The Beast
This is the smallest box I have ever made. Only about 13 centimeters long. It is also one of the hardest to open. I'm not sure I remember how to open this myself.
There are no clues for solving the Beast. It takes a complex sequence
of 81 moves to release the lid.
I built the Beast a year after making the Pinwheel boxes in 2001. I
worked in the mathematics department for Colorado College, and spent
my off hours making these in the woodshop.
It is the first box I made in a run. I made twenty of these, but realized
when I finished that they would warp severely under changes in humidity.
Here I learned the dangers of gluing woods together across grain. So
I never released them to the public.
The Beast is the precursor to the Waterfall Series, 83 Move Box, and the Maze Burr. Each face of the box moves in two directions. With the Beast I built
this bi-path mechanism with two panels, which is why is has a different
appearance.
More interestingly, I set up the proportions so that all six faces of
the Beast are Golden
Rectangles. The maple pinstripes are also set apart by the Golden
Proportion. Mathematically, this is very interesting, and beautiful
form.
The dark wood is wenge, and the lighter brown wood is walnut. I fell in love with these three woods at once.
I did a presentation to The Colorado College Mathematics Department on how this puzzle opens up.
