Saturday 16 April 2022

Inventors & Inventions: John Spilsbury (1739-1796) British Cartographer is credited with...


 ...coming up with an educational tool in 1766 to teach geography. He affixed a world map to wood and carved each country thereby creating the first jigsaw puzzle! 

Sensing a business opportunity, he created puzzles on eight themes -- the World, Europe, Asia, Africa, America, England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

4 comments:

  1. A nice collage with some fascinating history attached! You learn something every day on the interweb!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always learn something new when doing research for a potential collage!

      Delete
  2. Great artwork Angie. I never knew jigsaws originated in cartography.
    John seems to be looking up and thinking...so that's where that missing piece went!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ron. I also did not know. I had picked up a magazine one day, after you posted this theme, and saw an ad that deconstructed an image into a jigsaw puzzle. Hmmmmm, I thought, I wonder how the jigsaw puzzle came about. And I GOOGLED. And that is how my collage came to be! (I fashioned the jigsaw puzzle piece "LONDON" by carefully tracing one of the magazine ad puzzle pieces on top of one of the many maps I have of England.)

      Delete