Who was Flower?

[SeanBothar]

Who was Flower? Where did she or he live? What is her or his first name?

We know John Mitchell was originally from Glasgow and settled in Chicago working as a bank clerk.

He published books on Whist and has been called the "Father of Duplicate Whist".

Edwin Howell was born in Nantucket and was a mathematics lecturer in Baltimore.

He also published books on his Whist movements.

Details about Flower seem hard to find.

The Flower Howells have been little used over the past 100 years because of the complex board movement.

Because BBO uses the same boards for all tables each round the board movement problem doesn't arise.

Flower would be amazed that her or his movements are now used daily on BBO by enormous number of players.

Maybe a BBO history cognoscente can give us details about Flower.

[FelicityR]

A guess. Flower Howell is also called an Endless Howell movement, as far as I know, and 'flower' - and this is complete speculation - doesn't refer to anyone or anybody - usually women who were born at the start of the 20th century were named after a flower, and the any surname is usually Flowers. The term 'flower' is a generalised reference to the movement that goes in a predominantly circular motion, like petals of a flower.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Wikipedia entry for Edwin C. Howell is brief, so a hypothetical guess is better than no guess at all.

[pilowsky]

Or perhaps the unpacking of portmanteaux "Flowell"?

[gordontd]

I wondered if, like Felicity's suggestion, it was named after the form rather than a person, but I asked Richard Fleet, a bridge historian (though not of movements) and he said:

Although I had heard the term Flower Movement, and there’s an article about it in the Bridge Encyclopaedia, I knew more than that. However, I have discovered a little about it in Ian McKinnon’s book.

 

Page 175 “This method of organizing barometer movements for any number of tables is the simplest way for the players and the organizers. I call this an endless schedule and it is also used in the Flower modification.

 

The original idea was put forward by Mr A G Safford in the 1890s for use in teams’ movements.”

 

There are some biographical details relating to Safford on page 37 (I assume that you have access to the book).

 

Page 193 “Flower Modification ...

 

With the normal Howell the board movement is very orderly and the player movement usually requires the use of a guide card. The endless Howell simply reverses this process, so that the players move in an orderly fashion and each board requires a schedule. This arrangement is named after Mr Flower.”

[FelicityR]

I wondered if, like Felicity's suggestion, it was named after the form rather than a person, but I asked Richard Fleet, a bridge historian (though not of movements) and he said:

 

Well done, Gordon.

[SeanBothar]

I wondered if, like Felicity's suggestion, it was named after the form rather than a person, but I asked Richard Fleet, a bridge historian (though not of movements) and he said:

On page 193 of Ian McKinnon's book "Duplicate Bridge Schedules, History and Mathematics" he does refer to "Mr Flower".

Obviously Ian was unable to discover any further details.

Assuming Mr Flower is correct then the original questions can be rephrased:

Who was Flower? Where did he live? What was his first name?

BBO forum members to the rescue!

[pilowsky]

Which does make it a portmanteaux word of Flower and Howell. I suppose, if the movement doesn't work properly then it would be a Howler? Or if you are annoyed with your partner it would be a Bowel movement because S/he was giving you the sh*ts.

[blackshoe]

"Flower" is what my cousins called our grandmother - because she smelled like one. :-)

 

As far as I know, she wasn't a bridge player.