Geometric Model, L. Brill No. 148 (?). Ser. 10 No. 1i?, Minimal Surface
date: label: date made
content: 1892
name: label: maker
content: L. Brill
notes: label: Description
content: Students at the technical high school in Munich, working under the direction of Alexander Brill, developed a series of wire models of minimal surfaces that was first published by Ludwig Brill in 1885. A minimal surface is the surface of smallest area of all the surfaces bounded by a closed curve in space. Its mean curvature is zero. Minimal surfaces are often represented by soap films, as was the intention with this model. It is one of a series. The model is in the shape of a four-sided prism with near rectangular sides. Half of its edges are missing, and the edges at the bottom are curved. There is a handle at the top. Either model 1985.0112.114 of model 1985.112.115 may be Brill Ser. 10 No. 1i. That model was designed to illustrate one of the surfaces proposed by the German mathematician Heinrich Scherk (1798-1885) in a paper of 1835.
label: Description
content: This example was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition, a world’s fair held in Chicago in 1893.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: L. Brill, <I>Catalog mathematischer Modelle. . .</I>, Darmstadt: L. Brill,1892, p. 21, 85.
label: Description
content: G. Fischer, <I>Mathematical Models: Commentary</I>, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1986, pp. 41-43.
label: Description
content: Scherk, H.F., “Bemerkungen über die kleinste Fläche innerhalb gegebener Grenzen,” <I>Journal fuer die reine und angewandte Mathematik</I>, 13, 1835, pp. 185-208. This article is mentioned in the Brill catalog.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Hesse, Darmstadt
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Wesleyan University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0112.114
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0112.114
label: accession number
content: 1985.0112
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Geometric Model
label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19.7 cm x 6.3 cm x 7 cm; 7 3/4 in x 2 15/32 in x 2 3/4 in