Jolly Jugs appear to be quite normal, but they have a rather unexpected trick to them. Fill the jug with water, and you can pour the water out from the spout in the normal way. However you can also make the water come out from a hole in the bottom of the jug. And then, at a word of command from you or from a spectator, you can make the water stop flowing from the bottom of the jug.
We know that Jolly Jugs were made in the 19th Century - Tim has one in his collection. And a puzzle collector friend of Tim had a small batch made some 40 years ago. But as far as we know, there is nowhere you can get one today. So we hunted around and found a skilled potter here in the UK, and she agreed to make a small batch for us.
The Jolly Jug works via a siphon in the handle. The siphon starts inside the jug, runs up one side of the handle and down the other side of the handle, emerging from a hole in the bottom of the jug. On the inside of the handle, near the top, you will find a small hole. You need to place your finger over this hole in order for the siphon to be able to work. Once the liquid is flowing from the bottom of the jug, you can make it stop by removing your finger from the hole, which breaks the siphon.
All the Jolly Jugs we have seen up until now show part of the mechanism when you look inside the jug - the bottom of the handle passes through the wall of the jug, and then bends downwards towards the bottom of the jug. This is very visible when you look inside the jug. These latest jugs hide the mechanism much more, in that the siphon is hidden in the wall and the bottom of the jug. If you look inside the jug, the only clue is a small hole on one side of the jug.
The jugs are 21.5 cm high and weigh 1.275 kg
These are complicated to make, and they do not all survive being fired in the kiln, so this is a very limited run!
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