About

Pakoválec is a recent Czech puzzle, its name roughly translating as 'Stupid Cylinder'. This cleverly designed puzzle consists of a long vertical cylinder inside a shorter transparent tube. Captured between the two are 16 coloured pieces, lying in four vertical columns, held in place by vertical grooves in the inner cylinder. There is also a horizontal groove going around the cylinder, which contains a ring of eight pieces - one piece from each column as well as four more pieces of the same colour as the cylinder. When you rotate the outer tube, the ring of eight pieces are rotated too, and when you shift the outer tube up or down, it is the four columns that are shifted. When solved, the each column has a different colour (red, blue, green, yellow). Note that four columns are not evenly spaced - two are adjacent, right next to an extra wide gap before the next column. This puzzle is of an extremely simple but effective design. The horizontal groove has a long spring underneath the pieces, wrapped around the cylinder. This spring pushes the eight pieces outwards against the outer tube, so that when the tube is rotated these pieces are dragged along by friction. This same spring is responsible for the clicking action that occurs when the tube is shifted up or down. The pieces have horizontal grooves on their underside, so they nestle onto the spring with a satisfying feel. The only disadvantage of this simple design is that excessive play will cause some scratching of the outer tube. It was invented by Pavel Gebr, and he filed for a Czech utility patent on 26 July 2002, which was granted in 6 September 2002, CZ 12,596 U. If your browser supports Javascript, then you can play Pakoválec by clicking the link below: