The St. Johns herald., 1891-04-23
THE COLUMBIAN EGG.
Another Theory of How the Feat Was Ac-
 comp isheti.

 Another Theory of How the Feat Was Ac-
 comp ished.
 The Columbian Exposition has brought the egg story into prominence again: and in order that it may not entirely di- vert public attention from the main ob- iect of the worlds fair, and as an act of justice to the memory of Columbus him. self, think it is time to give the story an eternal rest, writes M II. Trumbull, ia Opera Court. The fable runs that the problem of standing an egg on end having been submitted as a puzzle to Columbus, he solved t instantly by tap ping the egg on the table, and breaking the end Of 1t just enough to make fiat basis oa which it stood drEn, without Q Quiver. According to the legend, the philosophers who thought to cOnfOund the great mathematician by such a sim pie question, accepted the solution as correct, acknowledged themselves de- fcatcd, and if there was Q bet upon it, ss suppose there was, gave up the money. It is not a grateful duty to abolish popular myths, but this, like so many better ones, must go.
 Evidently. the Columbian egg story is D fiction, because if true. Columbus must have been clumsy juggIer, and the breaking of the egg a confession of defeat, an acknowledgment that the probleIa could not be solved without vi- olating it's first implied condition, name ly, that the egg, uninjured, should stand alone and unsupported on a level sur face. Breaking the egg, so far from solving the problem, was a77 evasion Of its terms, ike untying the Gordian knot by cutting it into pieces, which was not pntying it at all. Columbus might iust es well have stuck the egg up- right into the salt upon the table, and called that a solution of the puzzle. To make an egg stand upright On a plane surface is not a difficult feat; I have known how to do it for more years than 1 care to mention, but l have not revealed the secret, fearing that unprinciplod men might use it for betting purposes and win great fortunes with it: but in the Chicago Tribune find the ancient fiction served up again for the benefit of correspondent who, being in possession of print Of Ho- garth's picture of Columbus and the egg, wanted to know the meaning and the moral of the picture. Rather than endure this any longer l will now give the Columbian secret away.
 One day when was boy at school we had for reading lesson the story of Columbus and the egg. In my class was 9 little Irish boy about my own age whose name was Jerry Grady, and when school was out for noon Jerry said to me: Did ye mind that sthory about Columbus and the egg? Sure that's not the way the thrick was done ct all, at all. Come wid me and I'll show yc how Clumbus done it." Now it so happened that Jerry's mother kept chickens, and when we reached the house he had 10 trouble in finding a fresh egg. First putting a clean plate on the table, Jerry took the egg and shook it violently for some seconds or until the yel1 and the white were thor oughly mixed, like compound of milk and water. Then, after holding the egg upright o.' the plate until the mix ture inside Of it had settled quietly into the broad base of it, he withdrew 1:;;s Is hand and left the egg standing upright and alone. There" said he, that's the way Columbus done it. and have TO doubt it was, fer l have often done it myself that way, and anybody else can do it. My object in correcting this bit cf history is to set Columbus right be- fore the world and to rescue him frCm tho suspicion that he WaS irnOrant of the easy, scientific and purely mechani- cal solution of the egg problem. The reason why an egg will not stand on end is that it's contents are not balanced either in weight or place, but after they are thoroughly mixed the egg will easily recognize it's own center Of gray ity and stand upright like 9 toy soldier which is made on the same principle
 TILE CNRFONAR