Larry D. Nichols Larry D. Nichols Larry D. Nichols, born 1939 in the United States, is a puzzle designer. He grew up in Xenia, Ohio, and studied chemistry at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, before moving to Massachusetts to attend Harvard Graduate School. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including 'The Nichols Cube Puzzle' (1974), patent US365520. He has lived with his wife Karen in Arlington, Massachusetts since 1959. In 1957, 17 years before Dr. Rubik’s invention popularly known as the “Rubik's Cube”, Dr. Nichols conceived of a twist cube puzzle with six colored faces. It was a 2×2×2
Fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle riddle as "The Wolf, the goat and the cabbage". He notes, "This popular riddle clearly shows that...not solely by means of the ingenuity which every normal man should have, but that in addition he must not be lazy nor spare his strength, but must cross the river extra times for the attainment of his aim." Variations of the puzzle also appear in the Nintendo DS puzzle game "Professor Layton and the Curious Village", and in "The Simpsons" episode "Gone Maggie Gone", where Homer has to get across a river with Maggie, Santa's Little Helper, and a jar of rat poison