Interview with the inventor of Rubik’s Cube
British newspaper Guardian made an interview with Erno Rubik, inventor of the famous Rubik’s Cube.
Professor Rubik was teaching at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest in the mid-1970’s. He wanted to demonstrate 3D movement to his students, and he got the idea of the cube’s twisting mechanism from the River Danube, how the water moved around the pebbles, Guardian said.
He experienced in his mother’s flat, he used wood, rubber bands and paper clips. In order to bring sense to the rotations of the cube, he required some kind of coding, and he used primary colors for that. When Rubik finished his work, he knew he did something revolutionary. For the first time, it took him weeks to solve his own puzzle.
It took three years to get the cube to market. A Hungarian firm called Politechnika manufactured it under the name Buvos Kocka (Magic Cube). After that, a salesman, Tibor Laczi told he could distribute it on the Western world.
At the 1979 Nuremberg toy fair, Tom Kremer saw the cube and he became the key person of the global distribution. Erno Rubik said he always kept his distance from the business side, he felt himself more like a father to a child. On the 40th anniversary, he traveled to New York to see the Empire State Building light up in the colors of the Rubik’s Cube.