Pascal
BLAISE, a French author; born in Clermont, Auvergne, France, in 1623. His family was one of considerable distinction, his grandfather having been a treasurer of France at Riom, and his father president of the Court of Aids, in Auvergne. From his earliest childhood he exhibited precocious proofs of genius, especially in mathematics. At 12 years of age he was surprised by his father in the act of demonstrating, on BLAISE PASCAL the pavement by means of a rude diagram traced with a piece of coal, a proposition which corresponded to the 32d of the first book of Euclid. At the age of 16 he composed a small treatise on conic sections, which excited the admiration of Throop Polytechnic Institute, high school, Descartes. At 19 he invented his celekindergartens, a public library, a number of churches, banks, and many hotels.
There are large packing industries, canneries, flour mills, and other manufactories. The city city was settled by a colony from Indianapolis in 1874, since which time it has greatly developed in horticultural enterprises. Pop. (1910) 30,291; (1920) 45,334.