The name of this mathematical card-placement principle was given it by Edward Marlo, who may have believed he invented the principle itself and is frequently credited with it. However, numerous applications of the principle were documented prior Marlo's first publishing applications in The New Phoenix, No. 329, Aug. 1955, p. 126.

Peter Duffie has traced the principle to “Number Trick” by Van Osdol in Rufus Steele's 50 Tricks You Can Do, 1946, p. 56. This single source, though, is far from the whole story. The roots of the idea go back several hundred years, and the development of the principle to its present form has a number of components.

A good source of history behind this concept can be found in The Collected Works of Alex Elmsley, Volume II, 1994, p. 349.

• Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"