HUMAN MARVELS

Evening Star, Issue 20984, 24 December 1931, Page 14

HUMAN MARVELS

LIGHTNING BRAINS

FACILITY WITH FIGURES Persons who experience difficulty in giving the correct answer to a simple sum in addition usually excuse themselves by saying that they have no head for figures. They will be pleased to know that a good head for figures is not necessarily a sign of intelligence, in the asylum at Armentieres, Prance, there is a patient named Pleury whose ability to handle figures has astonished medical and scientific men, but whose general mentality is below normal. The ‘ Lancet,’ in referring recently to Pleury, said: “He can give the square root of any number running into six figures in six seconds. He gave the cube root of 34,012,224 in eleven seconds, and the cube root of 405,484,375 m thirteen seconds. 'These seem mere trifles, however, compared with the following:- -Ho was asked how _ many grains of corn there would be in any one of sixty-four boxes with one in the first, two in the second, four in the third, eight in the fourth, and so on in succession. He gave the answers for the 14th (8,192), for the 18th (131,072), and the 24th (8,388,608) instantaneously, and he gave the figures for the 48th box (140,737,488,355,328; in six seconds. On being requested to give the total in all the boxes he furnished the correct answer (18,446,734,073,709,551,615) in forty-five seconds. Pleury, who is 26 years old, has been blind from birth, and therefore has never seen figures. But he has studied Braille and has devised arithmetical methods of his own.”

There have been lightning calculators iti the world before Pleury, and some of them earned money by giving public exhibitions of their astonishing facility in handling figures (says the *• Melbourne Age) ’ . One of the most remarkable of these marvels was Zerah Colburn, who was known as the calculating boy. Ho was born at Cabut, Vermont, U.S.A., on September 1, 1804, and when he was six years of age his father discovered his remarkable gift for figures, and took him on exhibition throughout the United States, and subsequently to England. He was ignorant of the common rules of arithmetic, but, states a contemporary account, “ he possessed as if by intuition the singular faculty of solving a great variety of arithmetical questions by the mere operations of his mind and without the usual assistance of any visible symbol or contrivance. On one occasion this child undertook, and completely succeeded, in raising the number eight progressively up to the sixteenth power, and in naming the last result —viz., 281,474,976,7 1 0,656 he was right in every figure. TENTH POWER. Ho was then tried as to other numbers, consisting of one figure, all of which he raised (by actual multiplication and not by memory) as high as the tenth power, with so much facility and dispatch that the person appointed to take down the results was obliged to enjoin him not to be so rapid. He was asked the square root of 106,929, and before the number could be written down he immediately answered 327. He was then required to name the cube root of 268,336,125, and with equal facility and promptitude replied 645. One of the party requested him to name the factors which produce the number 247,483, which ho immediately did by mentioning 941 and 236, which are the only two numbers that will produce it. Ho was then asked to give the factors of 36,083, but ho immediately replied that it had none, which in fact was the case, as it is a prime number. One gentleman asked him how many minutes there were in 48 years, and before the question could be written down ho answered it correctly, and instantly added the number of seconds in the same period. No information could bo gained from the child of the method by whicli he effected such astonishing results, although it appeared evident that he operated by certain rules known only to himself.”

An earlier arithmetical marvel was Jedediah Buxston, who was born in 1705. His father was a schoolmaster, but the son’s education was entirely neglected, and he could neither read nor write. His mental faculties were slow, except in regard to figures. After hearing a sermon lie could tell how many words it contained, but he remembered nothing else about it. If a period of time was mentioned in his hearing he unconsciously began to reckon how many seconds were in it. Ho walked from Chesterfield to London, where much notice was taken of him by members of the Royal Society. The following problem was put to him:—How many eighths of an inch are there in a quadrangular mass measuring 23,145,789yds long, 5,642,732yds wide, and 54,965yds thick. He gave the correct answer without difficulty. Ho worked out how much a farthing would amount to if doubled successively 140 times. The answer in pounds extended to thirty-nine figures. Ho could suspend for any lengh of time any arithmetical problem on which ho was mentally engaged, and he could resume it at the point where ho had left off. He could converse on other subjects while working out the problems, but he could not explain by what methods ho achieved his results. AN ENGLISH BOY. A contemporary English rival of the American marvel Zerah Colburn was George Parker Bidder, who was born two years after Colburn, and lived to tho ago of seventy-two. He was the son of a farm labourer in Devonshire, and as a boy exhibited an astonishing gift for arithmetic. Ho cultivated his faculty, and after giving public exhibitions ho took a degree at Edinburgh University, and became an eminent civil engineer. In 1856 ho gave to the Institute of Civil Engineers an intcrteresting account of his remarkable arithmetical faculty, which showed that he worked out tho problems with inconceivable rapidity, and did not depend for tho solutions on his memory as was generally supposed. A girl named Heywood, who could neither read nor write, possessed the arithmetical faculty in an astonishing degree. She was the daughter of a weaver, and in 1819, at the age of eleven years, she appeared at the Royal Exchange. London, to display her powers. She was asked to multiply 525,600 by 250, and she gave tho correct answer, 131,400,000, in less than a minute A second question was how many minutes' are there in forty-two years. Sho answered 22,075,200. Other questions of a similar kind wore put to her, and sho answered them all correctly.