Today is the birthday of “Professor” William S. Hutchings (1832-1911), billed in vaudeville and dime museums as the “Lightning Calculator”. Hutching was a math prodigy who began working at P.T. Barnum’s American Museum as the Boy Lightning Calculator. For 25 cents he then hawked a book by the same title that revealed his arithmetical secrets (read the [...]
SOURCE: Trav S.D. at 08:14AM on January 7, 2013