The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1895-12-30
LIGHTNING cALcULAToRs.
Some People Born With Talent for
Solving a rit hm..t ical Problems.

Strand Maya z inc.
! George Parser biduer was born in 1866
I at Morton hampstead, in Devonshire
where his father carried on a small kusi-
mess as stonemason- At tie Early age
OF four he showed an extraordinary
! ability for calculations, which. WIN sngnJ
! assistance from an elder brother, assumed
quite phenomenal proportions. lis pecu-
Lar talents attracted general attention,
/ dDdhisIaiher found il q much more profit be
! employment To carry his sons about Tire
country and exhibit him as the ''cal lcuiat ing
phenomenon" than following his trade. In
tns way young Bidder visited many parts OF
England, astonishing the different peo-
pie who came To question him by the Won
derful rapidity with which he was able to
! answer without eAternafaid of any descrip-
fioD, the most difficult questions. OF these
the following are a few of the most extraor-
/ binary examples: If nea spring two feet
! three inches in every hop, how many hops
; must II take to go around The world, the
! circumference being % 900 miles, and
I how long would il be performing the
Journey, allowing it 10 take sixty hops
every minute without fnierniSsion? An
swer, 5S,1l3,6uo hops ana l year 31I
days 13 hours and 20 minutes.
The following QUESTION was solved by
him in forty seconds; Suppose the ball a
the top Of st. Paurs Cathedral Ia tie six
at = pence per square inch. Answer.
e231, los. Id. The following in one minute
and twenty seconds: suppose Il city to he
Illuminated with $500 lamps. each lamp
10 Consume Que pint of oil every four
| hours in succession. how many gallons
would they CONSUME in forty years: An
swcr: 10S. 4S9,G50 gallons. Another
curious question was: Suppose the earth
to consist of 97l 100000 inhabitants. and
suppose they die in thirty years and four
months, how many have returned tn dust
since the time of Adam, computing il to be
$3.50 years! Multiply the answer by 50
During one of his exhibition tours, for
tunateiy for the lad, his performances at
tractcd the attention of eminent scholars.
who. after making inquiries, subsequently
undertook his education. He was attached
to the ordnance survey for Il short time,
ami aftcrward was associated with
Stephenson. the great engineer.
Some years after he entered Parliament
numerous stories are eStant of his wonder
full skill in detecting flawin some elaborate
sets OF calculations, whereby he was often
enabled to upset an opponents case Or.
at other times, he would esta biisfl his own
CASSIDY arguments based upon ma hematicai
data, possibly only at the moment placed
before him. IL is sd id that on one occasion
an opposing counsel asked that he Nigh,
not be allowed to remain in the Committee
dowed him with qualities that lid not place
his opponents on fair footing"
After taking a leading part i'll many i'm
portaDt engineering works, he died at Dart
mouth. September 20, 1878
Another of these extraordinary children
between whom and Bidder honors were al
most equally divided, was Zerah Colburn,
horn at Cabot, VI. United States, Septein-
her [, SOL. Signs OF his wonderful power
I "A C,.r.- tpl. no
cry was accidentally mace by his father who
was much surprised one day TO hear HIM
repeating the product of several numbers.
although at the time he had received no
other Instruction than such as could be OBJ
tanned alta small country school. whose cur
riculun did not include writing or ciphering
He thereupon proposed a variety of arith-
metical questions To his son. all of which the
child ans wercd with remarkable facility
and correctness. At the age of s the boy
was able to solve most difficult questions
by the mere operation of his mind. Many
persons of the first eininence for their
kno wletige i'll mathematics made point
of seeing and cOnversing with him, and
they proposed to him great variety of
questions to test his marvellous powers.
Among them were the following:
Give the square rect Of $4,000. After
hesitatinya little n rep,ed 9S 9. SOS, O0p,001,
and observed that he produced this result
by multiplying the s. uare of 31,oSI by the
square of 81. He was then asked 10 null
tiply the answer twice by 40. and once by
25. task which he accomplished success
fully, though the answer consists of sew
enteen figures.
Name the cube root of 413.993. SS4,6IT.
To this he gave the correct answer in five
seconds. low many times would Coach
wheel twelve feet in circumference turn
round in 256 miles, and how many minutes
In forty weight years. To the first he re-
Piled in two seconds. 112,640, and TO the
second, before the question could be written
down. 25.22S,S 500, and added that the
number of seconds in the same period
was I.51372s. What arc tie factors of
2iT. Asa? To this he replied 941 and 263.
which are the only factors.