I went down to Eureka to pick up the DanLock that I had loaned to David one day. He had recently returned from the 2009 International Puzzle Party, and had all sorts of new puzzles to show me. I saw a few of Allan Boardman's tiny burrs, an original Stewart Coffin, Ring Box by Gary Foshee, and a ton of other stuff.
David was kind enough to offer to loan me a copy of Norman Sandfield's Bowling Alley in a Briefcase by Kathleen Malcolmson. I had seen this type of briefcase design before, there are several types, and was excited to have the opportunity to give one a try. I had no idea what to expect, other than that it would be quite challenging.
I worked on this puzzle for quite a long time: I am not particularly experienced with hidden mechanism puzzles, so I think that contributed to its difficulty. I shook in around all sorts of ways and had a hypothesis about what was going on inside the briefcase from the noises I heard, but I had no luck getting it to open!
This continued night after night, working on it for an hour or so each night for about two weeks before I finally broke down and asked David for a hint.
I told him all of the things that I had tried and my hypothesis about the workings, and he gave me a hint that I thought gave away the solution. When I tried it, however, it still failed to open! I tried that night for about an hour, and even with the hint, it still wouldn't open, which was fairly frustrating.
The next morning, right after waking up I went straight back to that briefcase. Finally, something clicked (mentally), and I figured it out. Now that I know how it works, it seems so simple, but it is a real challenge to figure out what is going on inside when you can't see. This is a very cool puzzle, but was quite a challenge: not for the faint of heart! It is very nicely made and well designed, a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle.
Tomorrow, I will write about a presentation on mechanical puzzles hosted by Eureka, where I met a bunch of Boston-area mechanical puzzle collectors.
King’s Day 2022
23 hours ago
I'm curious as to what is INSIDE that briefcase. Does it have anything to do with the solution to the puzzle? Is there really a bowling alley inside? Can you give us a hint without spoiling the puzzle?
ReplyDeleteIf you saw the insides and didn't know the name, I doubt you would think that it was a bowling alley. However, if you know the name, you could see why this name makes sense, since it is similar to a bowling alley in a few ways.
ReplyDelete