Models 1979.0102.205, MA.304723.715, MA.304723.716, and MA.304723.717 are identical triangular pyramids. Each has three plastic transparent sides and a white plastic triangular base. The four models can be joined to form a square pyramid with white sides and a transparent base.
The first sound pendulum was built by Volkmann in the 1880s. This quadruple sound pendulum was designed by Edward B. Titchener, the influential professor of experimental at Cornell University. It was made by Charles Albert Francis, a machinist from Worcester, Ma., who worked for Clark University in the early 1890s.
Ref: Edward B. Titchener, “The Equipment of a Psychological Laboratory,” American Journal of Psychology 11 (1899-1900): 251-265, on 255.
Theodore Ruggles Timby (1822-1909) was an American inventor with several hundred patents to his name, the most famous of which pertained to the rotating gun turret as used on the “Monitor” during the Civil War. The first of his two barometer patents, issued in 1857, described an instrument in which the expansion of mercury with increase of temperature would not burst the tube. Scientific American praised Timby for having “succeeded in rendering this instrument perfectly portable,” going to predict “a speedy and universal adoption, especially among agriculturists, they more than any other class (save the mariners), need the counsel of this faithful monitor which leaves nothing to conjecture, but tells with promptness of the coming storm long before a threatening is visible in the sky.”
This example is marked “ALEXR MARSH SOLE PROPRIETORS and Manfs. For the UNITED STATES, OFFICE UNION BLOCK Worcester, Mass. TIMBY’S PATENT, Nov. 3rd 1857” as well as “The fall of the mercury indicates a STORM. The rise of the mercury indicates fair WEATHER.” The barometer scale extends from 27 to 31 inches of mercury. The attached alcohol-in-glass thermometer is graduated from -40 to +185 degrees Fahrenheit. It was probably made in the early 1860s.
Ref: Theodore R. Timby, “Barometer,” U.S. Patent 18,560 (1857).
“Another Important Step in Science,” Scientific American 14 (1858): 101.
black and white stereograph mounted on buff colored cardstock; printed on verso "Mechanics Hall, Worcester / Mass / photographed and publised by / H.P. Moore, Concord, N.H."
title: Mechanics Hall, Worcester, Mass; maker: Henry P. Moore
unpaved street in foreground; horse drawn carriage at right; multi-level Renaissance revival building at left
black and white stereograph mounted on buff colored cardstock; printed on verso "Front Street, Worcester / Mass / photographed and publised by / H.P. Moore, Concord, N.H."
title: Front Street, Worcester, Mass; maker: Henry P. Moore
unpaved street extending through image with barren trees lining both sides, multi-level homes along right side of the street, City Clerks Office in the center background (building with the tower)
black and white stereograph mounted on yellow cardstock; handwritten on verso "Pleasant St Baptist Church, Worcester, Mass"
unpaved street extending through center of image; multi-level building in foreground at right with construction materials out front; church in center at right; horse drawn wagon in front of buiding along left side of image
This paper model comes in a paper box folded in the shape of a cube. Inside the box, arranged in the shape of a cube, are a faceted cuboctahedron, six square pyramids that fit in the facets of the cuboctahedron and eight triangular pyramids that fit over the triangular faces of the cuboctahedron. The pieces separate into the faceted cubocatahedron, four square pyramids, a square pyramid hinged to four triangular pyramids, and another square pyramid hinged to another four triangular puramids. The four square pyramids can be arranged as two octahedra, as can both of the sets of hinged pieces. Hence the pieces of the model can be arranged either as a cube or as four regular octahedra and a faceted cuboctahedron.
A mark on the object reads: 763.
Compare MA.304723.294 (larger paper model), MA.304723.296 (middle-sized paper model), MA.304273.306 (smallest paper model), and MA.304723.132.
There is a drawing in 1979.3002.42 for a "cube with four removable octahedra." It is dated March 12, 1938, and is quite possibly for the plastic version model.
This cut and folded paper model represents a compound of five regular tetrahedra inscriptible in a rhombic dodecahedron. Faces associated with each tetrahedron are painted a different color. A mark on the model reads: 394. Another mark reads: R. Whelan (/) Brown. A plastic string holds things together.
Compare MA.304723.212, MA.304723.218, and MA.304723.233.
A stellation of a regular polyhedron is a polyhedron with faces formed by extending the sides of the faces of the regular polyhedron. Extending the triangular sides of an icosahedron can produce a variety of complex polyhedra, including this one. The surface has sixty short three-sided spikes. These meet in groups of three—each meeting point might be considered as the vertex of a circumscribing regular dodecahedron.
The model is cut and folded from paper. It is Wheeler’s model 382, and number I21 in his series of icosahedra. Wenninger calls the surface the fifteenth stellation of the icosahedron.
References:
Magnus J. Wenninger, Polyhedron Models, Cambridge: The University Press, 1971, p. 62.
A. H. Wheeler, Catalog of Models, A. H. Wheeler Papers, Mathematics Collections, National Museum of American History.
This cut and taped tan paper model shows two trihedral angles with the same center and radius but differeng angles facing opposite directions. The radii defining the upper triangle appear to be perpendicular to the lower triangle. The vertices of the upper triangle are labeled A, B, and C and those of the lower triangle are labled A", B", and C".
This cut and folded paper model has eight equilateral triangles for sides. The vertices and sides are lettered and various figures are plotted in pencil.