THE  SPHINX  MEMORIAL

The journal Sphinx, subtitled "Revue Mensuelle des Questions Récréatives", was published in Belgium in French language, from 1931 to 1939, entirely devoted to recreational mathematics.

The editor was Maurice Kraitchik, an outstanding mathematician professor at the University of Brussels, and M. Pigeolet, a great master puzzlist, was the cryptarithmetic editor.

Sphinx cryptarithms were either contributed by M. Pigeolet or otherwise submited by the subscribers to the magazine. To boost interest on cryptarithmetic, Sphinx editors used to organize puzzle contests paying cash prizes to the winners. Along the year 1933 they were running "The Cryptarithmetic Year" competition, followed by "The Cryptarithmetic Key" in January 1934.

It was in the Sphinx edition of May 1931 that Simon Vatriquant, using the pseudonym "Minos", first introduced the word "crypt-arithmetic" when proposing the following puzzle with these comments:

    Cryptographers, to hide the
     meaning  of messages,  put 
     figures in place of letters.
     By way of reprisal, we will
     replace  each  digit of the 
     following  problem  with  a 
     distinct letter:
 
               A B C
                 D E
             ---------
               F E C
             D E C
            ----------
             H G B C

Most of the information available about Sphinx comes from Maxey Brooke's book "150 Puzzles in Crypt-Arithmetic".

Commenting on the historic mission of Sphinx he says:

    If the readers of Sphinx  did
     not  originate the (type  of) 
     problem, they certainly elevated
     it to a plane  never  achieved 
     before or since.  
 

We dedicate our solemn and perennial gratitude to the Sphinx editors, contributors and readers who, early back in the thirties, laid the firm foundations of the cryptarithmetic noble art.