FA Heinhaus

FA Heinhaus , complete: Friedrich Albert Heinhaus , (born November 18, 1848 in Wermelskirchen ; † February 9, 1911 , buried on February 12, 1911 in Elberfeld ) was a German arithmetic artist.

Life

Ancestors of the Heinhaus family had lived in the Bergisches Land for a long time. Your surname goes back to Gut Heinhausen . Friedrich Albert Heinhaus was a son of Robert Heinhaus. He had nine younger siblings, with whom he lived in the house where he was born at Kölner Strasse 8 in Wermelskirchen. Because of his mathematical skills, which were evident early on, he was given the opportunity to attend higher schools in Mülheim and Cologne after primary school. He then worked as an office at the Remscheid-based company Hürxthal. In addition to his job, he learned foreign languages ​​with great dedication and therefore received commercial positions in England, France and Spain after his apprenticeship.

From 1876 to 1890 Heinhaus worked as a foreign correspondent for the renowned company Abraham & Gebrüder Frowein in Elberfeld. Following numerous suggestions, he then went into business for himself as an arithmetic artist. Later he worked again for larger companies. He calculated an annual balance, which an ordinary accountant would work out over months, in just a few hours. On February 12, 1911, he planned to perform in front of friends in his hometown of Wermelskirchen, where he often stayed. However, he died three days earlier.

program

Heinhaus made appearances in numerous German cities. An evening event included:

• multiplication tables up to 200, for example: "179 times 187".
• the quadrature of three-digit numbers like "777 times 777".
• the quadrature of four-digit numbers like "6457 times 6457".
• the calculation of the third and fourth power of numbers less than 100.
• calculating the square root of numbers with six to eight digits. He gave the exact places after the decimal point. In addition, the cube root of ascending nine-digit and non-ascending six-digit digits was determined. Here, too, he determined the decimal places exactly.
• the multiplication of two different years of the current century such as "1879 times 1857".
• Conversion of pounds sterling, shillings and pence up to approximately 100 pounds at any rate in Reichsmarks.
• Conversion of any number of years into times of up to 100 seconds. The year had 365 days.
• Conversion of an age into the number of seconds. Age could be expressed in years, months, days, hours, etc.; the year could have 366 or 365 days, the month 30 or 31 days.
• any additions, for example from about eight to ten numbers, which could have any three or four digits. When notating the last digit to be added on a blackboard, he had to name the result.
• Calculation of the weekday of a freely selected date. This could be in the future or the past and in all centuries.

successes

Heinhaus received invitations from German royal courts and visited the court of Wilhelm II , who informed him of his admiration and appreciation. Queen Victoria received him in London . He also performed in Romania, Switzerland, Belgium, Scandinavia, Russia and America.

Heinhaus' arts found reception in the world press. A newspaper from Saint Petersburg noted: “This arithmetic remains inexplicable, and one submits to it like a Hindu submits to the creation of the world. We are faced here with a phenomenon that only a Gall would be called upon to discuss and that stands on the verge of the psychological problem ”. The Leipziger Tageblatt stated: “FA Heinhaus is a genius at arithmetic. Adam Riese would have bowed his head in humility before this giant. It's a real pleasure to see him at work. "

Heinhaus amazed his audience by solving the given tasks immediately. In case of doubt, he himself provided proof of the correctness of his calculation. He then recorded the underlying calculations in writing.

Because of his abilities, doctors also dealt with the arithmetic artist. Oswald Berkhan noted a height of 1.77 meters, measured his head and found that it had a diameter that otherwise could only be measured by Immanuel Kant , Gauß and Bismarck . Head arch and other data are "dimensions that significantly exceed the usual measurements." Georg Buschan from Szczecin studied Heinhaus in a larger treatise and came to the conclusion that his ability to calculate must be innate. He suspected a special "development of a certain part of the brain, most likely the lower left frontal curl". Heinhaus himself said that his skills were "a gift of God's goodness".

literature

• Paul Hombrecher: FA Heinhaus: arithmetic artist by profession . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1983 . 53rd year. Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, pp. 153–155.