I am just about to dash off to England, and so forgive the haste:
> who Proth was
J.C. comment. Yves Gallot informs me that he was a "self-taught farmer,
1852-1879" (I had always - wrongly - supposed he was part of the French
academic establishment). Yves tells me there is more in Hugh Williams'
recently published (Canadian Mathematical Society) book on "E. Lucas, and
Primality Testing," which I have just ordered.
and where he published his (?) theorem?
It was in the Comptes Rendus [see the AMS "Factorizations book for exact
reference; I am in a hurry...]
John Cosgrave ( web site: www.spd.dcu.ie/johnbcos )