Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-05-09
MARVELS All FIGURES
LIGHTNING CALCULATIONS wAo WERE
GIFTED BY NATURE.

Two Boys Whose Peculiar Talents
Attracted General AttentiOn-some
of the Difficult Tests Through Which
They Passed Snccessfrily.
George Parker Bidder was born in
1906 mt Norton Hampstead. in Devon
shire, where his father carried on
small business; as Il stonemason. At the
Early age Of four lie showed a most ex-
,raordinary ability for calculation,
which with slight assistance from an
cider brother assumed quite phenom-
email proportions. His peculiar talents
soon attracted general attention, and
his father found it Il much more prof
liable employment to carry his son
about the country and exhibit him as
the Calculating phenomenon than fol-
lowing his trade. In this way young
Bidder visited many parts of England,
astonishing the different people who
came to question him by the wonder
full rapidity with which he was able
to answer, without external aid ofSany
description, the most difficult Ques-
tions. OF these the following are Il few
of the most extraordinary examples:
If flea spring two feet and three
inches in every hop, how many hops
must 1t take to go around the world,
the circumference being 2jO20 miles,
and how long would it be performing
the journey, allowing it to take sixty
hops every minute without intermis-
sion? Answer, 5S.713, GOO hops and 1
year, 314 days, 13 hours and 20 min
utes.
Tle following question was solved
by him in forty seconds: Suppose the
ball at the top of ST. Pauls cathedral
to be six feet in diameter, what did
the gliding cost at 3h pence per square
inch? Answer, f23T los. Id.
The following in one minute and
twenty seconds: Suppose Il city to be H.
Eliminated with 9,999 lamps, each lamp
to consume one pint Of oil every four
hours In succession, how many gal
Ions would they consume in forty
years? Answer. 1O9,4S9,O5O gallons.
Another curious question was: Sup
pose the earth to consist of OF 100000
inhabitants and suppose they die in
thirty years and four months, how
many have returned to dust since the
time of Adam, computing it to be $3.50
years? Multiply the answer by 80.
During one of his exhibition tours,
fortunately for the lad, his perform
ances attracted the attention of emf
nent scholars. who. after making in
quiries, subsequently undertook his
education. He was attached to thn
ordnance survey for short time and
afterward was associated with Ste
phenson, the great engineer
Some years after he entered parlia-
ment. and numerous stories are extant
Of. his wonderful skill In detecting n
1laW In some elaborate sets of calcula-
tons, whereby he was often enabled to
upset an opponents case, or ut other
times he would establish his own case
by arguments based upon mathemat-
ical 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 leading part in many
important engineering works he died at
Dartmouth Sept. 90, 1878.
Another of these extraordinary chii-
dren, between whom and Bidder hon
ors We're almost equally divided, was
Zereh Colburn, born at Cabot, Vt, Sept.
1, 1904. Signs of his wonderful power
appeared at a very tender age. The
discovery was accidentally made by
his father, who was much surprised
one day to hear him repeating the prod
uct of several numbers, although at the
time he had received no other instruc-
ton than such as could be obtained Mt
n small country school whose curricu-
lum did not include writing or cipher
Ing. He thereupon proposed variety
| of arithmetical questions to his son, all
Of which the child answered with re-
markable facility and correctness. At
the age of eight the boy able to
solve most difficult questi " the
mere operation of his mr. Many
| pSieoL VI liS IllSG SiihllcuCS lOI lIlelF
knowledge in mathematics made
| point of seeing and conversing With
him, and they proposed to him great
variety of questions to test his mar
velous powers. Among them We're TIE
following:
Give the square root of 999,999. Aft
er hesitating,a n little he replied 999.999.-
000,001 and observed that lie produced
this result by multiplying the square of
3I03T 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 seven
teen figures.
Name the cube root of 413,993, ,34S.-
CIT. To this he gave the correct an.
swer In five seconds. How many times
would coach wheel twelve feet In
circumference turn around in 25G miles,
and how many minutes in forty-eighs
years? To the first he replied in two
seconds 112,640, and to the second, be-
fore the question could be written
down, 25,22S,S0O. What are the fac
tors of 247, ,4S3? To this he replied 941
and 263, which are the only factors.-
London Globe.
Oddly Expressed.
Tn ono of h.. Iettor. William RrnnI-