Geometric Model, L. Brill No. 148. Ser. 10 No. 1a, Minimal Surface in Two Parts
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.
label: Description
content: This, the first model in the series, is in two parts. One is a wire circle with three wire supports and the second circle of the same diameter with a handle. If the circles are held together, a soap film spans both of them. Separating the circles produces a film in the shape of a catenoid and then, when the circles are separated further, circles span the two discs separately.
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: A. T. Fomenko, <I>The Plateau Problem, Part I, Historical Survey</I>, New York: Gordon and Breach, 1990, pp. 22-34.
label: Description
content: J. Plateau, <I>Statique expérimentale et théorique des liquides soumis aux seules forces moléculaires</I>, vol. 1, Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1873, pp. 93-103. This work 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: 1985.0112.106
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0112.106
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: 7.2 cm x 8 cm x 8 cm; 2 27/32 in x 3 5/32 in x 3 5/32 in