DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0133
ZERAH COLBURN.
f 15
did by mentioning the two numbers 941 and 263 ; which in-
deed are the only two numbers that will produce it. Another
of them proposed 171395, and he named the following
factors as the only ones that would produce it; viz. 5 x 34279,
7x24485, 59x2905, 83 x 2065, 35 x 4897, 295 x 581, and
413 x 415. He was then asked to give the factors of 36083 ;
but he immediately replied that it had none ; which in fact
was the case, as 36083 is a prime number. Other numbers
were indiscriminately proposed to him, and he always suc-
ceeded in giving the correct factors, except in the case of
prime numbers, which he discovered almost as soon as pro-
posed.
He was then asked how many times a coach wheel, 12 feet
in circumference, would turn round in 256 miles: in two
seconds, he replied 112,640: and likewise added, that the
number of barley corns in that distance was 48,660,480.
One of the gentlemen asked him how many minutes there
were in forty-eight years; and before the question could be
written down, he replied 25,228,800: and instantly added,
that the number of seconds in the same period was 1,513,
728,000. Various questions of the like kind were put to
him; and to all of them he answered with nearly equal facility
and promptitude; so as to astonish every one present, and to
excite a desire that so extraordinary a faculty should (if pos-
sible) be rendered more extensive and useful.
It was the wish of the gentlemen present to obtain a know-
ledge of the method by which the child was enabled to
answer with so much facility and correctness the questions,
thus put to him: but to all their inquiries on this subject,
upon which he was closely examined, he was unable to give
any information. He positively declared, and every observa-
tion that was made seemed to justify the assertion, that he
did not know how the answers came into his mind. In the
act of multiplying two numbers together, and of raising
powers, it was evident, not only from the motion of his lips,
2 2
f 15
did by mentioning the two numbers 941 and 263 ; which in-
deed are the only two numbers that will produce it. Another
of them proposed 171395, and he named the following
factors as the only ones that would produce it; viz. 5 x 34279,
7x24485, 59x2905, 83 x 2065, 35 x 4897, 295 x 581, and
413 x 415. He was then asked to give the factors of 36083 ;
but he immediately replied that it had none ; which in fact
was the case, as 36083 is a prime number. Other numbers
were indiscriminately proposed to him, and he always suc-
ceeded in giving the correct factors, except in the case of
prime numbers, which he discovered almost as soon as pro-
posed.
He was then asked how many times a coach wheel, 12 feet
in circumference, would turn round in 256 miles: in two
seconds, he replied 112,640: and likewise added, that the
number of barley corns in that distance was 48,660,480.
One of the gentlemen asked him how many minutes there
were in forty-eight years; and before the question could be
written down, he replied 25,228,800: and instantly added,
that the number of seconds in the same period was 1,513,
728,000. Various questions of the like kind were put to
him; and to all of them he answered with nearly equal facility
and promptitude; so as to astonish every one present, and to
excite a desire that so extraordinary a faculty should (if pos-
sible) be rendered more extensive and useful.
It was the wish of the gentlemen present to obtain a know-
ledge of the method by which the child was enabled to
answer with so much facility and correctness the questions,
thus put to him: but to all their inquiries on this subject,
upon which he was closely examined, he was unable to give
any information. He positively declared, and every observa-
tion that was made seemed to justify the assertion, that he
did not know how the answers came into his mind. In the
act of multiplying two numbers together, and of raising
powers, it was evident, not only from the motion of his lips,
2 2