Bowling Scramble Squares
Bowling is one of humankind’s oldest sports. In 1936, British anthropologist Sir Flinders Petrie discovered a set of objects in an Egyptian Tomb that resembled the pins used in tenpin bowling, which would date the origins of bowling to as long ago as 3200 BC. In 50 BC, during the rule of Julius Caesar, citizens of the Roman Empire in the Alpine regions of Italy played an early form of bowling which became the modern Italian game of “bocce” (pronounced bot´-chay). Bowling has been known by such names as: bowls, skittles, kegling, ninepins, Dutch pins and quilles. The word “bowl” may have been derived from the Saxon word bolla, which originally meant "bubble,” but later came to mean any spherical object, but the Latin word for “ball” was bulla, and the Old French word for “ball” was boule. In 1366, England’s King Edward III outlawed bowling so that his troops would not continue to choose bowling over their archery practice. By the reign of Henry VIII, there were many variations of “pin” games and of other games where a ball was thrown at various kinds of objects. There are still many varieties of ninepin games being played in Western Europe, including the Italian bocce, the French petanque and British lawn bowling.
Bowling came to the New World in the 1600's as the game of “ninepins” with the early Dutch explorers and settlers who came to the northeastern region of the United States. The earliest mention of bowling in serious American literature was by Washington Irving, when he wrote that Rip Van Winkle awoke after 20 years of sleep to the sound of “crashing ninepins.” The game of ninepins became such a popular betting game that in 1841, Connecticut lawmakers made it illegal to maintain “any ninepin lanes,” until the law was eventually circumvented by adding a tenth pin. The tenth pin seemed to give bowling sudden respectability, and wealthy industrialists began to install bowling lanes in their homes. The earliest known permanent bowling location in the United States was in New York City's Battery area. Now surrounded by New York’s powerful financial district, that location is still referred to by New Yorkers as “Bowling Green.” By the late 1800s, the tenpin game had become prevalent in many states, such as New York, Ohio and other states as far west as Illinois. The candlepin bowling game was introduced in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1890. It was created by a billiards parlor owner Justin P. White and a billiards expert John J. Monsey. The first candlepin was 11” high and tapered to 1” in diameter at each end. The ball was made of wood, weighed about 2 lbs. and was only 3” in diameter. The lanes were the same as the tenpin alleys, and from the 60-foot distance, the slender pins looked like the candles on a birthday cake. The game of candlepins spread throughout New England and the Canadian Atlantic seaboard, replacing the skittle alleys, where it is still played throughout the region to this day.
Features
- Award-winning Scramble Squares®
- Puzzle has only nine pieces!
- 144 different Scramble Squares styles!
- Includes a panel of fascinating facts, trivia questions and hidden answers.
- These little brain teaser puzzles are easy to play, but hard to solve.
- Exquisite artwork that will keep everyone in the family entertained.
- Made in the U.S.A.
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