Inducted Year: 2014
Although soap itself goes back to ancient times, Europeans manufactured high quality varieties by the 16th century. The earliest paintings of children playing with bubbles appeared in the 17th century and, in the 19th century, London’s A. & F. Pears created a famous advertising campaign for its soaps using a painting by John Everett Millais of a child playing with bubbles.
Soap bubbles seem simple, but they illustrate the mathematical problem of minimal surface, assuming the shape with the […]
Rubik’s Cube
Inducted Year: 2014
Hungarian design teacher and serious puzzler Erno Rubik assembled his first cube puzzle in 1974 and called it the Magic Cube. After a toy agent pitched the puzzle to Ideal Toy & Novelty Company, it renamed the puzzle Rubik’s Cube and began putting it in stores in 1980. Soon puzzlers all over the world wanted to solve the cube. Within two years they bought one hundred million of them, making Rubik’s Cube the title of most popular puzzle […]
Little Green Army Men
Inducted Year: 2014
Little green army men evolved from the metal and lead toy soldiers of previous generations and have been manufactured of molded plastic since the 1930s. Standing two to four inches tall, these figures represent mostly infantry soldiers of the mid-20th century United States Army. They carry the weapons of battle, as well as other equipment such as radios and binoculars, and are often packaged in large quantities in big bags or buckets with the jeeps, artillery, helicopters, and […]
