Bill No. 246, 1897. State of Indiana.

``Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana: It has been found that the circular area is to the quadrant of the circumference, as the area of an equilateral rectangle is to the square on one side.''

``In further proof of the value of the author's (E.J. Goodman, M.D.) proposed contribution to education, and offered as a gift to the State of Indiana, is the fact of his solutions of the trisection of the angle, duplication of the cube and quadrature of the circle having been already accepted as contributions to science by the American Mathematical Monthly, the leading exponent of mathematical thought in this country.''

The above is part of Bill No. 246, 1897, of the State of Indiana. It passed three readings in the Indiana House in 1897. (Introduced by the House Committee on Swamp Lands.)

It also passed first reading in the Indiana Senate, 1897. (Introduced by the Senate Committee on Temperance.)

The bill was viewed as having financial value:

``The case is perfectly simple. If we pass this bill which establishes a new and correct value of , the author offers our state without cost the use of this discovery and its free publication in our school textbooks, while everyone else must pay him a royalty.''

By chance Professor C.A. Waldo of Purdue was in the Senate for a reading of the bill. He convinced Senators that the bill was nonsense and it was tabled. (Presumably it is still tabled.)