“A source of much rational entertainment”

Abstract

“A certain degree of mathematical science, and indeed no inconsiderable degree, is perhaps more widely diffused in England, than in any other country in the world. The Ladies’ Diary, with several other periodicals and popular publications of the same kind, are the best proofs of this assertion. In these, many curious problems, not of the highest order indeed, but still having a considerable degree of difficulty, and far beyond the mere elements of science are to be met with; and the great number of ingenious men who take a share in proposing and answering these questions, whom one has never heard of anywhere else, is not a little surprising. Nothing of the same kind, we believe, is to be found in any other country.”These words of John Playfair’s are quoted by R. C. Archibald in his survey of the “minor English mathematical serials” which appeared in the celebratory 200th issue of this Gazette. Archibald describes how, early in the eighteenth century, serials containing elementary mathematical problems began to appear. Thus, during a century or more when mathematics had still to establish itself in the curriculum of the country’s leading endowed schools, numerous attempts were made to interest the ‘reading’ public in the subject and to serve those readers who were already ‘scientific’. An earlier, extensive survey of such publications was undertaken in the Mechanics Magazine (1848-1853) by T. T. Wilkinson [3] (who also wrote, inter alia, on that arcane (to two Yorkists!) subject “The origin and progress of the study of geometry in Lancashire”). Little, however, appears to have been done in recent years to examine these early attempts to diffuse mathematical knowledge: to study the mathematics contained in such periodicals and columns, how it was learned and enjoyed, and the people who set and solved the problems. This, in a small way, is what is attempted in this investigation. As our subject we chose to study the mathematical column which appeared in the York Courant during the early years of the nineteenth century.