‘Model of a guillotine, carved, turned and sawn bone. The guillotine has a sliding blade operated by a piece of cotton attached to a turned finial at the top of the frame. A figure lies face downwards, its head is separate and wears a hat with a plume. Once severed, the head falls into an ornamentally carved bucket.’
Said to have been made by a French prisoner of war during the Napoleonic Wars, 1796-1816. via V&A
Patent Model of a Rotary Web Press. Patentee: Jephtha A. Wilkinson, ca 1859.
(via Smithsonian Institution)
Hamilton S. McRae's 1867 School Desk and Seat Patent Model
(via Smithsonian Institution)
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 ellipse
