Abstract:
At the Saint Petersburg Imperial University, within the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, the Department of Practical Mechanics began its work in the 1865‒1866 academic year. This report is a continuation and, to some extent, a generalization of the authors' previous reports at the seminar on the history of mathematics at POMI. The report will be divided into two parts. The first part addresses the history of the formation of the unique collection of teaching aids at the Department of Practical Mechanics of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University. Special attention will be paid to the 1893‒1894 research trip of the famous scientist and mechanic Ivan Vsevolodovich Meshchersky. Over seven months, I.V. Meshchersky visited leading universities and polytechnic schools in Italy, France, Switzerland, and Germany. Upon his return, he compiled a detailed report, which was published in the "Journal of the Ministry of Public Education" ("Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniya"). As a result of this trip, models were purposefully purchased for Saint Petersburg University, including those from the Voigt workshop in Berlin. This workshop specialized in making models according to drawings and under the guidance of the renowned mechanical scientist Franz Reuleaux. Between 1882 and 1911, the cabinet's collection was supplemented with more than forty mechanisms by F. Reuleaux. Many of these unique exhibits have been preserved to this day and are part of the historical collection of the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of SPbU.
The second part of the report will present the results of digitizing the exhibit models of the former Practical Mechanics Cabinet, now the Museum of the History of Physics and Mathematics at SPbU. It will include student 2D animations for visualizing the movement of the models, as well as some 3D models created in Blender.
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