Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-05-01


mathematical knowledge Of his day.
While Gauss was both great men,
tai calculator and a great mathemati-
clan and was q real mathematical
prodigy. We proceed to consider sew
eral who were merely arithmetical
prodigies and seemed to have very
little general mathematical ability.
The greatest of these is Dase, who
was born at Hamburg in 1924 and
seems to have been little more than
q human calculating machine, able
to carry on enormous calculations in
his head, but nearly incapable of un-
derStanding the principles Of mathe-
matics and of very limited ability out
side his chosen. field" His extraordi-
nary ability in mental calculation is
evidenced by the fact that he was able
to multiply mentally two numbers,
each of which contained 100 figures.
hours to perform this feat, which
stands in a class by itself, as no other
arithmetical prodigy is known to have
been able to multiply mentally two
numbers each consisting Of more than
thirty-nine figures. Two forty-figure
numbers Dase was able to multiply in
forty minutes, while he would multi
ply two eight-figure numbers in less
than one minute.
What is most surprising about this
greatest calculator on record is that
he was stupid in mathematics. Peter
sen is said to have tried in vain for
six weeks to get the first elements of
mathematics into his head, and other
eminent mathematicians found that
he had very little mathematical abil-
ity. Fortunately he was advised by
some of the leading mathematicians
of his day to turn his extraordinary
ability to scientific uses instead of 60
ing around the country giving public
exhibitions, a career upon which he
had entered at the age of fifteen. He
calculated many useful tables and was
engaged on an extensive factor table
at the. time Of his death. The ease
and speed with which he could count
the numbers of books in a case, the
number of sheep in a herd, etc, were
almost more surprising than his extra
ordinary ability as a mental calcula-
tor.
Another we'll known mental calcu-
lator, having even less mathematical
ability than Dase is Buxton. who re-
mained illiterate through life, al
though his father had some education.
He had a wonderful memory for num-
bers and could call off long numbers
from right to left or from left to
right with equal facility. On one oc-
casion he squared mentally thirty
nine figure number in two and half
months. He was extremely slow and
in this respect resembled a negro of
the name of Tom Fuller, who is
known as the Virginia calculator. AL
though entirely illiterate, he was able
to reduce mentally years and months
to seconds and could multiply two
nine-figure numbers.
Darboux has called attention to an
infant prodigy. Joseph Bertrand was
born in Paris in 1922 and was such
delicate child that his parents did not
expect him to arrive at manhood, and
hence his early education was partly
neglected. At the age Of four he was
sick for a long time and overheard
the lessons which were given his
brother in the same room. He knew
the letters of the alphabet, but moth
ing more. When he was convalescent
his parents brought him book to
look at the pictures, and he relates
in his account of his childhood that
he remembers distinctly how he
shocked his parents by reading the
text fiuently. His frightened father
snatched the book from him and COM
manded that under no pretext should
he be allowed to do any work
The manner in which he learned
elementary algebra and elementary
geometry is still mo- extraordinary.
We reproduce his own account:
"At the age of nine 1 had the great
misfortune to lose my father, who
during the last year of his life resid-
ed with my uncle, who directed then
a school preparing for L'Ecole Poly
technique. The students, the young
est of whom was twice my age, loved
me very much, and I was happy in
their midst. 1 was assiduous at their
recreations and often followed them
to their classes The teachers regard
ed me with astonishment, but paid
little attention to me. The students
observed that 1 understood the work,
and when a demonstration appeared
difficult the first one who noticed me
would run after me, take me up in his
arms and, placing me on chair so
that 1 could reach the blackboard,
make me repeat the demonstration
At the age of sixteen he entered
aminer knew that he had already
passed the examination for the doc
tors degree in science he gave him
some very difficult questions. From
one of the answers it appeared that
Bertrand had never opened table
of logarithms. The examiner con-
sidered this answer as impertinence,
but gave him the highest grade. AT
L'Ecole Polytechnique Bertrand says
that he was a problem for his COM
panions. He always received the
highest grades, but he was ignorant
of some the simplest things. For in
stance, he did not know what words
were called adverbs. as he had never
prepared a lesson in literature or in
science.
Bertrand's extraordinary youth
gave rise to many marvellous stories.