Mathematics
On Display
Mathematical exercise book for Master F. Ashton attending at Mr. Knagg's Classical Mathematical & Commercial Academy at Westow Hall, Kirkham near York, dated Oct. 11th, 1862. Printed by Bean Stationer, Leeds. Small private academies provided most of
A single surface model made by Alan Bennett in Bedford, 1995. It is a Klein bottle which has been cut to form two single-twist Mobius strips. A Klein bottle is a surface which has no edges, no outside or inside and cannot be properly constructed in t
A single surface model made by Alan Bennett in Bedford, 1995. It consists of a Klein bottle with coiled inlet tube, or jacketed coil with singularity and entrance at opposite ends, which when theoretically cut gives a pair of 19-twist Mobius strips.
Set of mathematical instruments made by D Lusuerg of Rome, 1701. The range of this set of instruments is unusually extensive, from ordinary dividers to a geometric quadrant. It also includes a circle of degrees with pointers in the shape of grotesq
A circular engineer's slide rule made by Apps, c.1870. A circular slide rule affords a long and therefore accurate logarithmic line in a small amount of space. The potential of circular rules was not really utilized until the Victorian period, when s
Model of a half-twist surface. Alexander Crum Brown (1838-1922), who was professor of mathematics at Edinburgh, was a prolific maker of mathematical models. This one is related to the Klein bottle and Mobius strip.
Plaster model of the surface z = 3a(x2 - y2) - (x3 + y3). Alexander Crum Brown was both a mathematician and chemist. He was a prolific maker of mathematical models. In this example, every section made by a plane passing through the blue line forms an
Brical' adding machine in case with two bone styluses. Patented by H and M Dickinson, the 'Brical' was Britain's answer to the French circular 'Tronset' instrument and is a modification of it. It was designed to add sums of money from 1/2d to £500.
Harmonographs demonstrate the action of two pendulums acting at the same time at right angles to each other.
Napier's bones, cylindrical type, late 17th century. John Napier (1550-1617), discoverer of logarithms, created the popular calculating tool known as Napier's rods or bones. Napier's rods reduced muliplication to a sequence of simple additions; divis