A tilting marble maze became such a craze it reportedly distracted Congress
Sam Loyd's 'Pigs in Clover,' released in 1889, challenges you to tilt a small round box to guide four marbles, the 'pigs,' through a spiral maze and into a central pen, without letting any escape back out along the way. The toy became an overnight sensation across America almost immediately after release, reportedly even catching on among members of Congress during sessions. Can you get all four pigs penned at once without any slipping back out?
Reveal the answer
Yes, with patient, small tilts: work the marbles through the maze's spiral one at a time, using the outer walls to block the others from rolling back out while you ease the next one forward, since any marble can slip past an open gap and undo your progress on an earlier one. Loyd's maze-in-a-box format was simple enough to manufacture cheaply and addictive enough to spawn countless imitators, helping establish the dexterity-puzzle toy as its own commercial category.