Tag: Plaster

1880 – Klein's Mathematical Plaster Models

In the 19th century, mathematicians became interested in the question how mathematical functions look like. Felix Klein, a German mathematician, had several of such physical models in his lab in Göttingen, and popularized them in America when he brought a boatload to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The photo above shows a model of a Clebsch surface from 1880, designed and presumably built by Adolf Weiler, Klein's grad student. It is kept today at the University of Göttingen. Sources: Photo […]

Added by: Yvonne Jansen & Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Saiganesh Swaminathan. Category: Physical model  Tags: education, mathematical functions, plaster


1999 – Jonathan Chertok's Reproductions of Mathematical Plaster Models

Since 1999, independent researcher and architect Jonathan Chertok has been digitally reconstructing and 3D-printing historical plaster models from 19th-century mathematical model collections, originally hand-crafted in the 1860s and cataloged in early 20th-century German sources. His work focuses in particular on the Klein-Schilling collection, many of whose originals are housed in European institutions such as the University of Göttingen and the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris. Chertok’s “1.0 […]

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Jonathan Chertok. Category: Physical model  Tags: mathematics, education, mathematical functions, plaster