The names Egg of Columbus and Columbus Egg have been used for several mechanical
toys and
puzzle
A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...
s inspired on the legend of
Columbus balancing an egg on its end to drive a point. Typically, these puzzles are
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
-shaped objects with internal
mechanism
Mechanism may refer to:
*Mechanism (engineering), rigid bodies connected by joints in order to accomplish a desired force and/or motion transmission
*Mechanism (biology), explaining how a feature is created
*Mechanism (philosophy), a theory that a ...
s that make the egg stand up, once the user discovers the secret.
Mechanisms typically used in such toys include moving weights,
mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
flowing in sealed tubes or compartments, and
steel balls rolling on grooves and pits.
History
A Columbus Egg puzzle using a rolling ball was described in an 1893 book.
The
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...
catalog of 1894 includes a "Columbus Egg" toy.
/ref>
There are at least 18 United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s for such devices, starting from 1891.[
The ]German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
company Pussycat sells a Columbus Egg that can be balanced by holding it upright for 25 seconds, then quickly inverting it. The egg will then stand on its pointed end for 15 seconds, then topple on its side.[
]
References
{{Reflist
See also
* Egg of Columbus (tangram puzzle)
The Egg of Columbus (''Ei des Columbus'' in German) is a puzzle consisting of a flat egg-like shape divided into 9 or 10 pieces by straight cuts. The goal of the puzzle is to rearrange the pieces so as to form other specific shapes, as in a tangr ...
* Egg of Li Chun
Egg balancing is a traditional Chinese practice that has since been popularized in the United States. Although the irregular shape of eggs makes this somewhat difficult, eggshells typically have many imperfections such that the vast majority c ...
* Superegg
* Tesla's Egg of Columbus
Tesla's Egg of Columbus was a device exhibited in the Westinghouse Electric display at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition to explain the rotating magnetic field that drove the new alternating current induction motors designed by invent ...
Mechanical puzzles