266 CALCULATING PRODIGIES [CH. XIII 



attracted by mental calculations, and of his performances m early 

 life we have no reliable details. Mere numbers however seem 

 always to have had a strange fascination for him. If the size 

 of an object was stated, he began at once to compute how many 

 inches or hair-breadths it contained ; if a period of time was 

 mentioned, he calculated the number of minutes in it ; if 

 he heard a sermon, he thought only of the number of words 

 or syllables in it. No doubt his powers in these matters in- 

 creased by incessant practice, but his ideas were childish, and 

 do not seem to have gone beyond pride in being able to state 

 accurately the results of such calculations. He was slow witted, 

 and took far longer to answer arithmetical questions than most 

 of these prodigies. The only practical accomplishment to which 

 his powers led him was the ability to estimate by inspection 

 the acreage of a field of irregular shape. 



His fame gradually spread through Derbyshire^ Among 

 many questions put to him by local visitors were the follow- 

 ing, which fairly indicate his powers when a young man : — 

 How many acres are there in a rectangular field 351 yards 

 long and 261 wide ; answered in 11 minutes. How many cubic 

 yards of earth must be removed in order to make a pond 

 426 feet long, 263 feet wide, and 2\ feet deep ; answered in 

 15 minutes. If sound travels 1142 feet in one second, how 

 long will it take to travel 5 miles; answered in 15 minutes. 

 Such questions involve no difficulties of principle. 



Here are a few of the harder problems solved by Buxton 

 when his powers were fully developed. He calculated to what 

 sum a farthing would amount if doubled 140 times : the answer 

 is a number of pounds sterling which requires thirty-nine digits 

 to represent it with 2s. 8d. over. Be was then asked to multiply 

 this number of thirty-nine digits by itself : to this he gave the 

 answer two and a half months later, and he said he had carried 

 on the calculation at intervals during that period. In 1751 he 

 calculated how many cubic inches there are in a right-angled 

 block of stone 23,145,789 yards long, 5,642,732 yards wide, and 

 54,965 yards thick ; how many grains of corn would be required 

 to fill a cube whose volume is 202,680,000,360 cubic miles ; and 



