19th century puzzle columns

It was not uncommon for late 19th century American newspapers and almanacs to publish mathematics problems. Readers would write in and offer their solutions, and the publications would recognize correct answers by publishing readers' names. It was typical for published problems at this time to be fairly simple, rote arithmetic problems that resembled problems from American mathematics textbooks of the time, for example asking the reader how to divide an estate equally among a man’s sons or asking how much grass a cow can eat at a certain pace. American universities at this time were opening up to European advancements in mathematics and pedagogy, but there had been little evidence of that influence at the ground level. The Delaware Gazette was unusual because in 1891 it published problems that were borrowed from popular European puzzle books that had been around for centuries, such as Récréations Mathématiques et Physiques (Recreations in Mathematics and Physics), compiled by Jacques Ozanam and published in 1694. Translations of Ozanam’s book were available in the United States in the nineteenth century but were probably difficult to find except in the large and cosmopolitan cities, and the problems, which were anything but rote, had not yet seeped into the American popular culture.

For more information, see the following publication about 19th-century mathematics columns:

Zelbo, S. (2019). The recreational mathematics activities of ordinary nineteenth century Americans: A case study of two mathematics puzzle columns and their contributors. British Journal for the History of Mathematics,34(3), 155-178, doi: 10.1080/26375451.2019.1646522

Problems from the Delaware Gazette and State Journal, 1891.

From the Delaware Gazette and State Journal,

April 9, 1891, p. 4.