Geometric Model, L. Brill No. 68. Ser. 2 No. 6b, Kummer Surface
date: label: date made
content: 1892
name: label: maker
content: L. Brill
notes: label: Description
content: In 1877, L. Brill published three plaster models designed by Karl Rohn (1855-1920), a student of Alexander Brill and Felix Klein at the technical high school in Munich. This is the second of them. Rohn would go on to make distinguished contributions to algebraic geometry, including the study of Kummer surfaces, both as a student and as a professor at German universities. A Kummer surface takes its name from the mathematician Eduard Kummer (1810-1893), who described them in an 1864 paper. It is a special kind of surface represented by an equation of degree four which has sixteen double points.
label: Description
content: Sometimes, as in this plaster model with metal supports, some of the double points are in the complex plane, and do not appear in a model in ordinary three-dimensional space. Eight double points are shown. The curves shown on the model represent lines of intersection between the surface and planes containing six of the double points. They are curves of degree two, that is to say conic sections.
label: Description
content: A paper tag on the model reads: 68. Another paper tag reads: Kummer'sche Fläche (/) [. . .] v. L. Brill. 2. Ser. Nr. VIb
label: Description
content: This example of the model was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: L. Brill, <I>Catalog mathematischer Modelle. . .</I>, Darmstadt: L. Brill,1892, p. 5, 66.
label: Description
content: G. Fischer, <I>Mathematical Models: Commentary</I>, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, 1986, pp. 14-16.
label: Description
content: Mathematics Institute of Oxford University website.
label: Description
content: Ulf Hashagen, <I>Walther von Dyck (1856-1934): Mathematik, Technik und Wissenschaftsorganisation an der TH München</I>, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2003.
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: 1985.0112.052
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0112.052
label: accession number
content: 1985.0112
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plaster (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 cm x 31 cm x 20 cm; 7 15/32 in x 12 7/32 in x 7 7/8 in