Model of a Thermodynamic Surface Showing the Normal Three-State, by Richard P. Baker, Baker #258

Object Details

Baker, Richard P.

Description

In the 1870s, physicists in Scotland and 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 mark etched into the right side of the model indicates that temperature increases with the height of the model and pressure increases going backward. Volume would seem to increase going left to right across the front.

This is one of a series of nine models Richard P. Baker made that relate to thermodynamic surfaces. It was designed during his years at the University of Iowa, 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.

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.

References:

Baker, R.P., Mathematical Models, Iowa City, 1931, p. 18.

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.211257.046

accession number

211257

catalog number

211257.046

Object Name

geometric model

Physical Description

plaster (overall material)

wood (overall material)

metal (overall material)

pink (overall color)

brown (overall color)

grey (overall color)

blue (overall color)

bolted and screwed (overall production method/technique)

Measurements

average spatial: 9.6 cm x 25.6 cm x 20.6 cm; 3 25/32 in x 10 3/32 in x 8 1/8 in

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Mathematics

Science & Mathematics

National Museum of American History

Subject

Mathematics

Record ID

nmah_1082746

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-2d63-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa