Riddles
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Riddles. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about other peoples, religions, or nationalities that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) or QUESTION PUZZLES. They were widely popular in dim antiquity, as today they are popular among many half-civilized races-not absolute savages, for to perceive an analogy demands some measure of culture. They may be broadly divided into two classes -riddles admitting of more or less easy solution, and riddles whose solution is beyond any wit of man, unless indeed, as is very often the case, the answer is known already. To the former class belong the enigma propounded by the Sphinx to Edipus, and that which, according to Plutarch, Homer died of chagrin at not being able to answer. It seems to us easy now, for it was the one about the two boys who went hunting: all they caught they flung away, and all they could not catch they carried home. Propounding of riddles for wagers meets us frequently. Josephus relates how Solomon and Hiram, King of Tyre, once had a contest, in which Solomon first won a large sum of money from Hiram, but presently lost it all back to Hiram's subject Abdemon The riddle is found in the Koran, and several collections of riddles exist in Arabic and Persian. They were, it seems, also known to the ancient Egyptians, while among the Greeks they were allied in the earliest times with the oracular responses. But in Greece they first came into vogue about the time of the "Seven Sages," one of whom, Cleobulus, was celebrated for the composition of metrical griphoi. Apuleius wrote a "Bock of Jokes and Riddles," but it is lost. The riddle was much cultivated during the Middle Ages. Many French, English, and German riddle-books exist in MS., and some were printed at an early period. Wynkyn de Worde's "Joyous Questions" (1511) contains several riddles that are simply coarse jests; but others, again, well illustrate the simple faith of mediæval Christendom -e. g., "Demand: What bare the best burden that ever was borne? Response: The ass that carried our Lady when she fled with our Lord into Egypt." The Reformation checked, if it did not wholly stop, the merry pastime of riddle-making ; but in France, in the 17th century, it began to creep back into favor, till at last riddles rivaled in popularity the madrigals and sonnets of the period. Le Père Menestrier, in 1694, wrote a grave treatise on the subject. The taste for riddle -making grew and grew, and many brilliant French writers, such as Boileau, Voltaire , Madame du Deffand, and Rousseau, did a little in this line. In Germany we have Schiller's delightful extravaganza "Turandot," and in England Cowper, Fox, Canning, and Praed are a few of the makers of poetical riddles or charades. Today with us the riddle is a mere jeu d'esprit, a conundrum or pun couched question -wise; but among the Irish, German , and Russian peasantry, the gipsies, the Zulus, the Samoans, and many more races, the oldfashioned senseriddles, often enshrining a mythological germ, still hold their own.
The Encyclopedia of Founding (1892)
There is no tool that a moulder uses more constantly than a riddle, and it behooves the proprietor to buy the very best riddle that he can find. The reason is obvious. A cheap riddle is put together in the quickest manner possible, the wood used in the rim is of the commonest kind, and much too light for the purpose. The wire is bought by the pound, therefore the lighter wire is put in the riddle to lessen the cost; the wire for, say, a No. 6 extra-heavy riddle is used for a No. 4 cheap riddle, etc.; then the cloth is cut so sparingly that it does not wrap upon the rim far enough to hold for any length of time. Nine times out of ten one or the other (cloth or rim) gives way before the light wire wears out. The brass riddle is undoubtedly the best for use on the foundry-floor: it never rusts; the wires are always clean of sand, allowing the use of the full mesh. A steel-wire riddle will rust; and the galvanized riddle having wires of a rough surface, the sand will cling to them, filling up the meshes, thereby taking longer time to riddle the sand. For iron, coal, or cinder riddles the heavy crimped iron-wire riddle is the best. Those made especially for sifting iron out of sand and other similar uses should be made one-inch mesh, from good strong iron wire. Parting-sand riddles or sieves, any diameter, with or without crossbars, can be obtained from the dealers, and special sizes of heavy steel sand-screens may be had from the same parties, as well as an endless variety of power and portable sand-sifting machines. The revolving riddle or screen is a remarkable improvement on existing methods for sifting and mixing sand. See SAND-SCREEN.