In Sept. 1992 Mark Longridge described an idea he had for a
puzzle. He called it a Twist Torus. Well I bought a puzzle that
fits his description very closely. I would have sent this in
sooner except that I am new to Cube Lovers. I bought mine
several years ago. Did he get his design into production or was
it independently invented or did someone implement Mark's idea?
Will we ever know? I bought mine in a department store (cant
remember which) toy department. It was not in any packaging and
cost less than $2 US.. They only had one. It was quite by
chance that I determined that it is a puzzle.

It will test my ability to describe it in words but here goes.
It is torus shaped (dough nut shaped). At first glance it looks
like a bracelet. It has one slice made the same way a bagel is
sliced. The puzzle can turn along this cut. There are eight
differently colored sections separated by fixed black sections
around the circumference of the torus. Each colored section is
subdivided into 4 sub-segments that can turn at right angles to
the main circumference. As a segment is turned, different parts
of the segment are brought to the other side of the main cut.

It operates smoothly and is brightly colored. It is fairly easy
to solve but the geometry is novel and interesting.

Does anyone else have one of these? Does anyone know who
manufactured this? Does anyone know what it is called?

Walt "The Puzzler" Smith