A Jacob's ladder (also magic tablets, Chinese blocks, and klick-klack toy
[Frauenfelder, Mark (2011). ''Make: Technology On Your Time, Vol. 26: Roll Your Own'', p.148. O'Reilly Media. .]) is a
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
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*** Folk metal
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* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Fo ...
toy
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and p ...
consisting of
blocks of wood held together by strings or
ribbon
A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...
s. When the ladder is held at one end, blocks appear to cascade down the strings. This effect is a
visual illusion
In visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide varie ...
which is the result of one block after another flipping over. It may be considered a
kinetic illusion, where the blocks appear to change position when they do not.
Its name ''Jacob's Ladder'' comes from the biblical
ladder to heaven, mentioned in Genesis 28:12.
Of unknown origin, the earliest known review of the Jacob's Ladder is an 1889 ''
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'' article which tells how it is built and works:
Construction
An arrangement of interlaced ribbons allows each block to act as if hinged to the next one at either of its two ends. The same mechanism is used in the 1980s toy
Rubik's Magic
Rubik's Magic, like the Rubik's Cube, is a mechanical puzzle invented by Ernő Rubik and first manufactured by Matchbox in the mid-1980s.
The puzzle consists of eight black square tiles (changed to red squares with goldish rings in 1997) arra ...
, but with plastic filaments run diagonally across squares, with the result that the squares can hinge along either of two ''adjacent'' sides.
Origin
The toy has been variously described as originating in China, as being found in
Tutankhamun's tomb
The tomb of Tutankhamun (reigned ), a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, is located in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb, also known by its tomb number KV62, consists of four chambers and an entrance staircase and corridor. It ...
, and as one of the few toys allowed on Sunday by Puritans in colonial America;
[Judah, J. C. (2008). ''The Legends of Brunswick County: Ghosts, Pirates, Indians and Colonial North Carolina'', p.136. Lulu.com. . "Because it was a 'nice quiet toy'."] however, the true origins of the toy are unknown.
Many slight variants have been patented in the United States, one from the 1940s having in one block an indentation to hold a penny, which then appeared to dis- and re-appear.
The Japanese polymath
Hiraga Gennai
was a Japanese polymath and ''rōnin'' of the Edo period. He was a pharmacologist, student of ''Rangaku'', author, painter and inventor well known for his '' Erekiteru'' (electrostatic generator), ''Kandankei'' (thermometer) and ''Kakanpu'' ...
(1728–1780) constructed a Jacob's ladder which later came to be called "Gennai's Wondrous Click-clack" (''Gennai no fushigina katakata'', 源内の不思議なカタカタ).
See also
*
Chinese block
A wooden fish, also known as a Chinese temple block, wooden bell, or ''muyu'', is a type of Woodblock (instrument), woodblock that originated from China that is used as a percussion instrument by monks and lay people in the Mahayana tradition of B ...
*
Jacob's ladder (string figure)
*
Rhombille tiling
In geometry, the rhombille tiling, also known as tumbling blocks, reversible cubes, or the dice lattice, is a tessellation of identical 60° rhombi on the Euclidean plane. Each rhombus has two 60° and two 120° angles; rhombi with this shape ar ...
*
Rubik's Cube
References
External links
Toys, Tricks and Teasers: Kinetic Illusion Toys, ''Donald Simanek's Pages at lockhaven.edu''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob's Ladder (Toy)
Articles containing video clips
Traditional toys
Wooden toys
Novelty items