Chinese puzzle ball
From HandWiki
Short description: Mechanical puzzle
A Chinese puzzle ball, sometimes known as a devil's work ball (Chinese: 鬼工球; pinyin: guǐ gōng qiú), is a Chinese-made artifact that consists of a number of intricately carved concentric hollow spheres carved from a single solid block that fit within one another in a way that looks impossible.[1] They were traditionally made of ivory.[2] Following the international ban on the ivory trade, manufacturers of puzzle balls have tried using other materials, including bone.[3]
They are made from a single solid ball with conical holes drilled in it, with the carver separating the different spherical shells using L-shaped tools.[4][5] 3D imaging using computational tomography has been used to identify details of the manufacturing process.[6]
See also
- Ivory carving
- Impossible bottle
References
- ↑ Schaumberg, Erica M.. "Carved Ivory Puzzle Balls" (in en). Gettysburg College. http://wonder-cabinet.sites.gettysburg.edu/2017/cabinet/carved-ivory-puzzle-balls/.
- ↑ Voon, Claire (May 3, 2019). "The Mind-Boggling Artistry of China's Ivory Puzzle Balls". https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/puzzle-balls-from-guangzhou.
- ↑ "The Illustrious Puzzle Ball" (in en-US). https://lizzadromuseum.org/puzzle-ball/.
- ↑ Dalgety, James (2017). "Puzzle balls and Ivory". https://www.puzzlemuseum.com/puzzles/ivory/puzzleball.htm.
- ↑ Sparavigna, Amelia Carolina (2018-06-23). "Chinese And European Ivory Puzzle Balls" (in en). Zenodo. doi:10.5281/ZENODO.1296756. https://zenodo.org/record/1296756.
- ↑ van Liere, Robert (25 May 2018). "3D Imaging of Chinese Puzzle Balls: A Case Study in Technical Art History". https://www.cwi.nl/events/cwi-scientific-meetings/cwiscientific.pdf.
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