average spatial: .1 cm x 15.6 cm x 15.6 cm; 1/32 in x 6 5/32 in x 6 5/32 in
Object Name:
geometric model
Date made:
ca 1906-1935
Description:
The nineteenth century saw a remarkable expansion of knowledge of electricity, including study of the magnetism associated with wires carrying electrical currents. One who wrote on the subject was the German teacher Hermann Grassmann (1809-1877). This is a representation of a current element after the ideas of Grassmann. The model is part of a collection of surfaces prepared by Richard P. Baker, a mathematician at the University of Iowa.
This particular example of the model was on loan from Baker for exhibition at MIT from 1939 until the mid-1950s. It, along with the other models in accession 211257, came to the Smithsonian from MIT in 1956.
References:
Grassmann, H., “Neue Theorie der Electrodynamik,” Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 1845, vol. 140, pp. 1-18.
Baker, R.P., Mathematical Models, Iowa City, 1931, p. 18.
