Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-01-22
STRONG ON FIGURES.
WE'RE LIGHTNING CALCULATIONS BY A
GIFT OF NATURE.


Successfully.
George Parker Bidder was born in
1906 at Morton Hampstead, in Devon
shire, where his father carried on
small business as stonemason. AT the
early age of 4 he showed a most ex-
traordinary ability for calculation, which
with slight assistance from an elder
brother assumed quite phenomenal pro-
portions. His peculiar talents soon at
tracted general attention. and his father
found it much more profitable employ
ment to carry his son about the country
and exhibit him as the Calculating
Phenomenon than following his trade.
In this way young Bidder visited many
parts of England, astonishing the differ
ent people who came to question him
by the wonderful rapidity with which
he was able to answer, without external
aid of any description, the most difficult
questions. Of these the following are
few of the most extraordinary examples:
If flea spring Q feet and inches
in every hop, how many hops must it
ference being $4,000 miles, and how
long would it be performing the journey
allowing it to take so hops every minute
without intermission? Answer, SO, 49,
600 hops and year, 314 days, 3 hours
and 90 minutes.
The following question was solved by
him in 40 seconds: Suppose the ball at
the top of st. Paul's cathedral to be
feet in diameter, what did the gliding
cost at 8 I'D. per square inch? Answer,
e237 los. Id.
The following in l minute and 20
seconds: Suppose city to be illuminat-
ed with $500 lamps, each lamp to con-
sumo one pint of oil every four hours
in succession, how many gallons would
they consume in 40 years? Answer,
100, 489, $50 gallons.
Another curious question was: Sup
pose the earth to consist of 971, 200, 900
inhabitants and suppose they die in 80
years and A months, how many have re-
turned to dust since the time of Adam,
computing it to be 8, $50 years? Multi
ply the answer by SO.
During one of his exhibition tours,
fortunately for the lad, his performances
attracted the attention of eminent schol-
ars, who after making inquiries subse-
quently undertook his education. He
was attached to the ordnance survey
for short time and afterward was as
ISOLATED with Stephenson, the great en-
gineer.
Some years after. he entered parlia-
ment, and numerous stories are extant
of his wonderful skill in detecting a
flaw in some elaborate sets of calcula
tions, whereby he was often enabled to
upset an opponents case. Or, at other
times, he would establish his own case
by arguments based upon mathematical
data, possibly only at the moment
placed before him. 1t is said that on
one occasion an opposing counsel 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 oppo-
nents on a fair footing"
After taking leading part in many
important engineering works, he died at
Dartmouth, Sept. 20, 1878.
Another of these extraordinary chill
dren, between whom and Bidder honors
were almost equally divided, was
Zerah Colburn, born at Cabot, Vt,
Sept. !, 1904. Signs of his wonder
full power appeared at very tender
age. The discovery was accidentally
made by his father, who was much sur
prised one day to hear him repeating
the product of several numbers, al
though at the time he had received no
other instruction than such as could be
obtained at small country school
whose curriculum did not include writ
ing or ciphering. He thereupon proposed
variety Of arithmetical questions to
with remarkable facility and correct
ness. At the age Of the boy was able
to solve most difficult questions by the
mere operation of his mind. Many per
sons OF the first eminence for their
knowledge in 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 root of 900, 500. Aft
er hesitating little he replied 900, &c.,
000,001 and observed that he produced
this result by multiplying the square of
37,037 by the square of 81. He was
then asked to multiply the answer twice
by 40 and once by %, task which he
accomplished successfully, though the
answer consists of II figures.
Name the cube root of Alb, 993, 34S,-
677. To this he gave the correct answer
in five seconds. How many times would
a coach wheel IL feet in circumference
turn round in 256 miles, and how many
minutes in AZ years. To the first he re-
piled in two seconds liz, $40, and to the
second, before the question could be
written down, 20, 22S, 500, and added
that the number of seconds in the same
period was 1913, 1913. What are the fac
tors of 247, 4S3? To this he replied 941
and 1853, which are the only factors. -
StraLd Magazine.