Model of a Thermodynamic Surface for an Abnormal Three-State by Richard P. Baker, Baker #259

Object Details

Baker, Richard P.

Description

In the 1870s physicists in Scotland and the United States began to make three-dimensional models of the thermal properties of matter. This plaster model of a thermodynamic surface has a wooden frame painted black. A paper sticker reads: No. 259 (/) Abnormal 3-state (/) Diagrammatic.

This is one of a series of nine models University of Iowa mathematician Richard P. Baker made that relate to thermodynamic surfaces. It was designed under the supervision of his German-born colleague Karl Eugen Guthe (1866–1915), who taught in the physics department there from 1905 until 1909. The model remained in Baker’s catalog as late as 1931. This particular example of the model was on loan 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.

For general references, see MA.304723.045.

R. P. Baker delivered a paper to the April 1910 meeting of the Chicago section of the American Mathematical Society that was entitled "On a class of equations representing normal and abnormal three-state bodies." A summary - which gives equations - is given in the reference cited and used to give a rough date of 1910 for the model.

Reference:

Slaught, H.E., "April Meeting of the Chicago Section, " Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 16, 1910, p. 458, 462.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Gift of Frances E. Baker

ca 1910

ca 1905-1935

ID Number

MA.211257.047

accession number

211257

catalog number

211257.047

Object Name

geometric model

Physical Description

plaster (overall material)

wood (overall material)

metal (overall material)

brown (overall color)

blue (overall color)

gray (overall color)

pink (overall color)

plaster cast, screwed. (overall production method/technique)

Measurements

average spatial: 5 in x 10 5/32 in x 8 1/32 in; 12.7 cm x 25.79878 cm x 20.39874 cm

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Science & Mathematics

National Museum of American History

Subject

Mathematics

Record ID

nmah_1082765

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-5144-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa