SQUARING THE CIRCLE 29 



cutting a circle and a square out of the same piece of sheet 

 metal and weighing them, would have done so. And yet 

 by this method even a common pair of grocer's scales will 

 show to any common-sense person the error of Mr. Smith's 

 value and the correctness of the accepted ratio. 



Even .a still later instance is found in a writer who, in 

 1892, contended in the New York "Tribune" for 3.2 

 instead of 3.1416, as the value of the ratio. He an- 

 nounces it as the re-discovery of a long lost 'secret, which 

 consists in the knowledge of a certain line called "the 

 Nicomedean line." This announcement gave rise to con- 

 siderable discussion, and even towards the dawn of the 

 twentieth century 3.2 had its advocates as against the 

 accepted ratio 3.1416. 



Verily the slaves of the mighty wizard, Michael Scott, 

 have not yet ceased from their labors ! 



