A brightly-colored version of this ancient optical illusion toy. An ancient toy featuring optical illusion and hands-on fun that never grows old. Made of 2 square wood blocks and colorful ribbon. How does it work? The wooden blocks clatter infinitely down the sides, suspended on colorful interwoven ribbons. The Jacob's ladder is one of the most ancient and famous of folk toys. Legend has it that one was found in King Tut's tomb, which means these fascinating toys were played with in Egypt before 1352 B.C. Jacob's ladders, named for the biblical Jacob who saw a ladder leading from earth to heaven in a vision, have shown up all over the world. Like the spinning top, the Jacob's ladder seems to be universal, appearing at widely divergent world locations with no apparent historical connectedness. To operate the toy, simply hold the top block by its edges and let the rest of the identical blocks swing downward until the ladder is fully open. Then, holding the top block by its edges, turn it 180 in a left rotation, until the top and second blocks are parallel and touching. When the held block hits the hanging block, a series of blocks will begin cascading down. There's a neat baffling trick you can play with your Jacob's ladder: Fold up a dollar bill into a small rectangle and tuck it under one of the tapes. Then operate the toy. The dollar will successively disappear, appear, disappear, and so on, for no apparent reason. For ages 3 to 93.
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