Geometric Model, L. Brill No. 148. Ser. 10 No. 1k, Minimal Surface

L. Brill · 1892

Students at the technical high school in Munich, working under the direction of Alexander Brill, developed a series of wire models of minimal surfaces that was first published by Ludwig Brill in 1885. A minimal surface is the surface of smallest area of all the surfaces bounded by a closed curve in space. Its mean curvature is zero. Minimal surfaces are often represented by soap films, as was the intention with this model. This, the final model of the series, is in the shape of two rectangles intersecting at a right angle, with a handle extending from one point of intersection. It is designed to illustrate one of the surfaces proposed by the German mathematician Heinrich Scherk (1798-1885) in a paper of 1835.