Ralph Ernest Powers


Ralph Ernest Powers was an American amateur mathematician who worked on prime numbers.
He is credited with discovering the Mersenne primes and, in 1911 and 1914 respectively. In 1934 he verified that the Mersenne number is composite.

Life

Details of his life are little-known, though he appears to have been an employee of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.
Soon after Powers announced the discovery of, the Frenchman E. Fauquembergue claimed that he had discovered it earlier, but many of Fauquembergue's other claims were later demonstrated as erroneous; thus, many prefer recognizing Powers as the discoverer, including the well-known Internet resource The Prime Pages.

Works