Object Details
- Description
- This is one of four string models showing space curves of fourth order that were designed by the German mathematician Hermann Wiener (1857-1939) and first published by Ludwig Brill in 1884. The model has a metal frame painted black. The top and bottom are both in the shape of a hollowed X, with a small circle at the center. The four sides have oval shapes, with two opposite sides having differently shaped ovals than the other two. A few curved wires join adjacent sides and have beads running on them. In more complete versions of the model, strings join opposite ovals to form cylinders and also run between other metal bars. This example has no maker's tag.
- This object was exhibited at the Columbian Exposition, a World’s Fair held in Chicago in 1893. It came to the Smithsonian from Wesleyan University in 1985.
- Another example of this model, with strings, is in the collections of the University of Illinois.
- References:
- L. Brill, Catalog mathematischer Modelle..., Darmstadt: L. Brill, 1892, p. 24, 74.
- For images of an example of the model at the University of Illinois, see http://www.mathmodels.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/cview?SITEID=4&ID=349, accessed August 19, 2020.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- L. Brill
- date made
- 1892
- Credit Line
- Gift of Wesleyan University
- Physical Description
- glass (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 32.5 cm x 32 cm x 32 cm; 12 25/32 in x 12 19/32 in x 12 19/32 in
- Object Name
- geometric model
- geometric model
