The Cushion Covers.
The above represents a square of brocade. A lady wishes to cut it in
four pieces so that two pieces will form one perfectly square cushion
top, and the remaining two pieces another square cushion top. How is sh...
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The Level Puzzle.
This is a simple counting puzzle. In how many different ways can you
spell out the word LEVEL by placing the point of your pencil on an L and
then passing along the lines from letter to letter. You may go in an...
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A Lodging-house Difficulty.
The Dobsons secured apartments at Slocomb-on-Sea. There were six rooms
on the same floor, all communicating, as shown in the diagram. The rooms
they took were numbers 4, 5, and 6, all facing the sea. But a litt...
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The Pardoner's Puzzle
The gentle Pardoner, "that straight was come from the court of Rome," begged to be excused; but the...
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The Fifteen Turnings.
Here is another queer travelling puzzle, the solution of which calls for
ingenuity. In this case the traveller starts from the black town and
wishes to go as far as possible while making only fifteen turnings a...
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Tasting The Plum Puddings
"Everybody, as I suppose, knows well that the number of different Christmas plum puddings that you taste...
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A Match Mystery.
Here is a little game that is childishly simple in its conditions. But
it is well worth investigation.
Mr. Stubbs pulled a small table between himself and his friend, Mr.
Wilson, and took a box of matches, from...
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The Potato Puzzle.
Take a circular slice of potato, place it on the table, and see into how
large a number of pieces you can divide it with six cuts of a knife. Of
course you must not readjust the pieces or pile them after a cut....
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The Industrious Bookworm.
Our friend Professor Rackbrane is seen in the illustration to be
propounding another of his little posers. He is explaining that since he
last had occasion to take down those three volumes of a learned book
fro...
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The Buried Treasure
The problem of the Buried Treasure was of quite a different character. A young fellow named Dawkins, just home from Australia, was introduced to the club by one of the members, in order that he might rela...
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The Millionaire's Perplexity.
Mr. Morgan G. Bloomgarten, the millionaire, known in the States as the
Clam King, had, for his sins, more money than he knew what to do with.
It bored him. So he determined to persecute some of his poor but hap...
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The Two Pawns.
Here is a neat little puzzle in counting. In how many different ways may
the two pawns advance to the eighth square? You may move them in any
order you like to form a different sequence. For example, you may mo...
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Slow Cricket.
In the recent county match between Wessex and Nincomshire the former
team were at the wickets all day, the last man being put out a few
minutes before the time for drawing stumps. The play was so slow that
most...
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The Eccentric Cheesemonger.
The cheesemonger depicted in the illustration is an inveterate puzzle
lover. One of his favourite puzzles is the piling of cheeses in his
warehouse, an amusement that he finds good exercise for the body as well...
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The Bicycle Thief.
Here is a little tangle that is perpetually cropping up in various
guises. A cyclist bought a bicycle for L15 and gave in payment a cheque
for L25. The seller went to a neighbouring shopkeeper and got him to
ch...
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The Village Simpleton.
A facetious individual who was taking a long walk in the country came
upon a yokel sitting on a stile. As the gentleman was not quite sure of
his road, he thought he would make inquiries of the local inhabitant...
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The Trusses Of Hay.
Farmer Tompkins had five trusses of hay, which he told his man Hodge to
weigh before delivering them to a customer. The stupid fellow weighed
them two at a time in all possible ways, and informed his master tha...
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The Scientific Skater.
It will be seen that this skater has marked on the ice sixty-four points
or stars, and he proposes to start _from his present position_ near the
corner and enter every one of the points in fourteen straight lin...
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The Wrong Hats.
"One of the most perplexing things I have come across lately," said Mr.
Wilson, "is this. Eight men had been dining not wisely but too well at a
certain London restaurant. They were the last to leave, but not o...
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Sir Edwyn De Tudor.
In the illustration we have a sketch of Sir Edwyn de Tudor going to
rescue his lady-love, the fair Isabella, who was held a captive by a
neighbouring wicked baron. Sir Edwyn calculated that if he rode fifteen
m...
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