Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-06-01
LIGHTNING cALCULArons,
SOme1 Of the Wonderful Mental Arith.
metfcians who Delighted 20 Make
themselves Drunk with Figures.

From tho New York World.
The murder Of his wife recently by Professor
J. D. Andrews, the Lightning Calculator, "
whose mind had finally given way under the
strain to which it had been put may make Of in
terest few notes on these phenomenal calcula-
tors, and notably the young Zerah Coburn, who
was born at Cabot, vt, In 1904 and died in 1910,
and was among the most remarkable Of the Cal.
culating Boys. At the age of six he had given
such evidence of his extraordinary powers o.
computation that his father resolved to show
him in public. Among the questions which he
solved at this period were such "a " How many
days and hours in 1911 years7" (Answer, in
twenty seconds, 661 OILS days Is 1874 $50 hours }
or How many seconds in eleven years." Can
swer, in four seconds, SAG, S96, 0O0.) Two years
later, when they were showing him in Europe,
he performed in few seconds such calculations
as squaring 999, 500 and multiplying the product
twice by 40 and once by g. or finding the factors
OF to the thirty-second power plus II, 294
967 ,297. COlburn Immediately gave GAL by g. 100
All, and when asked the factors Of 247, 843, re-
piled instantane0usly, ''941 and 26S. and they
are the only factors" Such problems as raising
8 to the sixteenth power, giving the square root
of JOG, 929 or the cube root Of 26S, 1856 IT'S were
solved In moment At this period Colburn
was ignorant of the ordinary rules Of arithmetic,
and could not tell how or why particular pro-
cesses came into his mind, though later he could
analyze and describe his methods. Once, when
hidden to multiply 81, 734 by 543. his manner pro-
yoked question: and it was found that, for
some reason which he could not explain,
he was obtaining the result by multiplying
65. 202 by 1S1. The late Mr.. George Parker
Bidder cultivated his remarkable faculty
to highly useful purpose. When in his sixth
ing up to 100. then to 1000, then to
100000. By degrees he accustomed him.
self to contemplate the relations Of high
numbers, and in childhood he invented pro-
cesses of his own by which mentally he could
perform calculations more rapidly and accurate
ly than others could with pencil and paper by
the ordinary rules. At the age of ten we read
that he answered in two minutes the question:
what is the interest Of "a "A for 444 days at
AZ per cent. per annum?" Answer, f2, 434 los.
eleven years old, he was asked: "HOw long
would cistern one mile cube be filling II re-
ceiving from river 100 gallons per minute with
out intermission?" In two minutes he gave the
correct answers, 800 years, 1856 days, 12 hours
and 46 minutes. A year later he divided cor
rectly, in less than minute. 469 500 Alb ,563 by
9.O76 At twelve years of age he answered in
less than minute the question:: If distance OF
9% inches is passed over in a second of time
how many inches will be passed over in 365 days,
hours, 4S minutes. IS seconds? Much more
surprising, however, was his success, when thir-
teen years DID, in dealing with the question:
What is the cube root of S97 S39 23 974 OO2, 1873?
He obtained the answer In two and a half
minutes, viz, 964, 5S7. Sir William Herschel
undertook to pose the boy with this cheerful
question: Light travels from the sun to the
earth in eight minutes, and the sun being
sc, OOO, 600 Of miles off (the then accepted value)
If light would take six years and four
months travelling at the same rate from the
nearest fixed star, how far is that star from
the EARTH reckoning 365 days and hours to
Ia RI oh mi In no
minute came the answer 40, 633, FAC, OO0, 900
miles," On one occasion. when the proposer of
question was not satisfied with Bidders an
Swer, the boy said the answer was correct and
requested the proposer to work his sum over
again. During the operation Bidder said he felt
certain he was right for he had worked the
question in another way, and before the pro-
poser found that he was wrong and Bidder right
the boy told the company that he had calculated
the question by third method Unlike Col
burn, who lost his extraordinary powers when
he came to manhood and after displaying very
mediocre talent as an actor, preacher and a
schOOl-maSter. Bidder retained his gift and be-
came most formidable through it in arguments
before the railroad committees in parliament
where he would cOnfute an antagonists figures
before they had been fairly spoken. He gave an
interesting account of his faculty in paper read
before the English institution of civil engineers
showing that the calculations we're regularly
worked out seriatim, but with inconceivable
rapidity. COlburn's mind really operated in the
same way. for In raising numbers to their differ
ent powers the time occupied with each step in
creased as the product became greater. He
had, however, an instinct for discovering prime
numbers, and he possessed remarkable faculty
for getting hold of the easiest side of question
Any one who has had to deal with figures knows
how immensely it simplifes mental calculation
to bring it up to round numbers for the pur-
poses of the process and correct this when the
outcome Is reached-fOr instance, it is
quicker when called on to multiply 68 by
81 to substract three times g from $500
and child with quick eye is apt to shorten
the work OF addition by grouping the figures in
a long cOlumn-sO many As, 80 many 6's &c.
This COlburn always did, though at times his
mental process would, to the ordinary arithme-
being hidden to square 4 1876, and being averse
to multiplying four figures by four figures, he
multiplied 1913 by 1913 and the product twice by
fifteen. Jedediah Buxton was another prOdig
iOuS calculator, more remarkable in some re-
spects than either COlburn or Bidder. He
never learned to write, and in other branches
of education was as backward as hoy of ten,
while his mental faculties were slow, saving al
ways his faculty Of calculation. So completely
was he absorbed in his theme that he took little
cognizance Of external objects save as they
suggested numbers. Thus if a period of time
or the age Of a man were spoken of, Buxton
at once announced that that made 80 many
seconds" and distance to him 80 many hair
breadths. By walking over the fields of Sir
John Rhodes lOrdship Of Elinton-his step was
as infallible as a surveyors chain-Buxton gave
the proprietor their contents of some thousands
of acres, first in acres, then in roods.
perches, square feet, square inches. and
finally In square hair breadths-forty-eight to
each side Of an inch. He had the faculty Of rest
ing a calculation at any stage and take it up
next morning, week later, or after the lapse of
months. He could number all the pnts Of beer
he had ever drunk at all the houses he had ever
visited in half century. Among the problems
given him to solve were such q this: "How many
cubical eighths Of an inch are there in quad
rangular mass %, 145, 789 yards long, 5,642 735
yards wide and 81, 965 yards thick? an appalling
calculation which he performed mentally. Once
he set himself to doubling farthing 40 times
and on another occasion he made himself in his
own phrase, "drunk with reckoning" by calcu-
lating how many hairs an inch long and how
many grains Of eight different sorts Of cereals
there were in q mass of 200, 00O, 0O0, 900 cubic
miles, having previously counted the hairs and
grains In single inch to get his point Of de-
parture. What was most curious about Buxton,
perhaps, was his capacity for carrying on these
calculations while converting or listening. At
church he only cared to count the words Of the
sermon; and though he watched Garrick closely
in Richard ILL.,, it was but to reckon the words
in the part.
xSsNrxI