Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-11-10
Mathematical Geniuses.
From the Manufacturer and Builder

From the Manufacturer and Builder.
On the Sd of July, 1889. some of the EN-
inent members of the Academy of Science
at Paris, including NM. Arago, Lacroix
Lebru, and Sturm. met to examine q re.
markable boy, whose powers of mental cal
culation were deemed quite inexplicable.- :
The boy, named Vito Managiamele, Sill.
cian, was the son of shepherd, and was
about IL years old. The examiners asked
him several questions which they knew,
under ordinary circumstances, would be
tedious OF solution-such as the cube root
of 3, 796, 416, and the tenth root of 262,
475, 249. The first of these he answered in
half a minute, the second in three minutes.
One question was of the following compli-
Gated character: What number complies
with the following propositions, that If its
cuoe be added to five times its square, and
then AZ times the number, and the num-
Der AZ be subtracted from the result, the
member is equal to o or zero?
Nj. Arago repeated this question Sec
ond time, but while he was finishing the
last word, the boy replied, ''The number
FIVE"
Such cases greatly puzzled ordinary
mathematicians. Buxton, Colbourn and
Bidder have at Sifferent times exhib-
tied this unaccountable power of account
ing. Jedediah Buxton. although his grand
father was clergyman and his father q
scho0lmaster, was so neglected in his edu
cation that he could not even write; his
mental faculties were slow, with the enc
wonderful exception OF his power of men
tai arithmetic. After hearing a sermon he
rememberedand cared for nothing concern
ing it except the number OF words, which
he had counted during their delivery. Ifa
period of time, or size of an object were
mentioned in his hearing. he almost uncon-
sciously began To count how 0any hairs
breadths there wers in it. He walked from
Chesterfield - London on purpose to have
the qualification o seeing George IL, and
while in the metropolis he was taken much
notice OF by me nbers of the Royal Society.
On one occasion he went to see Garrick in
Richard III, but instead of attending to
the performance in the usual way, he found
occupation in counting the number OF
words uttered by each performer.
After stridiDg over field in two or three
directions, he would tell the number of
square inches it contained. He could num-
Der all the pints of beer he had drank Mt
all the houses he had ever visited during
half a century. He once set himself to
reckon how much fsrthing would amount
to If doubled 14O times; the result came
out in such stupendous number Of
pounds sterling as required twenty-nine
places OF figures to representa-
In 1850, this problem was put to him: To
find out how many cubical eighth of an in
ch there are in squadrangulsr mass which
measured 23l. 145, 789 yards long. 5.642, 732
yards wide, and 54 965 yards thick, He
answered this, as all the rest mentally. On
one occasion be made himself what he
called drunk with reckoning the follow
ing: SIN 200, 600, 900, 600 cubic miles how
many grains of eight different kinds of
corn and how many nairs an inch long?"
He ascertained by actual counting how
many Of each kind Of grain and how many
hairs an inch long would 90 to an inch
cube, and then Sc. himself about his enor-
nous self-imposed task. He could suspend
any of his problems for any length of time
and resume at the point he left off and
could cony erse ON other subjects while thus
employed. He could never give any ac-
count of the way in which he worked ont
his problems; nor did his singular but ex-
ceptional faculty bring any other advantage
than that of being invited to the house of
the gentry as kind of show.
Zerah Colburn, who excited much inter-
a
mont. At years old he suddenly showed
extraordinary powers OF mental calculation.
BY processes which seemed to be almost
unconscious to himself, and were wholly 30
to others, lie answered arithmetical ques-
tons of considerable difficulty.
When eight years old, he was taken 20
London, where he astonished many learned
auditors and spectators by giving correct
solutions to such problems as the follow
ing: Raise to the sixteenth power; give
the square root to log, 929; give the cubic
root of 26S 1876. 125; how many seconds are
there IN 4S years. The auswers were al
ways given in few minutes sometimes
in few seconds He was ignorant of the
ordinary rules of arithmetic, and did not
know how or why particular modes of pro-
cess came into his mind. On one occasion
the Duke of Gloucester asked him to mul-
tply u, 734 by 543; sometimes in the boys
manner induced the Duke to ask how he
did 1t, from which 1t appeared that the boy
arrived at The result by multiplying 65, 202
by 1S1. an equivalent process: but why ne
made this change In the factors neither he
nor any one else could tell
Zerah Colburn was unlike other boys
also in this. that he had more toes and
fingers; peculiarity observable also in his
father and some OF his brothers
An exceptional instance is presented in
the case of Mr. Bidder, of this faculty cul-
tiyated TO highly useful purpose George
Parker Bidder, when six years old. used to
amuse himself by counting up to 100, then
to LOCO, then t. ], COO, ,00o; by degrees he
accustomed himself to contemplate the re-
lations Of high numbers, aud used to build
up peas marbles, and shot into squares
and cutes. and other regular figures. He
invented processes of his own, distinct
from those given in books on arithmetic,
and could solve all the usual questions
mentally more rapidly than other boys with
the aid of pen and paper. When he be-
came eminent as a civil engineer, he was
wont TO embarrass the parliamentary coun-
ell on contested railway bills, by confuting
their statements of figures almost before
the wsrds-w were out their mouths. In 1866
he gave the Institution of Civil Engineers
an interesting account Of this singular arith-
metiaal faculty--so far. at least, as to show
tlat memory has less TO do with Il than h.
generally supposed; the processes are actu-
ally worked out seriatim, but with rapid
ity almost inconceivable. Qaa sEEkz