. They are not graded level 6 whimsically, there are tales of some puzzles ending up in places non retrievable. Advisably, Sun Tzu's art of war helps greatly in solving these puzzles, especially that bit about knowing the enemy is half the battle won. This is because the structure and every bit of oddity in the components of each puzzle contribute to the complexity of the puzzle. The solution of this type of puzzles is the disassembling of the components and reassembling them to restore it to its original state. The test of greatness is to be challenged.