overall: 55.5 cm x 43 cm x 43 cm; 21 27/32 in x 16 15/16 in x 16 15/16 in
Object Name:
geometric model
Date made:
ca 1934
Description:
This ruled surface is a model of a hyperboloid of one sheet and a double cone. It has a circular rings of chrome at the top and bottom and three black vertical edges that move at the base. There are two rows of holes around both the top and the bottom. The inner holes are threaded by yellow threads which form a double cone, while the outer holes are threaded by blue.
This is one of eight models of rules surfaces having a chrome frame given to the Smithsonian by Brown University (see MA.304722.35 through MA.304722.42). All these models are unsigned. Models of this general appearance were shown by Saul Pollock of Indiana State Teacher’s College in Terre Haute, Indiana, at the Century of Progress world’s fair, held in Chicago in 1934. A. Harry Wheeler, a mathematics teacher and maker of geometric models, visited the fair and noted Pollock’s models. Wheeler also communicated with mathematicians at Brown, and exhibited some of his models there. The models might be by Pollock, they might be copies by Wheeler.
References:
Century of Progress, <I>Official Handbook of Exhibits in the Division of the Basic Sciences Hall of Science</I>, Chicago, 1934, p. 39-40, 43.
P.A. Kidwell, “American Mathematics Viewed Objectively: The Case of Geometric Models,” <I>Vita Mathematica</I>, ed. Ronald Calinger, Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America, 1996, pp. 197-207.
