The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-07
MATHEMATICAL GENIUsEs.
RaroarlabIe Feats of Men Who JuSgie'
 with Mental Arithmetic.

D.,,.,,,. Feats of Men Who JuggIed
 with Mental Arithmetic.
 Worlds Events ... Ceorre Parker Bidder was one or the moat remarkable mathematical sehiuseS wbo followed up his precocious youth "itn a successful manhood .
 Fatdder was born in 1906 at Mortoh' ,,o,,,nstead in Devonshire, England, where bt, father carried on q small business as a stonemason When only years olu oiu- der showed a most extraordinary aohity ioi calculation. His peculiar talents sooh
 tracted general attention. and ms la'nei Sound if more profitable to travel apout tne country and exhibit his son as the ,i. lating phenomenon" than by following ms huu,bIe trade The boy taken to Lon don and his peculiar talents were lhVestT gated by the most learned men or ms tii,ie' whom he astonished by the rapidity wHh u,bIcb he answered the most difficult ques- tons. ht, ,, for,y seconds: Suppose the ball at the ton of St Paups Cathedral to be feet Tn diameter. what did the gliding cost at 3Ha nor aouare tnch?" the answer, tZ3f US lu' was given before the examiner had tune to put the figures of the example on paper The following question was ahs"eIeu /, :" sixty seconds: Suppose a city 10 pc IT Iuminated with 9.999 lamps. each lamp to consume one pint of oil every four hours Tn succession, how many gallons would they consume in forty yearsT Ihe answer 'oii tains nine figures-169. .4S9.o5O gallons AT other curious question was: suppose tho earth to consist of 971,0OO, 900 inhabitants and suppose they die in thirty years four
 ,on+bs how many have returned to dust sfnce the time of Adam, computing IL 10 he ? REQ years?" The problem offered no diff,cultles to the lad, who nonehalently rattled off the answer in less than thrty aeconda. Fortunately for the boy, he at +racted the attention of some eminent sohoIars who had him educated at Crom- well and afterward at Edinburgh. where ha carried off all the prizes for the study of higher mathematics. After his gradua- tion from college he pursued the protes- sion of engineer, and became associated with Robert Stephenson. and assisted Tn constructing the Birmingham Railway. Later in life he entered Parliament ana many stories are told of Bidders wonderful akin in detecting a flaw in some set Of clap crate calculations. He died at Dartmouth in 1878. ,.1
 Another extraordinary child was Zerah colburn, who was born at Caoot' Et'' III 1904 His remarkable problems was ais pJaved at an early age, and when he was 5 vears old he solved the most difficult nrobIems by the mere operation of his mind Asked by an eminent mathematelaIl to give the square of 999999. he rePied almost instantly. giving the figures, Sss'- sos 900. OOl without any hesitation. He oo- served that he produced the result by the square of 27 He was then asked to niul- tipIy answer twise by 4S and one ny zo' task which he accomplished in less thah two minutes although the answer consisted of seventeen figures. In five seconds he gave the cube root of 4lS,9S334S,6f'' ana 70 ali questions of similar nature he succeeded in giving the correct answers Professors and scientific men endeaVored to obtain a knowledge of Colburn's methods hut the boy declared he was unable to ex~ nlain how the answers came into his mind He was ignorant of the commoneSt rules of arithmetic, and could not even solve a problem on paper. not even simple feat in multiplication or division Colburn's faculty of computation left him when he reached manhood, and he died at the early age of 36.
 A singular instance of this curious de velopment of the calculating faculty. and differing in several respects from Bidder and colburn. is the case of Jebediah Bux- ton. who, though he can not be called an