A Jacob's ladder (also magic tablets, Chinese blocks, and klick-klack toyFrauenfelder, 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 ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

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 pe ...

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 mater ...

s. When the ladder is held at one end, blocks appear to cascade down the strings. This effect is a

visual illusion Within 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 v ...

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 famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' 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, 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, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1334–1325 BC), a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb consists of four chambers a ...

, 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'." but 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. Gennai was a pharmacologist, student of '' Rangaku'', physician, author, painter and inventor well known for his '' Erekiteru'' (electrostatic generator), '' Kandankei'' (thermometer), ...

(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).

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

Construction

Origin

See also

References

External links