Have Program, Will Travel!

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Abstract
Zerah Colburn was not exactly the reigning intellect of Cabot, Vermont. Still only five years old, and with just six weeks' schooling, he had not yet learned to read either letters or numbers. Left to amuse himself in his father's carpentry workshop one day in August 1810, he was playing among the wood shavings when his father Abia heard a most unexpected childish prattle. “5 times 7 are 35,” Zerah muttered to himself. “6 times 8 are 48.” Zerah continued to run through multiplication tables while his father listened in astonishment. What, Abia finally asked the child, was 13 times 97? “1261,” the boy answered without hesitation. The career of America's most amazing “lightning calculator” had begun.

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