Date: 15 May 1981 0456-PDT
Sender: OLE at DARCOM-KA
Subject: New pseudo-cube
From: Ole at DARCOM-KA (Ole J. Jacobsen)
To: Cube-lovers at MIT-MC
Cc: Oyvind
Message-ID: <[DARCOM-KA]15-May-81 04:56:31.OLE>

Pardon me if this object has been described before, but I don't remember
seeing it. While browsing for cubes in a local store here in Newcastle
the other day, I came accross a new "cube" which I shall try to describe
and I invite you all to think of a good name for it.

First of all let me point out that this new toy is really just a Rubik's
Cube with some modification with respect to coloring and construction.
Imagine taking your normal cube and making 4 vertical slices along the
corner diagonals. Your top and bottom faces would now look like:

                           ---
                          /   \
                          I   I
                          \   /
                           ---

(sorry about poor ratio, but I hope you get the idea) Now recolor the new
faces and voila, your new toy is complete. The construction has the following
consequences:      1. The object is no longer symmetrical, U and D faces
                      are different from L R F and B.
                   2. The "corners" have only got TWO colors, but act as
                      corners of the Rubik's Cube, the mechanics is identical.
                   3. Four new "edges" which I will call wedges have appeared
                      in the middle layer. These have only ONE color, but as
                      you will discover when using your edge moves: the orient-
                      ation matters. Edges and wedges may be interchanged.

I will now describe the coloring of my particular cube, note that there are 10
different colors. The U face is blue and the D face is white. Then starting at
the 6'o clock edge column (i.e 1/3 of the F face) we have: GOLD(e),ORANGE(w),
RED(e),PURPLE(w),YELLOW(e),PINK(w),GREEN(e),LIGHT BLUE(w). (Where e=edge and
w=wedge colums respectively). I chose this particular orientation because it
makes red=left and green=right which is nice. Note however that this "cube"
may be reassembled in various legal patterns since the edge column/wedge column
neighbouring properties are not forced. This further complicates solving since
there in no way of knowing which sequence the "corners" and edges go in layer1
unless you have a map. Once this is known, solving is straight forward, but
as said the wedges will confuse you. Qestion: Is there some way of deter-
mining the parity etc, such that the object may be solved without a map
of layer one?  I invite comments from Jim and Dan. If it is the case
that these pseudo-cubes (how about Rubik's Drum) are not available in
the US, I can send one or two samples. The drums are made in Taiwan and
are not as well finished or as smooth turning as Ideals cubes. Random
twisting produces very strange shapes and the Cruxi Plummeri et Cristmani
are simply out of this world.
OK, thats it. Hope this made sense, but this thing is more difficult to
describe that its predecessor,- so forgive me if I haven't succeeded.
Cheers      OLE