San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-11-15
Tbe Daily Light.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER Is, 'a5
BORN ARIrHMETIcIANs.

From the Strand Magazine.
George Parker Bidder was horn
in 1906 at Morton Hampste ad, in
Devonshire, where his father
carried on a small business as a
stonemason. At the early age OF
he showed most extraordinary
ability for calculation, which with
slight assistance from an elder
brother assumed quite phenOm-
email proportions. HIS peculiar
talents soon attracted general at
tention and his father found it a
much more profitable employment
to carry his son about the country
and exhibit him as the ''calculat-
ing phenomenon" than following
his trade. In this way young
Bidder " I I'd many parts OF Eng
land, astonishing the different
people who came to question him
by the wonderful rapidity with
which he was able TO answer, with
out external aid OF any description
the most difficult questions. OF
these the following are a few of
the most extraordinary examples:
II a flea springs feet and 3 inches
in every hop, how many hops
must it take to go around the
world, the circumference being
1920 miles; and how long would
it be performing the journey al
lowing it to take sixty hops every
minute without intermission?
Answer, 5S, 713, 600 hops, and l
year, Sl4 days, ID hours, 20 min
utes.
The following question was
solved by him in forty seconds:
Suppose the ball at the top OF st
Paul's Cathedral to be feet in
diameter, what did the gliding
cost at Sd per square inch? Ans
wer-f237 los Id.
The following in one minute
and twenty seconds: Suppose a
a city to be illuminated with
9999 lamps, each lamp to consume
one pint of oil every four hours in
succession, how many gallons
would they consume in forty
years? Answer-S09, 4SS,050 gal
Ions.
Another curious question was:
Suppose the earth to consist OF
97l,000,G00 inhabitan and suppose
they die in thirty years and four
months, how many have returned
to dust since the time of Adam,
computinf it to be $3.50 years?
Multiply the answer by SO.
During one OF his exhibition
tours, fortunately for the lad, his
performances attracted the atten-
tion Of eminent scholars, who
after making inquiries, sub.
sequently undertook his education.
He was attached to the ord n aEce
survey for short time and after
ward was associated with Stephen
son the great engineer.
Some years after he entered
parliment, and numerous stories
are eXtant OF mis- wonderful skill
in detecting flaw in some elabo-
rate sets OF calculations, whereby
he was often enabled to upset an
opponents case. Or, at other times
he would establish his own case by
arguments based upon mathema-
tical data, possibly only at the
moment placed before him. 1t is
said that on one occasion an op-
posing consul asked that he might
not be allowed to remain in the
committee room, on the ground
that mature had endowed him
with qualities that did not place
his opponents on fair footing,
After taking a leading part in
many important engineering
works, he died at Dartmouth.
September 20, 1876,
Another of these extraordinary
children, between whom and Bid
der honors were almost equally
divrded, was Zerah Colburn, born
at Cabot, VT, United States, Sep
TENDER l, 1894. Signs of his won
derful power appeared at a very
tender age. The discovery was
accidently made 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 in
struction than such as could be
obtained at small country scho IL
whose curriculum did not include
writing or ciphering. He there
upon proposed variety Of arith-
meticial questions to his son, all
OF which the child answered with
remarkable facility and correct
ness. AT the age of s the boy was
able to solve most difficult ques-
tion by the mere operation OF his
mind. Many persons of the first
eminence for their knowledge in
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