Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-11
DEMONSTRATES THEORY Of
CRYSTALS TO EDUCATORS
Philip w. T. R. Thomson Shows
Results of Experiments
in Formation of Solids

A score of the leading mathema-
ticians and educational experts or
Southern California gathered in the
rooms of the board of education yes
terday morning to witness demon
stration of the new science OF
"stereometry," and for two hours
watched with fascinated gaze the deft'
manipulation of million or more lit
tie blocks of wood by the inventor of
the system, Philip w. T. r. Thomson,
as he lectured on his theory that all
regular polyhedral solids are resolved
into or are found to have as the basis
of their formation four elemental
shapes, the regular and inverted
tetrahedral and the regular and in
verted octahedral.
Mr. Thomson's best asset in the
demonstration was his small assistant,
Alice Austin, a little miss of IL years,
a student in the Page seminary for
girls, who, without instruction or
studious effort, built up shapes vary
ing from cubes to those patterned on
the beautiful and intricate snow
crystals, her material being hetero-
genous pile of wood blocks of the
basic shapes.
FUTURE OF SYSTEM
It is on the facility with which chill
dren utilize these Segments of the reg
ular solids that Mr. Thomson bases
his prediction that his system will
supersede that of Froebel, the great
kindergarten expert, as means OF
elementary instruction in geometry.
DR.. E. C. Moore superintendent of city
schools, and other educational men
present heartily concurred with the
inventor in this opinion, and the ex-
hibit, which has already been sub
ject of study by the Normal school
students, will be placed in the Poly
technic and Los Angeles high schools,
and may later be adopted for the
kindergartens of the city.
Nine years ago Mr.. Thomson be-
came interested in the division of
geometrical solids by their natural
lines of inner and outer cleavage, and
soon discovered that FroebePs system,
largely used as a form of elementary
instruction in geometry, followed en-
tirely arbitrary lines, and, properly
speaking, is not geometrical at all.
DEMONSTRATES THEORY
Learning that a physicist Of no less
reputation than the great Lord Kelvin
had spent years of study on the
formation of crystals found in nature,
Mr.. Thomson resolved to prosecute his
experiments to the utmost. Without
forming any advance theory of what
his experiments should lead to, he took
a cube of about eight inches on side,
and dividing it on it's diagonal planes
found that it resolved into four pyra-
mtds, each of which was one-half OF
an octahedral. One of these pyramids
was then subdivided fifteen times,
forming over ten thousand segments,
none of which varied from the form of
segments of the octahedral or tetrahe-
dral.
From these elemental segments ne
has constructed every form of regular
solid, and has found no specimen or
crystalline formation which he could
not form upon the same elements.
81 regard the demonstration as show
ing great possibilities for instruction
of pupils in elementary geometry
said DR.. Moore, who acted as patron
for the demonstration. 1T Is doubtless
destined to become a serious com
petitor of FroebePs kindergarten
methods"
WHAT PERKINS SAYS
Prof. H. b. Perkins, dean of the
mathematical school of Throop Poly
technic institute said: while l do
NOT regard the demonstration as wholly
the inventors claims
for a new theory on the formation of
regular polyhedral solids in con-
to Platos theory, Mr..
Thomson has uncovered many features
which will form a most interesting
study, particularly in the formation of
crystalline spirals."
Among those present at the demon