Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren bog obam here. Even before it became a popular
Speaker 1: way to while away the hours, days and weeks during isolation,
Speaker 1: putting together jigsaw puzzles was a favorite family activity. But
Speaker 1: did you know that jigsaw puzzles have their origin in education?
Speaker 1: Sir John Spillsbury, an English engraver and map maker in
Speaker 1: the mid seventeen hundreds, is credited with creating the first
Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzle in seventeen seventy six by attaching a map
Speaker 1: of the world to a piece of wood, then cutting
Speaker 1: the countries out. Teachers used the maps to teach geography
Speaker 1: to their students, and a recreational activity was born. Spillsbury
Speaker 1: would hardly recognize his creation today. In the early part
Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, jigsaw puzzles were used as marketing tools,
Speaker 1: often given away or sold for mere pennies. Today, companies
Speaker 1: still use puzzles for creative marketing. Take Kodak, for instance,
Speaker 1: it's selling what it claims is the quote world largest
Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzle. We have to admit this thing is pretty huge.
Speaker 1: The thousand, three hundred piece puzzle features twenty seven images
Speaker 1: from around the world and when completed, measures twenty eight
Speaker 1: point five feet by six point to five feet that's
Speaker 1: eight point six meters by one point nine meters, and
Speaker 1: this beast costs more than four hundred dollars. But all
Speaker 1: due respect to the Kodak jigsaw puzzle, the world's largest
Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzle by surface area, according to Guinness World Records,
Speaker 1: was put together in Dubai in July. The puzzle was
Speaker 1: an honor of the Year of Ziad, a year long
Speaker 1: tribute to the founding father of the United Arab Emirates,
Speaker 1: the late Shahook Ziad. There were more than twelve thousand
Speaker 1: pieces in the puzzle, which was an image of Ziad.
Speaker 1: The official record size measured sixty five thousand, nine five
Speaker 1: point one seven square feet, which is six thousand, one
Speaker 1: d twenty two point six eight square meters. Putting together
Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzles is a great group activity, but one thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred students of the University of Economics at hot
Speaker 1: Chimen City in Vietnam took it to the next level
Speaker 1: when they completed the jigsaw puzzle with the most pieces
Speaker 1: on record, five hundred and fifty one thousand, two hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty two to be exact. When it was finished,
Speaker 1: the puzzle measured just over forty eight by seventy six
Speaker 1: ft about fourteen by twenty three ms. It took the
Speaker 1: students seventeen hours to create the massive puzzle, which featured
Speaker 1: a lotus flower with six petals. But what about the
Speaker 1: hardest jigsaw puzzle ever. It contains only nine pieces, and
Speaker 1: it's called the Ice Puzzle nine. It was designed by
Speaker 1: u Asaka. It includes a small board and the nine
Speaker 1: pieces include right angles and curved edges that fit together
Speaker 1: in several combinations. Think Tetris, but way harder. The challenge
Speaker 1: is getting the last piece to fit. It's nearly impossible
Speaker 1: to fit all of the pieces on the board. It
Speaker 1: took Chris Ramsay, a magician, video creator and master puzzler,
Speaker 1: two hours and nine minutes to solve the Ice nine,
Speaker 1: and by his own description, he was completely exhausted by
Speaker 1: the end of the experience. You Asaka created another equally
Speaker 1: difficult puzzle called the Jigsaw Puzzle twenty nine. The challenge
Speaker 1: here is to fit twenty nine pieces into a five
Speaker 1: by five inch that's twelve by twelve centimeter trey. It
Speaker 1: comes with five corner pieces. Just let that sink in.
Speaker 1: Then there's the largest handcut wooden jigsaw puzzle. Guinness record
Speaker 1: held by Dave Evans in England, who created a forty thousand,
Speaker 1: seven hundred and sixty three piece puzzle celebrating the Queen's
Speaker 1: Diamond Jubilee. The puzzle, which featured thirty three images of
Speaker 1: jubilee celebrations, was twenty by eight feet that's six by
Speaker 1: two and a half meters when completed, though it collapsed
Speaker 1: soon after Evans complete at it. It took him, in
Speaker 1: four assistance more than sixteen days to rebuild the puzzle
Speaker 1: and move it to Sandringham, where it went on display
Speaker 1: and was confirmed as the Guinness World Record holder. We
Speaker 1: spoke by email with Caitlin Vesper, Records manager with Guinness
Speaker 1: World Records North America. She said one of the main
Speaker 1: criteria for all Guinness World Records titles is that they
Speaker 1: must be breakable. Every record title that's monitored is open
Speaker 1: to being challenged, which allows for all kinds of record
Speaker 1: breaking opportunities all over the world. The Guinness record for
Speaker 1: most jigsaw puzzle pieces tattooed on the human body belongs
Speaker 1: to the aptly named Enigma sometimes known as Paul Lawrence,
Speaker 1: who's a side show performer, actor and musician originally from Seattle.
Speaker 1: Enigma set the record for having two thousand, one d
Speaker 1: and twenty three puzzle pieces tattooed on his body from
Speaker 1: head to toe, and no word on whether anyone comes
Speaker 1: close to second. But many puzzle records are held by companies,
Speaker 1: such as the record for the largest spherical jigsaw puzzle.
Speaker 1: It measured fifteen point seven feet that's four point seven
Speaker 1: seven meters in circumference and it was made by Unima
Speaker 1: Industrial Limited in Hong Kong and featured scene from Winnie
Speaker 1: the Pooh. Vesper said, brands and businesses come to us
Speaker 1: looking to harness the power of record breaking, to commemorate
Speaker 1: anniversaries and celebrations, or to highlight the launch of a
Speaker 1: new product. Whole communities can come together to attempt a
Speaker 1: new record, too, alike. In March of twenty nineteen, when
Speaker 1: more than one thousand, seven hundred people formed the largest
Speaker 1: human jigsaw puzzle piece on record. At first, the record
Speaker 1: raised awareness for autism spectrum disorder. The puzzle pieces the
Speaker 1: symbol for the Autism Speaks organization. Vesper explained, each Guinness
Speaker 1: World Records title has a set of guidelines that must
Speaker 1: be followed. The record for the largest human jigsaw puzzle
Speaker 1: piece is a great example to highlight. This is considered
Speaker 1: one of our largest human image categories and the idea
Speaker 1: it is to have a group of people gathered together
Speaker 1: to form a recognizable image. We define a jigsaw puzzle
Speaker 1: piece as an oddly shaped, interlocking and tesselating piece designed
Speaker 1: to be part of a larger picture. The human image
Speaker 1: to be created would need to be instantly recognizable as
Speaker 1: a puzzle piece and not an entire puzzle. This record
Speaker 1: title can be broken if another group creates the same
Speaker 1: image with a larger group of people. Anybody up for
Speaker 1: the challenge. Today's episode was written by Patty Resmusen and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots
Speaker 1: of other not so puzzling topics, is it how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio.
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