The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1896-03-05
STRONG ON FIGURES.
WERE LIGHTNING CALCULATIONS BY A
GIFT OF NATURE.

ed General Attention-Some OF the DlE-
cult Tests Through Which They Passed
Successfully.
George Parker Bidder was born in
1896 at Morton Hampstead, in Devon
shire, where his father carried on 9
small business as a stonemason. AT the
early age of 4 he showed Il 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
be 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 a flea spring 2 feet aud 3 inches
in every hop, how many hops must it
take to 60 around the world, the cireum
ference being 30, 020 miles, and how
long would it be performing the journey
allowing it to take 60 hops every minute
without intermission? Answer, 58,713,
600 hops and year, 3l4 days, 10 hours
and 20 minutes.
The following question was solved by
him in 30 seconds: Suppose the ball at
the top of St. Pauls cathedral to be @
feet in diameter. what did the gliding
cost at Sgd per square inch? Answer,
e237 los. Id.
| The following in l minute and 20
seconds Suppose a city to be illuminat
ed with 5000 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: Snip
pose the earth to consist Of 971 600, 600
inhabitants and suppose they die in 80
years and 4 months, how many have re-
turned to dust since the time Of Adam,
computing it to be 5, $50 years? Multi
ply the answer by 80.
| 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 a 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 fair footing"
After taking a leading part in many
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. J., 1901. Signs of his wonder
full power appeared at a 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 rs could be
obtained at small country school
| whose curriculum did not include writ
ing or ciphering He thereupon proposed
u variety of arthmetical questions to
his son. all of which the child answered
with remarkable facility and correct
ness. AT the age of the boy was able
20 solve most difficult questions by the
| mere operation of his mind. Many per
ions 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
|
Among them were the following
Give the square root of 900, 800 Aft
er hesitating "a little he replied 500, $780,
600, 00l and observed that he produced
this result by multiplying the square Of
81, 037 by the square of 81. He was
then asked to multiply the answer twice
by 40 and once by 20, task which he
accomplished successfully, though the
answer consists of II figures.
| Name the cube root of Alb, 993, 34S,
571. To this he gave the correct answer
in five seconds. How many times would
a coach wheel II feet i'll circumference
turn round in 25G miles, and how many
minutes in AZ years. To the first he re-
piled in two seconds lip, GAO, and to the
| second, before the question could be
written down, %, 22S, 800, and added
that the number Of seconds in the same
period was ,513,72S, What are the fac
tors of PAT, 1888? To this he replied 941
and 263, which are the only factors -