Born on 1st September 1804, Zerah Colburn was a child prodigy of the 19th century. He was famous all around as a mental calculator. He was born in Cabot. Until the age of 6, he was thought to be intellectually disabled. Once his father had him repeating the multiplication tables, and so he decided to test him for his further mathematical abilities.

He discovered a unique thing about Zerah when he found him multiplying 13 and 97 correctly. Very soon, Colburn developed his ability and was able to solve many challenging problems in a very few time. At the age of 7, it only took six seconds for him to answer the number of hours in 38 years, two months, and seven days. He was also able to solve many complex problems.