The Junior Clerk's Puzzle.
Two youths, bearing the pleasant names of Moggs and Snoggs, were
employed as junior clerks by a merchant in Mincing Lane. They were both
engaged at the same salary--that is, commencing at the rate of L50 a
year...
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The Riddle Of The Pilgrims
One day, when the monks were seated at their repast, the Abbot announced that a messenger had that morning brought news that a number of pilgrims were on the road and would require their hospitality.
...
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Torpedo Practice.
If a fleet of sixteen men-of-war were lying at anchor and surrounded by
the enemy, how many ships might be sunk if every torpedo, projected in a
straight line, passed under three vessels and sank the fourth? In...
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The Cardboard Chain.
Can you cut this chain out of a piece of cardboard without any join
whatever? Every link is solid; without its having been split and
afterwards joined at any place. It is an interesting old puzzle that I
learnt...
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The Fifteen Orchards
In the county of Devon, where the cider comes from, fifteen of the inhabitants of a village are imbued with an ...
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The Cyclists' Tour.
Two cyclists were consulting a road map in preparation for a little tour
together. The circles represent towns, and all the good roads are
represented by lines. They are starting from the town with a star, and
...
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The Mandarin's "t" Puzzle.
Before Mr. Beauchamp Cholmondely Marjoribanks set out on his tour in the
Far East, he prided himself on his knowledge of magic squares, a subject
that he had made his special hobby; but he soon discovered that ...
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The Eight Rooks.
[Illustration:
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The Star Puzzle.
[Illustration:
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The Folded Cross.
Cut out of paper a Greek cross; then so fold it that with a single
straight cut of the scissors the four pieces produced will form a
square....
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The Abbot's Puzzle.
The first English puzzlist whose name has come down to us was a
Yorkshireman--no other than Alcuin, Abbot of Canterbury (A.D. 735-804).
Here is a little puzzle from his works, which is at least interesting on
a...
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Counter Solitaire.
Here is a little game of solitaire that is quite easy, but not so easy
as to be uninteresting. You can either rule out the squares on a sheet
of cardboard or paper, or you can use a portion of your chessboard. ...
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The Perplexed Cellarman
Here is a little puzzle culled from the traditions of an old monastery in the west of England. Abbot Francis, it seems, was a very worthy man; and his methods of equity extended to those little acts of ch...
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Under The Veil.
[Illustration:
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The Costermonger's Puzzle.
"How much did yer pay for them oranges, Bill?"
"I ain't a-goin' to tell yer, Jim. But I beat the old cove down
fourpence a hundred."
"What good did that do yer?"
"Well, it meant five more oranges on every ten s...
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The Four Knights' Tours.
I will repeat that if a chessboard be cut into four equal parts, as
indicated by the dark lines in the illustration, it is not possible to
perform a knight's tour, either re-entrant or not, on one of the parts....
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The Skipper And The Sea-serpent
Mr. Simon Softleigh had spent most of his life between Tooting Bec and Fenchurch Street. His knowledge of the sea was therefore very limited. So, as he was taking a holiday on the south coast, he thought ...
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The Widow's Legacy.
A gentleman who recently died left the sum of L8,000 to be divided among
his widow, five sons, and four daughters. He directed that every son
should receive three times as much as a daughter, and that every
dau...
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The Riddle Of The Frogs' Ring
One Christmas the Abbot offered a prize of a large black jack mounted in silver, to be engraved with the name of the monk who should put forth the best new riddle. This tournament of wit was won by Brothe...
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The Five Tea Tins
Sometimes people will speak of mere counting as one of the simplest operations in the world; but on occasions, as I shall show, it is far from easy. Sometimes the labour can be diminished by the use of li...
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Informational
