Model of An Oblong or Rectangle, Ross Surface Form #3
date: label: date made
content: ca 1895
name: label: maker
content: Ross, W. W.
notes: label: Description
content: In 1891, William Wallace Ross (1834–1906), the superintendent of schools in Fremont, Ohio, published a set of “dissected surface forms and geometrical solids” for teaching practical geometry and measurement in schools and colleges. He also prepared a manual that describes their use. Ross extended earlier work of Albert H. Kennedy, including a much larger number of surfaces. His models would be distributed at least as late as 1917, when they were listed in the catalog of the Atlas School Supply Company of Chicago, Illinois.
label: Description
content: In his manual, Ross listed eighteen “surface forms”, eighteen solids or volumes, and the five Platonic or regular solids. By the time of the 1917–1918 catalog, a set of the model reportedly contained fifty pieces. The Smithsonian collections include thirteen of the surface forms, ten of which correspond to objects in the 1891 list. They also contain all or part of twelve of the solid forms, at least five of which correspond to the 1891 list.
label: Description
content: This is the second of Ross’s surface forms, a rectangle (or, in Ross’s language, an oblong) that measures 6 inches by 1 inch. The first surface form was a square one inch on a side. Taking the area of this square to be one square inch, students were to observe that the area of the rectangle was six square inches. A paper label attached to the model reads: Oblong 1x6.
label: Description
content: Compare models 1985.0112.190 through 1985.0112.202.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: W. W. Ross, <I>Mensuration Taught Objectively with Lessons on Form . . . Manual for the Use of the Author’s Dissected Surface Forms and Geometrical Solids</I>, Fremont, Ohio, 1891.
label: Description
content: Atlas School Supply Company, <I>Catalog No. 39 1917-18</I>, Chicago, Illinois, 1917, p. 86.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Ohio, Fremont
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Arithmetic Teaching
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Wesleyan University
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0112.190
label: accession number
content: 1985.0112
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0112.190
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 cm x 15.4 cm x 10 cm; 13/32 in x 6 1/16 in x 3 15/16 in