The first jigsaw puzzle was created in 1767. John Spilsbury, a teacher in England created the puzzle for the purpose of teaching geography.
Adhering his maps to flat hardwood, he used a fine saw to cut along the borders of the European countries, and the jigsaw puzzle was born. Hand-painted and made of wood, the puzzle was a map of England and Wales, with each county making up a separate piece.
Soon, people began making pictorial jigsaw puzzles. Their purpose was to entertain rather than to teach. The pieces in these early kids jigsaw puzzles were not interlocking. Not until the invention of power tools more than a century later did jigsaw puzzles with fully interlocking pieces come into being.
The first children’s jigsaw puzzles were made in 1880 by Milton Bradley. “The Smashed Up Locomotive” , their first puzzle, was a printed lithograph of a steam engine locomotive and cutting it into pieces, the “smashed up” effect was achieved when a child opened the box and saw the locomotive all in pieces.
Because of his Puritan upbringing, Bradley’s nature was to seek order. Therefore, the object of the “The Smashed Up Locomotive” was to make the locomotive whole once again.