Babbage on Chess! (1817) Plus Davy, Faraday, and others

[Babbage, Charles] "An Account of Euler's Method of Solving a Problem, relative to the Move of the Knight at the Game of Chess, from a  Correspondent", in The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, and the Arts, edited at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, published by John Murray for the Royal Institution, London, 1817-18; volume 3, No. V, article V,  pp.72-77; illustrated with an engraved plate; contained in the volume of xxiii, 435pp, with 4 plates (two folding).  Bound in half-calf with calf tips, and marbled boards.  $500

The "Correspondent" here is Mr. Babbage himself, with the authorship established at least by the time of his Passages from the Life of a Philosopher if not before. The Knight's Tour puzzle--in which a  knight is moved around a chessboard (8x8 grid, though smaller and much larger have been used) so that every square is touched only once--is ancient, with the host of the famous 18th century mathematical revelers³ positioning the problem in the dim past, with Lucas in 1882 and then Kraitchik in 1927² fixing it more resolutely in India over 2000 years ago.Passages from the life of a philosopher

Notes

1. See the "collected works" section in Babbage's Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864) where he outs himself as the author.  https://archive.org/stream/passagesfromlif01babbgoog/passagesfromlif01babbgoog_djvu.txt

2. "Chronology of Knight's Tours", compiled by George Jelliss, http://www.mayhematics.com/t/1g.htm

3. Just as a smaple the folks working on this puzzle in the 18th c included d'Alembert and Diderot in the Encyclopedie; Jacques Ozanam  in Recreations Mathematiques et Physiques; d'Ortous de Mairan, Abraham de Moivre, Pierre Rémond de Montmort; Jean Etienne Montucla,, Leonhard Euler, and many others.

The "Euler" in the title refers to Leonhard Euler "Solution d'une Question Curieuse qui ne Paroit Soumise a Aucune Analyse", Mémoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres, Année 1759, volume 15, pp.310-337, which was the first mathematical paper on knight's tours.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS to the volume (including Babbage, Farady, Wedgwood, Davy, and others):

• Babbage, Charles. "Note Respecting Elimination", pp 355-358. 
• "An Enquiry into the Origin of our Notion of Distance, Drawn up from Notes left by the late Thomas Wedgwood"
• "A Descriptive Account of Mr. Thompson's Laboratory at Cheltenham, for the Preparation of the Cheltenham Salts; with a Chemical Analysis of the Waters whence they are
  produced, by W. T. Brande"
• "Some Experiments and Observations on a new Acid Substance." By M. Faraday
• "Journal of a Voyage up the River Missouri, performed in 1811. By H. B. Brackenbridge, Esq. Author of Views in Louisiana." Second Edition. Baltimore, 1816. . . 11pp
• "An Account of the Life and Writings of Baron Guyton de Morveau, F. R. S. Member of the Institute of France, &c.&c..." By A. B. Granville, (47pp!)
• "An Account of some Experiments on the Escape of Gasses through Capillary Tubes." By Mr. Faraday
• "On the Cause of the Diminution of the Temperature of the Sea on approaching Land, or in passing over Banks in the Ocean." By Sir H. Davy