[ February 9, 2003 ]
The 196 Palindrome Quest

Wade VanLandingham reached a staggering
300 million digits in the 196 quest.
Progress can be followed through his own website at
196 and Other Lychrel Numbers

Here's a brief history of the most famous search for a palindrome.
It all starts quite innocently with the number 196.
ps. All related websources are collected at Palindromize 196 by 'reverse & add'

Three Years of Computing - A new record of 1 million digits!
[ May 25, 1990 ]
Final report on the Palindrome Quest by John Walker

About Two Months of Computing - A new record of 2 million digits!
[ August 22, 1995 ]
An Addendum to Mr. Walker's Three years of Computing by Tim Irvin

196 Palindrome Quest - A new record of 14 million digits!
[ January 12, 2001 ]
Jason Allen Doucette tells his story.

We should point out though that Jason Doucette was already past 10 million digits
by the time Istvan Bozsik had started his quest to reach his 6 million !

[ May 21, 2002 ]
Wade VanLandingham was handed over the torch by Jason Doucette
and Wade informs me that he reached a staggering
34 million (well nearly!) digits in the 196 quest.
Progress can be followed through his own website at
196 and Other Lychrel Numbers
Wade likes to promote all the numbers that do not form palindromes
by reversing & adding their digits as Lychrel Numbers,
196 being the obvious first, then 879, 1997, etc.