Details of the life of R.E. Powers are little-known; however, he was apparently the first mathematician to demonstrate that the Mersenne number M107 = 2107 − 1 was indeed prime. This was published in his article Certain composite Mersenne's numbers in 1916. Sometimes, mathematical textbooks attribute this result to one E. Fauquembergue , but it appears as though many of Fauquembergue's claims were later demonstrated as erroneous; thus, many prefer recognizing Powers as the discoverer, including the well-known Internet resource The Prime Pages.
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