The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-09
MATHEMATICIAN IN PRISON
Offers Great Discoveries in Mathe.
natics as Price Of His Freedom.

offers Great Discoveries in Mathe.
matics as Price Of His Freedom.
In Missouri's great prison house in
this city, the largest penitentiary IN
the world, containing convicts from
every state in the American Union
and 13 foreign countries besides,
there is a prisoner who the guards
say has no sense, a thin, frail man
Of more than so years, slightly stoop-
ed, whose beetling brows are always
drawn together above a pair of steel
gray eyes with focus fixed upon some
object far away. He is wholly un-
fitted for the ordinary labors of pris-
on life and is employed in odd jobs
about the state binder twine plant.
None of the convict labor manufac-
turing concerns is willing to accept
aim at the states wage Of 60 cents a
day.
This useless man, with the prison
pallor in his face and the strange
light in his eyes, who can hardly
perform the simplest duties of pris-
on life is known as No. 5000 in the
Missouri penitentiary but abroad
men of science are graphing with
his theories Of mathematics.
His name is M. A. McGinnis. DR.. J,
M. Greenwood, superintendent of the
Kansas City schools, and himself a
mathematician, says: Il first became
acquainted with McGinnis some 8 or
10 years ago, through his algebraic
solutions of numerical equations OF
the higher degrees. In handling
such numerical equations he is the
most slillful algebraist that | have
ever read Of"
McGinnis has evolved a theory for
the solution of numerical equations
which Is said to go beyond anything
previously devised. But he has gone
further in the solitude of his prison
. cell, and now announces that he has
discovered formula for the solu-
tion OF literal equations as far as the
18th degree. Mathematicians have
declared that It was impossible to do
what McGinnis says he can do.
But McGinnis does not regard this
discovery as his greatest achieve
ment He claims to have perfected
a solution Of numerical equations by
logarithms. So thoroughly in earn
est is the prisoner and so fully is he
convinced of the correctness OF his
theory that he is willing to stake all
his hopes of freedom upon its ac-
ceptance by the world of mathema-
tics. He is an old man and has scry-
ed only lS months of a 1O-year sem
tence, but he asks that Gov. Folk, OF
Missouri, submit his theory of the
logarithmic solution of equation to
a jury of mathematicians of national
reputation.
II the jury shall fail to sustain his
theory McGinnis says that he is will
ing to serve the remainder OF his
sentence, which, considering his age
and frail health, means death in the
prison. But IL the jury of mathema-
ticians shall sustain his views he
asks that the governor sign his par
don upon the ground that he has
made a discovery of such value TO
civilization as to cancel the debt
which society now holds against him.
Gov. Folk is himself an algebraist,
and although the fact is known to
but few, algebra for years has been
his favOrite method of mental recre-
alton and relaxation, and he finds II
much more interesting and mentally
invigorating than chess, for instance.
Gov. Folk Is now giving some of his
spare time to the McGinnis theories,
but has not yet announced a con-
clusion as to their value,
McGinnis was formerly professor OF
mathematics in a Kansas college, A
few years ago he published stimuli
taneously in the United States and
Great Britain a mathematical work
entitled algebra the Universal So
luton for Numerical and Literal
Equations"
Whisky has heen the downfall OF
| McGinnis. When under the influence
of intoXicants he is easily influenced
and while in that condition few
years ago he was drawn into real
estate transaction in which a forged
deed came to light and for his con-
nection with the matter he is now
serving a 1O-years' sentence,
Il never tasted intoxicating liquor
or entered a saloon until was 36,'
said McGinnis, but when | had been
at work for nearly seven years upon
great mathematical problem | be-
gan to lose sleep and finding the
problem with me day and night |
went to a physician and told him
that could not get the problem out
of my mind and was afraid of in
sanity. He prescribed whislIy-and
here l am.-Jefferson City, (Mo) Let
tan In Nauf VnVIy Guf