While updating “Graphs, Groups and Geometry” I also updated other things. One of it was that Larry Nichols, the inventor of the pocket cube (patent 1972, earlier than the Rubik one from 1974) has passed. But as I learned only after uploading the paper to the ArXiv, Nichols might still be alive after all. Here is what I just got back when investigating this using GPT 4.6 Sol. The model gave me the following paragraph:
The obituary that has been used for the inventor says that Larry D. Nichols, born December 27, 1939 in Elkland, Pennsylvania, died July 10, 2022 in Lorain, Ohio. That man had lived in Lorain for about 65 years, served in the Marines, worked for Ford for 30½ years, was married to Mary, and was the son of Theodore and Margaret Nichols. That plainly cannot be the cube inventor. The inventor grew up in Xenia, Ohio, graduated from Xenia High School in 1954, studied chemistry at DePauw, earned a doctorate at Harvard, married Karen, and spent his professional life around Cambridge/Arlington. Wikipedia has evidently merged the two people. Its current article combines the Xenia–DePauw–Harvard–Moleculon biography with the birth and death dates belonging to the Ford worker from Lorain. And there is an especially strong numerical check. A contemporary UPI story from January 25, 1984 calls the inventor: “Larry D. Nichols, 47, a Massachusetts puzzle enthusiast. That puts his birth between roughly January 1936 and January 1937. That fits perfectly with graduating from high school in 1954. A man born in December 1939 would have been only 14 for most of 1954. So the false obituary seems to have contaminated both ends of the biography: 1939 and 2022. The real Larry Nichols was therefore probably born around 1936, making him about 89 or 90 today if he is still alive.
The picture is a screenshot of this article by Serhiy Grabarchuk.
Here are the sources: “Larry D. Nichols 1939-2022” . And this article from the history of the Rubik cube is from 2014: the relevant part of that article is:
“A man originally from Xenia, Larry Nichols developed a similar game before Rubik’s Cube appeared on the market. Larry, the son of Daniel and Cleo Nichols, was a 1954 graduate of Xenia High School. He went on to study at DePauw, where he earned his Master’s Degree, then to Harvard where he received his Doctorate. He became a National Science fellow while at Harvard. As a Harvard student, he invented and produced about ten different games and puzzles, this was quite a pastime for him. He went on to become the chief scientist for Moleculon Research Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the primary products of Moleculon is Poroplastic, which was invented by Dr. Nichols in 1973. Poroplastic film has the mechanical properties of a typical plastic, but is able to hold large quantities of almost any liquid within its tiny pores. Current usage of Poroplastic materials centers on controlled drug delivery and environmental health and safety products. He has invented several other products for his company as well. As mentioned, Dr. Nichols loves to invent games and puzzles, and has marketed several through various companies. He began to experiment with small wooden cubes, magnets, pieces of metal and scrap materials. This was the beginning of a cube which would move in many different ways. He thought this particular puzzle might have some value on the market, so he showed the invention to his boss. His boss liked it and offered to submit the idea to the Ideal Toy Company, on condition of sharing the profits from the sale of this clever device. The company applied for and in 1972 received Patent No. 3,655,201 from the U. S. Patent Office. The clever cube design was then offered to the Ideal Toy Company, but the company expressed no interest in such a puzzle. A couple of years later, Rubik’s Cube hit the shelves! You can imagine the dismay of the original inventor when the toy arrived on the market. His invention had been marketed by another inventor. At first, he was amused that someone else had come up with the same puzzle. He was certain that Rubik had not stolen his idea, but had come up with the idea for the puzzle independently. But then, Dr. Nichols realized that this could have been his name going down in history. It could have been the “Nichols’ Cube”. He recalled that this invention could have been a “once in a lifetime thing” for him. Moleculon Research, who held the patent, sued the Ideal Toy Company for patent infringement. After a great deal of “talking”, a settlement was finally reached but not in the amount Moleculon and Dr. Nichols had hoped for. The suit asked for $60 million, but the settlement was nowhere near that amount. I spoke with him a few years ago, and asked if he was satisfied with the settlement. He said he had not received a great amount, but was able to send his two boys to Harvard with what he had received. His parents moved away from Xenia some years ago. He retired from the company and was, at one time, living with his wife in Massachusetts.”
Here is what came out after asking GPT for more detective work:
- 1954: Larry Nichols, son of Daniel and Cleo Nichols, graduates from Xenia High School. He subsequently attends DePauw; DePauw identifies him as Larry Nichols, 58, a Rector Scholar.
- 1950s-1961: He goes to Harvard for graduate work and earns a doctorate. While a student he is already designing games and puzzles.
- 1962: He begins working for Moleculon in Cambridge. His pocket cube eventually becomes U.S. Patent 3,655,201, filed March 4, 1970 and issued April 11, 1972.
- 1972: Middlesex land records show Larry D. and Karen Nichols acquiring the Gray Street property in Arlington.
- 1984: He is 47 and personally testifying in the Rubik litigation. This is our unusually useful independent age datum.
- 1980s-990s: Nichols keeps inventing. Patent databases show a string of materials-science and drug-delivery inventions through at least 1996
- 2005: A Larry D. Nichols appears as an important scientist at Biotek Inc. in Woburn, working on controlled-release and transdermal-drug-delivery
- 2009: A puzzle-history site still gives a conventional biography of Larry D. Nichols as the Xenia/DePauw/Harvard inventor.
- 2010 -2013: This is particularly important. In a 2014 history article, the author says explicitly, “I spoke with him a few years ago”.
- Now: DePauw’s own current Rector Scholar directory still has the entry “Larry Nichols, 58, Arlington, MA.
- 2025: The Town of Arlington’s official assessor file still lists NICHOLS LARRY D & KAREN C as the owners of 134 Gray Street.
The story is interesting.
