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Transcriber's Notes:

  Underscores "_" before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
    in the original text.
  Equals signs "=" before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold=
    in the original text.
  The carat symbol "^" is used to indicate a superscript.
  Small capitals have been converted to BLOCK capitals.
  Antiquated spellings have been preserved.
  Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations
    in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered.
  Answers are provided at the end of the book to numbered questions,
    however in the original text, numbers 237 to 241 were omitted
    for some reason.

                        “LAUGH AND GROW FAT.”




                          THE PUZZLE KING.


                         AMUSING ARITHMETIC.
                       BOOK-KEEPING BLUNDERS.
                      COMMERCIAL COMICALITIES.
              CURIOUS “CATCHES.”    PECULIAR PROBLEMS.
                        PERPLEXING PARADOXES.
                QUAINT QUESTIONS.    QUEER QUIBBLES.
                           SCHOOL STORIES.
                         INTERESTING ITEMS.

        Tricks with Figures, Cards, Draughts, Dice, Dominoes,
                          Etc., Etc., Etc.

                           By JOHN SCOTT,

  Author of “How to Become Quick at Figures,” “Doctrine of Chance,”
        “Tank Calculator,” “Cyanide Vat Calculator,” &c., &c.

                      INSTRUCTIVE and AMUSING.

                             Copyright.

                              Brisbane,
   H. J. DIDDAMS & CO., Printers and Publishers, Elizabeth Street,
                             MDCCCXCIX.




PREFACE.


    A puzzle is not solved, impatient sirs,
    By peeping at its answer in a trice:
    When Gordius, the ploughboy King of Phrygia,
    Tied up his implements of husbandry
    In the far-famed knot, rash Alexander
    Did not undo by cutting it in twain.

It is hoped that this little book may prove useful, not only in
connection with puzzles for home amusement, but that by inducing
people to consider the various difficulties met with in business and
trade some at least may be led to greater success in dealing with the
practical puzzles and problems of everyday life.

It is the special desire of the author to produce a “sugar-coated
mathematical pill,” as he feels convinced that many can more easily
grasp the truth when it is put before them in a light manner than
when brought forward in the usual orthodox fashion.

No pains have been spared to make the PUZZLE KING the best
of its kind yet produced, and the author here wishes to thank his
many friends who have so kindly assisted him. It would be well-nigh
impossible to individualize; but especial thanks are due to Thos.
Finney, Esq., M.L.A. (Brisbane), for the interest he has manifested
throughout, and the kindly help he has so often rendered the author.

It might afford our readers some pleasure to know that this work
is entirely Australian. The printers, artist, and author are all
colonial-born, and the production of the former two, at any rate,
will compare favourably with that of any others.

The engravings throughout have been in the hands of Mr. Murray Fraser
and staff, whose experience in this special art has tended to make
the book more attractive than it otherwise would have been.

The author is not above receiving any suggestions or contributions in
the way of peculiar puzzles or commercial comicalities, which might
enhance the value of the book. Intending contributors are invited
to communicate to the address given below, and can rest assured
that they will be remunerated according to the merits of their
communications.

                                                   THE AUTHOR.
   _44, Pitt Street, Sydney._

_Refer to Appendix for Answers to numbered Problems._




READING BIG NUMBERS.

Wonderful Calculations.


Although we are accustomed to speak in the most airy fashion of
millions, billions, &c., and “rattle” off at a breath strings of
figures, the fact still remains that we are unable to grasp their
vastness. Man is finite--numbers are infinite!

                        ONE MILLION

Is beyond our conception. We can no more realise its immensity, than
we can the tenth part of a second. It should be a pleasing fact
to note that commercial calculations do not often extend beyond
millions; generally speaking, it is in the realm of speculative
calculation only, such as probability, astronomy, &c., that we are
brought face to face with these unthinkable magnitudes.

Who, for instance, could form the slightest idea that the odds
against a person tossing a coin in the air so as to bring a head
200 times in succession are
160693804425899027554196209234116260522202993782792835301375
(over I decillion, &c.) to 1 against him? Suppose that all the men,
women and children on the face of the earth were to keep on tossing
coins at the rate of a million a second for a million years, the
odds would still be too great for us to realise against any one
person succeeding in performing the above feat, and yet the number
representing the odds would be only half as long as the one already
given.

Or, who could understand the other equally astounding fact that
Sirius, the Dog-star, is 130435000000000 miles from the earth, or
even that the earth itself is 5426000000000000000000 tons in weight.

                     WHAT IS A BILLION

In Europe and America, the billion is 1,000,000,000--a thousand
millions--but in Great Britain and her Colonies, a billion is
reckoned 1,000,000,000,000--a million millions: a difference which
should perhaps be worth remembering in the case of francs and dollars.

One billion sovereigns placed side by side would extend to a distance
of over 18,000,000 miles, and make a band which would pass 736 times
round the globe, or, if lying side by side, would form a golden belt
around it over 26 ft. wide; if the sovereigns were placed on top of
each other flatways, the golden column would be more than a million
miles in height.

Supposing you could count at the rate of 200 a minute; then, in
one hour, you could count 12,000--if you were not interrupted. Well,
12,000 an hour would be 288,000 a day; and a year, or 365 days,
would produce 105,120,000. But this would not allow you a single
moment for sleep, or for any other business whatever. If Adam at
the beginning of his existence, had begun to count, had continued to
count, and were counting still, he would not even now, according to
the usually supposed age of man, have counted nearly enough. To
count a billion, he would require 9,512 years, 342 days, 5 hours and 20
minutes, according to the above reckoning. But suppose we were to
allow the poor counter twelve hours daily for rest, eating and sleeping,
he would need 19,025 years, 319 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes to
count one billion.

  A comparison--
        