Franz Lemmermeyer has uncovered a neglected early paper on factoring. This is from 1858, and may have been 'lost'. Dickson's History references Simerka's paper as an explanation of composing BQFs, but he apparently overlooked the factorization of R17. http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.0282 Simerka - Quadratic Forms and Factorization: Franz Lemmermeyer In this article we show that the Czech mathematician Vaclav Simerka discovered the factorization of (10^17-1)/9 using a method based on the class group of binary quadratic forms more than 120 years before Shanks and Schnorr developed similar algorithms. Simerka also gave the first examples of what later became known as Carmichael numbers. Some other factoring work in the same era ... Lucas was working on showing M127 prime 1857-1876. Around this time, people were working out how to augment the converse of Fermat's Little theorem to test primality. M61 was a good target, since M61-2 = 2*M60 has an easy factorization. In 1874, the philosopher/economist/logician Jevons offered 8616460799 as an example of a number whose factorization would never be known except to himself. Lehmer factored it in 1903. Cole's silent presentation of the factors of M67 was in 1903. When asked how hard it was, he is said to have replied 'three years of Sundays'. It's unclear what method he used. Rich