The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-01-08
4 WONDER WITH FIGURES
Arthur Griffith Puzzles the Profess
sorS at Yale University.
The mathematical Calculations of n
Ninetcen-Year-OId Yosth Declared
to he PhenomcnRI-He Has Ways
of His own for Solving Problems
TO Publish Book of Rules.

MILFORD. Ind. Jan. 7.-Just south of
this town lives John Griffith, his wife and
six children-a plain Kosciusko county
family. whose head has hard time to
make both ends meet He is a farmer il
the planting and reaping seasons and a
stonemason the rest Of the year. Yet this
plain countryman Is the father OF Arthur
E. Griffith, the greatest mathematical won
der Of modern times.
This is the boy who made such remark
able impression before the American Sci
entists Society. which met in New Haven
last week. He is the one who mystified the
savants OF Yale who tried to mystify him
with their powers and roots and cubes and
squares. and who did in d moment in his
mind what took them hours on paper.
Arthur is nineteen years old. He was
born on the farm where his father and fam
lily now live. At the age Of six he went, 10
school just as all the boys OF his locality
do But impaired health forced him soon
to stop schooling. Already his wonderful
mathematical powers We're apparent.
At the age OF five the boy could count 10
$4,000 without any help whatever. He
learned it by watching the revolutions OF
a buzz-saw in mill near his home, and
counting them as they pillow ed through the
thick walnut logs that wer- brought there
TO be made into planking. One day he
counted 8 900 re solutions before he stopped
Next, he aimed at counting 1000 with
out stopping. and he tried with the corn be
fed to the chichens on his fathers farm
The corn grains gave out when he had
counted q sol OF them Yet with his fast
increasing knowledge of arithmetic and
numbers be failed woefully in grammar,
history. and geography.
They're all too SLOW was his constant
complaint.
But day after day his power over num-
bers grew wonderfully. He found out for
himself and committed to memory all the
prime and CON osite numbers up to 1000
"a wonderful task. He learned the squares
and cubes Of all numbers up to 1.50C and
the fourth powers up TO twenty. He Knows
the multiplication table as fast as he can
say 1t up to 1870. and says he will have it 10
1000 in a few months.
Prof E. ". Lirdley. of the Indiana
University, was in Milford last summer
and met Arthur. He was at once impress
ed with the youths powers, and last Sep
TENDER took him TO the university at
Bloomington. There some psychological
experiments were made which showed con-
clusively that the boy was a wonder. He
could solye problems in about tenth of
the operations that it required the Ordin-
airy person. For instance, he did one prob
lem that took 336 separate operations on
paper in his head in thirteen operations.
At a hotel In Bloomington recently the
guests began to quiz the plain country boy.
What is g63 times 1882" asked Chi
cago drummer suddenly. zone hundred
and four thousand no hundred and four"
replied Arthur without a moments delay
After the drummer had figured it out he
found that the boy was correct. Cues
toned as to how he did il so quickly. Ar
thur refused to tell. admitting, however,
that he used processes for calculating rap
idly which he himself had discovered.
Unlike most mathematical wonders. he
made no claim to any special gifts from
heaven or any hypnotic powers. As a sam
pie of how he works out his problems by
wondrous methods OF his own he asked a
young man present when he WIS born.
July 30, 1885," he replied.
THAT was Friday said young Griffith
without hesitation.
Asked how he did it, he said;
THE ratio of July is .. quarter OF so |
is 20, and added to so, Is 100; then, add
the date gives 1870. The ratio Of the month
added makes 1872, and divided by gives
remainder of 8. and. beginning with Sun
day, Friday Is the sixth day. You were
born on Friday"
When asked why the 20 and why July's |
ratio was he replied: mo matter" That |
is one OF his new rules for rapid calcula-
ton. Then he added that he intended pub |
fishing book with his formulate for rapid |
calculation printed therein and copyright |
ed, and accordingly he didn't want to MAKE |
them public before. The boy can repe1t |
the powers OF up to the thirty third. ard |
when one OF the drummers doubted II Ar
thur said 'It Is lie. AS. S21 see. 934, sli 49,,
125."
The thirty-third power of two he knows |
in the same way. Asked to multiply the |
two together he said, almost without |
hesitation, one decillion. number too big !
for anyone present to grasp.
II can do addition. subtraction, multi |
plication, and division In forty-four diff