A Jacob's ladder is a folk toy consisting of blocks of wood held together by strings or ribbons. When the ladder is held at one end, blocks appear to cascade down the strings. However, this effect is a visual illusion which is the result of one block after another flipping over. Jacob's Ladder toys date back to pilgrim times in America. It is called a "tablita mágica" (magic tablets) in Spanish and was known to have been produced in the Americas since the earliest colonial times. Jacob's ladders are still handcrafted by indigenous craftsmen throughout Mexico. The toy is called Jacob's Ladder because its seemingly endless tumbling of blocks is said to resemble a dream of angels continuously ascending and descending a ladder to heaven, as dreamed by the biblical patriarch Jacob (Genesis 28:12). Because of the Biblical connection, and because it was a "nice quiet toy", Puritan children were allowed to play with it on Sundays (see Historical Folk Toys).
Construction
A Jacob's ladder is usually constructed of six wood blocks. The toy depends on a counterintuitive arrangement of interlaced ribbons which allow each block to act as if hinged to the next one at either of its two ends. The same mechanism is used in the 1980s toy Rubik's Magic but with plastic strings run diagonally across squares, with the result that the squares can hinge along either of two adjacent sides.
