High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! William Shanks (January 25, 1812 – June 1882, Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, England ) was a British amateur mathematician. Shanks is famous for his calculation of ? to 707 places, accomplished in 1873, which, however, was only correct up to the first 527 places. This error was highlighted in 1944 by D. F. Ferguson (using a mechanical desk calculator). Shanks earned his living by owning a boarding school at Houghton-le-Spring, which left him enough time to spend on his hobby of calculating mathematical constants. His routine was as follows: he would calculate new digits all morning; and then he would spend all afternoon checking his morning's work.

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