Erno Rubik

Erno Rubik - born during World War 2 - was a lecturer at the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest.

1974 was the birthday of the Cube but we have to go back a little in time to see where the idea came from. The spark for the idea was possibly the so-called 15 puzzle, 15 numbers in a four by four frame where all the numbers can move using the empty space. Rubik set out to create a three dimensional cube with a similar but harder mental challenge. The problem was how to make the 54 surfaces move.

The story is that one day Rubik was sitting by the Danube and looking at the round pebbles and this gave him the idea for the cylindrical mechanism. He gave it to some students to try and they were fascinated.

It was three years before the cube production firm of Politechnic was able to get the first mass production cubes made and into the Hungarian shops, making Erno enough money to get married

The cube was shown at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1979 but no-one was interested. Manufacturers world wide had their reservations. It was too abstract, too expensive to manufacture. Then Stewart Sims, of the Ideal Toy Corporation was persuaded to come to Budapest to see people of all ages playing with the cube in cafes and on trams. He had already rejected a similar cube held together with magnets patented by an American. He was so impressed with Rubik's version he ordered 1 million.

At this point its name was changed from Magic Cube to Rubik's Cube to make copyrighting easier. By 1981 factories were set up in other countries to produce the cube. Including pirate cubes it estimated that over 100 million were sold by 1983.

In 1983 the market collapsed as everyone who wanted a cube had one. But in 1985 the Seven Towns Company acquired the rights and the cube has made a slow but steady come back.

Can you buy one in your local games shop? Can you solve it?

Find out more at www.rubiks.com

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