|
Erno Rubik was a lecturer at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest, Hungary, when he invented the Rubik's Cube in 1974. We read a brief history of Rubik's famed invention on the official Rubik's web site. Rubik was a designer and inventor fascinated by the geometry of 3D forms. He built models to communicate his ideas about form and structure. Rubik initially conceived of a flexible 3x3x3 cube, but was unsure of the design. One summer day on the banks of the Danube River, Rubik noticed the rounded, water-smoothed river pebbles. The shapes of these rocks inspired a solution -- and Rubik designed a rounded architecture for the interior elements of the cube. Not long after
developing his prototype, Rubik applied for a patent. It took several years to prepare the prototype for mass production, but by 1977 the first cubes were available in Budapest toyshops. Because Hungary was isolated behind the Iron Curtain in the late '70s, markets moved slowly. The efforts of two expatriate Hungarians finally brought Rubik's Cube to consumer audiences in the West, long after the "toy" had spread virally through Budapest. A Hungarian working in Vienna, "discovered" the cube on a Budapest business trip and tried to find a German toy distributor. Instead, he met up with Tom Kremer, a Hungarian-born toy and game inventor based in London. The two men developed a marketing plan and persuaded an Ideal Toy Company executive to place an order for 1 million cubes. Rubik's Cube
was about to go global. Sales skyrocketed in 1980, and by 1982 "Rubik's Cube" had even entered the Oxford English Dictionary. Rubik became Hungary's richest private citizen, and a millionaire while still in his 30s. According to the Rubik/Seven Towns officially sanctioned history, Erno Rubik today "is still deeply engaged in creating new games and puzzles, and remains one of the principal beneficiaries of what proved to be a spectacularly successful invention." The official site includes an archive of reprinted articles about Rubik and his cube. A Discover magazine piece from 1986, titled "The Perplexing Life of Erno Rubik," profiles the inventor. The man one colleague described as "a bit sour" was born in a bomb
shelter to a poet and an aircraft engineer. Rubik said of his brain child, "We turn the cube, and it twists us." He continues to develop new puzzles and toys such as Infinity and Bricks.
|
