Erno Rubik was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1944, during World War II. Rubik’s father was a flight engineer at the Esztergom aircraft factory and a highly respected engineer of gliders, and his mother was a poet. Rubik has stated in almost every interview that he was inspired by his father.
From 1958 to 1962, Rubik specialized in sculpture at the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts. From 1962 to 1967, Rubik attended the Budapest University of Technology, where he became a member of the Architecture Faculty. From 1967 to 1971, Rubik attended the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts and Design, and was in the Faculty of Interior Architecture and Design. Rubik has considered university and his education to be the decisive event that shaped his life.
From 1971 to 1979, Rubik was a professor of architecture at the Budapest College of Applied Arts. During Rubik’s time there, he built designs for a three-dimensional puzzle, and completed the first working prototype of the Rubik’s Cube in 1974 from 27 wooden blocks and rubber bands. Rubik had set out to create a structure that would allow the individual pieces to move without the whole structure falling apart.
It took Rubik a month to solve the cube. Then, Rubik showed his prototype to his class, and his students enjoyed it as well. Rubik realized that the simple structure of the cube lent itself to relatively easy manufacturing, and the cube might have appeal to a larger audience. Rubik’s father had several patents, so Rubik was familiar with the patenting process, and applied for a patent for his invention. Rubik was granted U.S. Patent No. 4,378,116 on March 29, 1983 for the Rubik’s Cube, and the patent expired in 2000.
By the time Rubik received his patent, the Rubik’s Cube craze had died, and by 1983 sales had plummeted. Ironically, interest in Rubik’s Cube would not begin increasing again until after Rubik’s patent expired.
There had been precursors to the Rubik’s Cube. In 1970, Larry D. Nichols invented a 2x2x2 “Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups” and filed a Canadian patent application for the puzzle. Nichols’ cube was held together by magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. Patent No. 3,655,201. Also in 1970, Frank Fox applied for a patent on an “amusement device,” a type of sliding puzzle on a spherical surface with “at least two 3×3 arrays” intended to be used for the game of noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe) and received UK Patent No. 1344259.
Rubik then set out to find a manufacturer in Hungary, but had significant difficulty because of the rigid planned economy of communist Hungary. Eventually, Rubik found a small company that worked with plastic to manufacture chess pieces. In Hungary, the cube was originally known as the “Magic Cube.”
For mass production, the material was changed from wood to plastic. A standard Rubik’s Cube is 5.6 centimeters on each side. The puzzle consists of 26 unique miniature cubes, each of which includes a concealed inward extension that interlocks with the other cubes, while permitting them to move to different locations. However, the center cube of each of the six faces is affixed to the core mechanism including three intersecting axes, and provide a structure for the other pieces to fit into and rotate around. Each of the six center pieces pivots on a fastener held by the center piece. A spring between each fastener and its corresponding piece tensions the piece inward, so that the whole assembly remains compact but can be easily manipulated.
Rubik licensed the Magic Cube to Ideal Toys, a U.S. company, in 1979. Ideal rebranded the Magic Cube to “Rubik’s Cube” before its international introduction in 1980. Rubik’s Cube became an instant success worldwide, won many awards, and became a staple of 1980s popular culture.
Nichols had assigned his patent covering the 2x2x2 puzzle to his employer, Moleculon Research Corp, which sued Ideal in 1982. Ideal lost the patent infringement suit in 1984, and appealed. On appeal, the finding of infringement of Nichols’ patent by the Rubik’s 2x2x2 Pocket Cube was affirmed, but the finding of infringement was reversed for the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube.
While Rubik’s patent application was undergoing examination, Terutoshi Ishigi of Japan had filed for a Japanese patent for a nearly identical mechanism. The application was granted in 1976. Until 1999, when amended Japanese patent law was enforced, Japan’s patent office granted Japanese patents for technology that had not been disclosed within Japan, while not requiring worldwide novelty. Ishigi’s patent is generally accepted as independent reinvention.
Rubik also invented Rubik’s Magic, Rubik’s Snake, and Rubik’s 360.
In the early 1980s, Rubik became the editor of a game and puzzle journal called És játék (And games). He founded the Rubik Studio in 1983 to design furniture and games. In 1987, Rubik became a professor with full tenure. By 1990, Rubik had become president of the Hungarian Engineering Academy, where he created the International Rubik Foundation to support especially talented young engineers and industrial designers.
Among those who have influenced and inspired him, Rubik names Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, M.C. Escher, Voltaire, Stendhal, Thomas Mann, Sartre, Attila Jόszef, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier.
From 1978, the prizes and awards for Rubik’s invention began rolling in, and have included:
· 1978 – Budapest International Trade Fair, Prize for the Cube;
· 1980 – Toy of the Year: Federal Republic of Germany, United Kingdom, France, USA;
· 1981 – Toy of the Year: Finland, Sweden, Italy
· 1982 – Toy of the Year: United Kingdom (second time)
· 1982 – Museum of Modern Art, New York selected Rubik’s Cube into its permanent collection;
· 1983 – Hungarian State Prize for demonstrating and teaching 3D structures;
· 1988 – Juvenile Prize from the State Office of Youth and Sport;
· 1995 – Dénes Gabor Prize from the Novofer Foundation, an acknowledgement of achievements in innovation;
· 1996 – Ányos Jedlik Prize from the Hungarian Patent Office; and
· 1997 – Prize for the Reputation of Hungary.
The Rubik’s cube has inspired many speedsolving competitions, with some impressive records set, including:
· The world record fastest single time for solving a 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube is 3.05 seconds, held by Xuanyi Geng of China;
· The world record fastest average (middle three of five solve times, excluding fastest and slowest) is 3.90 seconds, set by Yiheng Wang of China;
· The world record fastest single time for one-handed solving is 5.66 seconds, set by Dhruva Sai Meruva of Switzerland;
· The world record fastest average of five one-handed solves is 7.72 seconds, set by Luke Garrett of the United States;
· The world record fastest Rubik’s Cube single solve while blindfolded, including memorization time, is 12.00 seconds, set by Tommy Cherry of the United States, who also holds the average of three solves while blindfolded, at 14.05 seconds;
· The world record of fewest moves to solve a cube, given an hour to determine a solution, is 16 moves, achieved by Sebastiano Tronto of Italy;
· The fastest non-human solving was performed by Rubik’s Contraption, a robot made by Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo, at 0.38 seconds;
· The record for the highest order physical cube solving is Jeremy Smith, who solved a 21x21x21 cube in 95 minutes and 55.52 seconds.
Larger cubes are commercially available through non-licensed manufacturers. Working designs have been demonstrated for 22x22x22, 33x33x33, and 49x49x49 cubes, but the designs are not mass-produced. Chinese manufacturer ShengShoul has been producing cubes in all sizes from 2x2x2 to 15x15x15, as well as 17x17x17. Currently, the largest mass-produced cube is 21x21x21, costing between $1100 and $1600.
The cube has inspired an entire category of similar puzzles, referred to as “twisty puzzles,” which includes cubes of higher orders, as well as other geometric shapes, including the tetrahedron (Pyraminx), octahedron (Skewb Diamond), dodecahedron (Megaminx), and icosahedron (Dogic). There are also puzzles that change shape, such as Rubik’s Snake and the Square One.
In 2014, Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Google, designed an interactive exhibit based on the Rubik’s Cube in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Cube’s invention. Exhibition elements included a 35-foot-tall rooftop cube made of lights that people could manipulate with their cellphone, a $2.5 million cube made of diamonds, a giant walk-in cube, and cube-solving robots.
Artists have developed a pointillist art style using the cubes known as Rubik’s Cube Art or “Rubik’s Cubism,” using standard Rubik’s Cubes to create mosaics out of hundreds or thousands of Cubes.
Italian composer Maria Mannone created a cube called “CubeHarmonic” which has musical note names on its facets, creating different chord structures depending on its configuration.
