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    Vintage Games with Letters and Numbers
    Vintage Games with Letters and Numbers
    Vintage Games with Letters and Numbers
    Ebook127 pages1 hour

    Vintage Games with Letters and Numbers

    By White Press

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A fascinating collection of some fifty brain teasing games and puzzles using letters and numbers. These have been gleaned from Victorian times and earlier and are guaranteed to provide many hours of family entertainment. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWhite Press
    Release dateOct 13, 2017
    ISBN9781473342293
    Vintage Games with Letters and Numbers

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      Book preview

      Vintage Games with Letters and Numbers - White Press

      Vintage Games with

      Letters and Numbers

      By

      Various Authors

      CONTENTS

      ARITHMETICAL PUZZLES.

      AMERICAN PUZZLES 15 AND 34,

      THE MAGIC NINE, OR THE PUZZLE OF FIFTEEN.

      THE MAGIC THIRTY-SIX, OR PUZZLE OF ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN.

      THE MAGIC HUNDRED, OR THE PUZZLE OF FIVE HUNDRED AND FIVE,

      THE TWENTY-FOUR MONKS.

      TO TAKE ONE FROM NINETEEN, SO THAT THE REMAINDER SHALL BE TWENTY.

      THE FAMOUS FORTY-FIVE.

      THE COSTERMONGER’S PUZZLE.

      THE PROGRESSION OF NUMBERS.

      HOW A NUMBER THOUGHT OF OR OTHERWISE INDICATED MAY BE TOLD.

      MAGICAL ADDITION.

      THE CLEVER LAWYER.

      A NEW WAY OF MULTIPLYING BY 9.

      TO REWARD THE FAVOURITES, AND SHOW NO FAVOURITISM.

      THE DISHONEST SERVANTS.

      LORD DUNDREARY’S FINGER PUZZLE TO COUNT ELEVEN FINGERS ON THE TWO HANDS.

      UNIFORM RESULTS OF MULTIPLICATION.

      TO ASCERTAIN A SQUARE NUMBER AT A GLANCE.

      TO DISTINGUISH COINS BY ARITHMETICAL CALCULATION.

      PROPERTIES OF NUMBERS.

      FIRESIDE FUN.

      DECAPITATIONS.

      CURTAILMENTS AND RETAILINGS.

      ANAGRAMS.

      WORD SQUARES.

      BIRDS, FRUITS, AND FLOWERS ENIGMATICALLY EXPRESSED.

      REBUSES.

      ARITHMOREMS.

      DIAMOND PUZZLES AND WORD PUZZLES OF VARIOUS SHAPES.

      CRYPTOGRAPHY.

      CHRONOGRAMS.

      LOGOGRAMS.

      METAGRAMS.

      WORD CAPPING.

      PARAGRAMS.

      EXTRACTIONS.

      TRANSPOSITIONS.

      DEFINITIONS.

      INVERSIONS.

      HIDDEN WORDS.

      NUMBERED CHARADES.

      LETTER OR FIGURE CHARADES.

      VERBAL CHARADES.

      ACROSTICS.

      ENIGMAS.

      ALPHABETICAL PUZZLES.

      GUESSING STORIES.

      MENTAL SCENES.

      ARITHMETICAL PUZZLES.

      UNDER this heading we propose to give some arithmetical puzzles, to speak of the power of different numbers, to show some of the curious combinations of which numbers are capable, and generally to give such examples as our space will admit to explain how the science of numbers may be made to do service for our amusement.

      Among the most popular of number puzzles are the

      AMERICAN PUZZLES 15 AND 34,

      which have been christened Boss. The materials of the puzzles are very simple, a description that may indeed be applied to all the amusements dealt with in this section. The puzzles, as purchased, consist of a square box of sixteen small wooden cubes, numbered from 1 to 16. The box of cubes may be purchased in the streets for a very trifling sum, or it may be obtained in the toy-shops in a more elaborate form, but still at a small cost. The popularity of the game may be guessed from the statement made by a New York toy-dealer to the effect that in one day he disposed of no less than 230 gross of a cheap variety. In London, street toy-vendors by the score sold them all day long for weeks together when they were first introduced, and a leading toy-dealer in the fashionable neighbourhood of Regent Street says the number sold retail from his shop daily was enormous. Their popularity in other countries is equally great.

      The puzzle is twofold, and is described in the following quaint and curt manner in the little boxes sold in the streets:—

      The Puzzle of Fifteen.—Remove the 16 block. Put the pieces in the box irregularly, and arrange them to regular order by shoving.

      The Magic Sixteen, or the Puzzle of Thirty-four.—Arrange the sixteen blocks so that the sum of the numbers added up in any straight line, either vertical, horizontal, or diagonal, will be 34.

      It would appear that the 15 puzzle has the merit of being entirely new, a claim to which the 34 puzzle has no sort of right, it being found in many books of old and recent date. It is believed that there are in all sixteen different ways of arranging the numbered blocks so that the sum of the numbers will be 34 in every direction; but two ways will suffice to quote here, and they are as shown in Figs. 1, 2. The fascination and popularity of Boss, however, all centre around the 15 puzzle; it is the solution of that which is said to have sent some people mad, to have made more forsake their ordinary occupation, and which claims to have given to a still larger and ever growing number of human beings a new incentive to life. The puzzle is fairly stated above in the words, Put the pieces in the box irregularly, &c. As a first attempt, however, place the pieces as arranged when the 34 puzzle has been solved, and the 15 puzzle may be easily accomplished after a little practice. To describe the various moves would be unnecessary, but the object first to be aimed at is to get the first row of cubes, viz., 1, 2, 3, 4, into their proper places, attention being next directed to getting the 12 cube into its place; that cube will have to be again moved before all the cubes have been consecutively arranged, but it should always be kept as near to its proper position as possible. The cubes, when arranged, should read as follows (Fig. 3):—

      FIG. 1.—A SOLUTION OF THE 34 PUZZLE.

      Fig. 2.—ANOTHER SOLUTION OF THE 34 PUZZLE.

      Boss, or the real American puzzle of 15 is to place the numbered cubes, as shown in Fig. 4, in the box, and then to arrange them, by sliding and without lifting any one cube, so that they shall read consecutively. It may at once be said that the American puzzle has never yet been solved. But why? is asked by every one, and every one tries to solve it. Articles on the puzzle have appeared in many periodicals, but no one has had the hardihood to publish a solution of the American puzzle. An ingenious calculator has stated that the fifteen cubes may be arranged in the box in 1,307,674,318,000 different combinations, and that it would take one individual a whole year to work out 105,000 of these arrangements, if

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