E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Calculators (The).
Alfragan, the Arabian astronomer. Died 820.
1
Jedediah Buxton, of Elmeton, in Derbyshire. (1705–1775.)
2
George Bidder and Zerah Colburn (an American), who exhibited publicly.
3
Inaudi exhibited “his astounding powers of calculatin’” at Paris in 1880, his additions and subtractions were from left to right.
4
“Buxton, being asked ‘How many cubical eighths-of-an-inch there are in a body whose three sides are 23,145,786 yards, 5,642,732 yards, and 54,965 yards?’ replied correctly without setting down a figure.”
“Colburn, being asked the square root of 106,929 and the cube root 268,336,125, replied before the audience had set the figures down.”—Price: Parallet History, vol. ii. p. 570.
