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History of Mathematical Models
Mathematical models made in Germany from the end of the 19th century
One of the first clear indications of an interest in constructing mathematical models appears in the "Monthly reports of the Royal Prussian Academy of Science of Berlin" in 1873. In the above report one finds, "On this occasion Mr. Kummer presented a plaster model of the Steiner's Roman surface which he himself had constructed". A system production of models began in the 1870's under the direction of Professors Brill and Klein at the Royal technical University in Munich. In 1904 the Martin Schilling Press published a book explaining the models which had been constructed at that time. The construction of models was performed with the Martin Schilling Press until 1932.
Mathematical models at the University of Tokyo
The above Schilling collection of mathematical models made in Germany was imported to the University of Tokyo in the 1910's by Professor Senkichi Nakagawa, who was professor at the University of Tokyo for the period from 1904 to 1937.
These models were in bad condition in the 1980's at the University of Tokyo. In the 1990's the models were cleaned up and were put in order mainly by the efforts of international students. The models were exposed at the exhibition celebrating the 120th anniversary of the University of Tokyo in 1997.
In 2004 there was an exhibition of the photographs of mathematical models preserved at the University of Tokyo by Hiroshi Sugimoto at Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris. In 2005/2006 these photographs were also exposed at the retrospective exposition of Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo together with the models of Dini surface and onduloid made in alminium. These models made in alminium were produced in collaboration with Yamada Seiki Co. Ltd.. We collaborated with Yamada Seiki Co. Ltd. models in alminium of Clebsch diagonal surface and pseudosphere (see the photographs below). There have been the following exhibitions related to our collection of mathematical models.
- Exhibition at Todai Forum in Lyon - Musée Gadagne, 2011
- Simple Forms - Mori Art Museum, 2015
- Permanent exhibition at Intermediatheque
The following are photographs taken by T. Kohno for the catalogue of the exhibition "Simple Forms" at Mori Art Museum.
Exhibition of mathematical models at the archive of Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, the University of Tokyo
High resolution picture of 27 lines on Clebsch diagonal surface
In 2016 we started a project of creating postcards of mathematical models with Institut Henri Poincaré in collaboration with François Apéry.
Gömböc was added to our collection of mathematical models in September 2018.
In addition to the above models we have the following collection.
