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Last updated 6/11/2025

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This page is being used to collect information about the history of ways of constructing squares from oblongs. Please contact me if you know any of this information is incorrect or if you have any other information that should be added. Thank you.

Note that this page has been started at a late stage and does not yet contain information from all known sources

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Froebel's method of cutting four squares from a rectangle - 1850 onwards

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How to make a square from an oblong by folding the short edge onto the longer and cutting off the excess.

1863

This method appears in 'Katechismus der praktischen Kindergärtnerei' by Friedrich Seidel, which was published by J J Weber in Leipzig in 1863.

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1879

In 'Paedagogische Bibliotheek VI: Frobel' by J Versluys, which was published by W Versluys in Groningen in 1879.

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The opening paragraph of section 1 of the chapter about 'El Plegado' in 'Manual Teorico-Practico de Educacion Parvulos' by D Pedro de Alcantara Garcia, which was published in Madrid by the Imprenta del Colegio Nacional de Sordo-mudos y de Ciegos in 1879, reads, roughly translated: 'Children instinctively ... know and perform the operation of folding and always begin from its true starting oint, which is the square, since it is observed that whenever they try to make some of the objects they obtain by folding (pajaritas, boats, hats etc) they begin by squaring the paper.' The passage goes on to describe How to construct squares from an oblong.

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