Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1909-02-19
IS STUDENT WONDER
BOY WILL END COLLEGE TERM
At AGE OF FOURTEEN.
Norbert Wiener, Son of Cambridge
Professor, to Graduate from
Tufts in June-Also Good
In Athletics.

Boston.-At Tufts college boy will
graduate next June at the age of IA,
and we will have to take off our
mortar board caps to him. He is
Norbert Wiener, the son of Harvard
professor This remarkable boy was
born in Columbia, Mo-, November &c,
1894. He could repeat the alphabet
at the age of II months, could read
and write at three years, and at the
age of eight he was fitted for college
In mathematics, philosophy, modern
languages and the sciences.
1t required less than three years
of schooling after donning short trou.
sers for him to prepare for college.
Boys seldom do this in less than ten
or II years; usually 1t requires an
even dozen. and often longer.
When Norbert Wiener entered Tufts
in the autumn of 1906 he had gone
farther in chemistry and philosophy
than the average senior He was re-
quired to take several entrance ex-
aminations, mathematics among them,
in which he was found to be far in ad-
vance Of the freshman class.
So as freshman he did upper
class work in the theory of equations
and in determinants, while in philoso-
ply 1t was found necessary to place
him in n class by himself. He had
read Spencer Haeckel Darwin, Hulk
ley and many others. Now he has
read Locke, Hobbies and other Eng
fish philosophers; he has translated
4 Homer and several plays of Aescb' lus.
as we'll as similar amount If Latin.
In mathematics he has delved into
the Galois theory of equations and has
completed differential and integral cal
culus. He will continue this branch
this year and will study the philosoph-
| les of Leibnitz. SpinoZa and Kant.
In Greek he will read Herodotus and
Sophocles; the rest of his time will be
taken up by biology and organic chem
istry. In June, 1909, he will have COM
pleted the regular four year course in
three years, receiving the degree of
bachelor of arts before he has reached
the age of 15 But the work he has
covered will equal the amount usually
completed by a candidate for the de-
gree of doctor of philosophy.
In the autumn following his gradual
ton at Tufts college he will enter the
Harvard Graduate school, where he
will elect work in higher mathematics
with supplementary course in biol
ogy or chemistry. After receiving the
doctors degree at Ian age when
many students are not yet contem
plating the entrance examinations
he will spend two or three years in
Germany or France, devoting himself
to philosophy or science.
That is, at an age when the average
boy has still two years of work ahead
of him for his bachelors degree youns
Wiener will be doing advanced scien
tffic work among the gray-hairet
savants of a German university
. Prof. Leo Wiener of the department
, OF Slavic languages at Harvard is o
Russian parentage; the boys mothe
) is native of Missouri. The othe
, children of the family do not diffe
, from other boys and girls of their age
Apart from the fact that his capac
ity for learning is phenomenal, Nor
{ bert Wiener is like other boys Hi
: physical development is excellent; h,
is a good tennis player and an exper
swimmer. He is tall boy and
: strict vegetarian. His head is norma
> in size, but his blazing, black eyes ar
l almost uncanny in their power Pei
: sonally he chooses mathematics as hi
favorite study. Philosophy he call
his 'fairyland."