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The Fence
This is another Jean-Claude Constantin design, fairly widely available, but I include it here because it has a little secret, which I discovered, and I wonder if even Jean-Claude knows about it. But more of that later…
It’s just over 4 inches high, and the same wide. It’s just over 2 inches deep. It consists of ten vertical steel rods which are designed to hold in place 8 wood blocks, like small railway sleepers. Each block has 1, 2 or 3 additional small blocks added.
The object of the puzzle is simple enough. Insert the 8 blocks inside the ten vertical steel rods which give the puzzle its name, ensuring, of course, that none protrude above the rods or through the gaps.
Finally we come to the little secret. Computer analysis shows that this puzzle has 16 different solutions. I discovered, WITHOUT THE USE OF A COMPUTER, that one of the solutions can be exquisitely sequentially assembled inside the cage, rather than solving the puzzle and then inserting the whole block into the cage. I know many readers here will have this puzzle. Get it out again and try and find the delightful sequentially assembly. You will be well rewarded.
Was it intentional, and we want the truth, J-C?
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