PUZZLES, PASTIMES AND PROBLEMS.

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 29 (Supplement)

PUZZLES, PASTIMES AND PROBLEMS.

For the Christmas Party.

(By Meredith Crosby.)

Exclusive to The Dominion

“Dear me,” said the old man Phillips, “let me see — oh, yes, I am ever so pleased to have my Christmas dinner with you this year. I remember that last year we were quite a family party. There was my father’s brother-in-law, my brother’s father-in-law, my father-in-law’s brother-in-law, and my brother-in-law’s father-in-law;” “But you told us you dined alone,” we said; “your memory must be getting bad now.” “Oh, no, not a bit of it; my memory is all right, as good as it was fifty years ago.” Whatever did the old chap mean? He did not give us the chance to think about it then, but kept us all merry and bright with his puzzles and problems. Tlie Window Puzzle. “They have just been to my house,” he said, “and made a window twice its original size, but have not increased its height or width. How did they do it? Oh, that’s easy —it was diamondshaped. By enlarging it to a square its area was exactly doubled, but its width and height remained the same!” Balancing a Sixpence. “Who can balance a sixpence on the point of a needle?” There was great fun with needles and sixpences, and when the old gentleman had picked up sundry sixpences which had dropped on the floor, he asked for a corked winebottle, another cork of smaller size, a needle and a couple of dessert forks of equal size and weight, and, of course, he wanted another sixpence! He fixed the needle, point upwards, in the cork of the wine-bottle. Then he cut a slit a quarter of an inch deep across the top of the smaller cork, and pressed the sixpence into the cut so made. Holding

turned round, or altered by means of only one hand. Show the dial and hand for inspection, then the dial should be held or hung up, and a number is requested to be called out. When the number is called, tlie performer puts on the hand and spins it, and presently the hand is seen to slacken and eventually stop dead over the number called. In showing the dial and hand the performer is careful to retain the attachment. When the hand is returned he slips the clip on the tube. 1711011 a number is called out, point the hand to that figure on the imaginary clock, and move the clip until it is directly underneath the tube. Having the clip set. place the hand on a spindle, give it a sharp spin, and presently it will stop dead, pointing to the figure called.