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In the English translation of Sharygin's Problems in Geometry by Mir Publishers, there are a number of instances in which the names of mathematicians are clear misspellings. For example, "Lemuan" for Lemoine and "Herdesh" for Erdös. It's obvious that in these cases the translator for Mir, who almost certainly wasn't a mathematician, was unable to determine who these mathematicians were from the Russian spellings of their names.

I'd like help in identifying the authors of the following theorems mentioned in the book, whose names may well have been mangled by the translator. I've left the translations as they are, warts and all. I’ve added the original Russian name after each problem statement.

Problem 262:

Prove that the middle perpendiculars [i.e., the perpendicular bisectors] to the line segments joining the intersection points of the altitudes [i.e., the orthocentres] to the centres of the circumscribed circles of the four triangles formed by four arbitrary straight lines in the plane intersect at one point (Herwey’s point). Точка Эрвея

Problem 282:

An arc $AB$ of a circle is divided into three equal parts by the points $C$ and $D$ ($C$ is nearest to $A$). When rotated about the point $A$ through an angle of $\pi/3$, the points $B$, $C$ and $D$ go into points $B_1$, $C_1$ and $D_1$; $F$ is the point of intersection of the straight lines $AB_1$ and $DC_1$; $E$ is a point on the bisector of the angle $B_1 B A$ such that $|BD| = |DE|$. Prove that the triangle $CEF$ is regular [i.e., equilateral] (Finlay’s theorem). Финлей

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The first one is called the Hervey point, after a person named F. R. J. Hervey (who published a problem pertaining to the Hervey point in the Educational Times in 1891). The second one I believe to be named after an Archibald H. Finlay who contributed the problem to the Mathematical Gazette in 1960. These two mathematicians were probably amateurs who worked out minor proofs in geometry in their spare time.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you! I appreciate it very much. $\endgroup$ Commented May 16, 2017 at 7:21

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