The first published form of this force so far discovered uses British currency amounts to arrive at a fixed result of £12 18s 11d. This appeared in the Educational Times Reprints, Vol. 53, 1890, p. 78. Since this volume consists of reprints, the initial publication of the problem seems to have come a short time before.

The 1089 form of the force seems first to have appeared in 1898 in Recreations et problemes mathematiques des temps anciens & modernes, translated by J. Fitz-Patrick from W. W. Rouse Ball's Mathematical Recreations and Essays, pp. 15-6. This mathematical force does not appear in the preceding three English editions and was evidently added by Ball to the French edition. The force did not appear in English until the 1905 fourth edition of Ball's book, p. 9. Ball cited sources for the various problems in his book, but failed to do so for the 1089 Force entry, but nor did he claim it original with him.