Tschebischeff

 

Category:        Geradführungen (Straight-line mechanism)

Item Number:  S19 and S30

Description:    Kreuzlenker (Cross guide) and Zwischenlenker (Between guide)

 

Biographical Information:

Though spelled differently in the Voigt catalog, Reuleaux was referring to the Russian mathematician Pafnuty (Pafnutìi) Lvovich Chebyshev[1] (1821-1894). Chebyshev was born in a small town in western Russia, the son of a retired military officer, Lev Pavlovich. The Chebyshev family, which included nine children, lived in a small family estate in an upper-class area in the town of Okatovo. Chebyshev was educated at home, receiving lessons in reading, writing, French and arithmetic from his mother and his cousin, but unlike his brothers, Pafnuty could not follow his father and have a career in the military due to one leg being longer than the other.

            In 1832, the Chebyshev family moved to Moscow, and Pafnuty continued to be schooled at home, though he now received mathematical tutoring from P. Pogorelski, the best tutor in Moscow. Five years later, at the age of sixteen, Pafnuty entered Moscow University. One of the most influential of Chebyshev’s professors at the university was Nikolai Brashman who taught Chebyshev mechanics, mechanical engineering, hydraulics, integration, probability and other types of applied mathematics. After receiving a degree in mathematics, Chebyshev continued at Moscow University under the supervision of Brashman to receive a Master’s degree. He was appointed to the University of St. Petersburg in 1847, received his doctorate two years later, and was made extraordinary professor at St. Petersburg the following year. In 1852 Chebyshev made a trip to France, England, and Germany where he had the chance to investigate various steam engines and their mechanics in practice, which became an influential part of his theory of mechanisms.

            Some of the work that came out of this trip was the paper Théorie des mécanismes connus sous le nom de parallélogrammes published in 1854; the calculation of geometric volumes, and the construction of calculating machines; the investigation and contribution to the theory of the best approximation of functions; and the study of the problems involved in converting rotary motion into rectilinear motion by mechanical coupling. Soon after the trip, Chebyshev developed the three bar linkage that approximated rectilinear (parallel) motion and he wrote many papers on his mechanical inventions. In 1893 several of his mechanical devices were exhibited at the World's Exposition in Chicago, including his invention of a special bicycle for women.

Most of Chebyshev’s life was devoted to his work: he taught and performed research at St. Petersburg University until 1882; he joined the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1853 and was a member of the Société Royale des Sciences of Liège, the Société Philomathique, the Berlin Academy of Sciences, the Bologna Academy, the Royal Society of London, the Italian Royal Academy, the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the Institut de France. He also received honorary positions and titles at several different universities, and he was awarded the French Légion d'Honneur. Though he never married, Chebyshev also had a daughter that he never officially acknowledged as his own.

 

Sources for Further Information on Chebyshev:

1. N. I. Akhiezer. “Function theory according to Chebyshev,” in Mathematics of the 19th century (Basel, 1998): 1-81.
2. H. Bernhard. “Chebyshev,” in H. Wussing and W. Arnold, Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker. Berlin, 1983.
3. S. N. Bernstein. “Chebyshev's influence on the development of mathematics” (Russian), Uch. Zap. Mosk. Gos. Univ. 91 (1947): 35-45.
4. S. N. Bernstein. “Chebyshev's influence on the development of mathematics (translation of [9], with a foreword by O Sheynin),” Math. Sci. 26 (2) (2001): 63-73.
5. P. Butzer and F. Jongmans. “P. L. Chebyshev (1821-1894): A guide to his life and work,” J. Approx. Theory 96 (1) (1999): 111-38.
6. P. L. Butzer and F. Jongmans, “P. L. Chebyshev (1821-1894) and his contacts with Western European scientists,” Historia Mathematica 16 (1989): 46-68.
7. K. V. Chebysheva. “Some information about the ancestors and descendants of the Chebyshev family” (Russian), Istor.-Mat. Issled. No. 32-33 (1990): 431-51.
8. M. G. Cox. “Piecewise Chebyshev series,” Bull. Inst. Math. Appl. 22 (11-12) (1986): 163-6.
9. V. I. Dzyadyk. “A result of P. L. Chebyshev in approximation theory” (Russian), Istor.-Mat. Issled. 26 (1982): 168-71.
10. N. S. Ermolaeva. “An unpublished course on probability theory by P. L. Chebyshev” (Russian), Voprosy Istor. Estestvoznan. i Tekhn. (4) (1987): 106-12.
11. Charles Gillespie. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. V. 3. New York:Charles Scribner and Sons: 222-32.
12. I. A. Golovinskii. “P. L. Chebyshev's justification of the method of least squares” (Russian), Istor.-Mat. Issled. No. 30 (1986): 224-47.
13. S. Gurov and N. Hromienkov. The great Russian scientist P L Chebyshev (on the 140th anniversary of his birth). Kaluga, 1961.
14. G. B. Halsted. “Biography: Pafnutij Lvovitsch Tchebychey,” Amer. Math. Monthly 2 (1895): 61-3.
15. P. Ya Kochina and R-L Kuk. “An unknown letter of P. L. Chebyshev to S. V. Kovalevskaya” (Russian), Voprosy Istor. Estestvoznan. i Tekhn. (2) (1983): 162-6.
16. S. N. Kruzhkov. “On the 170th anniversary of the birth of P. L. Chebyshev” (Russian), Vestnik Moskov. Univ. Ser. I Mat. Mekh. (5) (1991): 2-4.
17. S. N. Kruzhkov. “On the centenary of the death of Pafnutii Lvovich Chebyshev” (Russian), Vestnik Moskov. Univ. Ser. I Mat. Mekh. (6) (1995): 3-10.
18. A. Yu Lvovich, Ya Yu Nikitin and B. A. Samokish. “Pafnutii Lvovich Chebyshev (1821-1894) (on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of his birth)” (Russian), Vestnik Leningrad. Univ. Mat. Mekh. Astronom. (4) (1991): 83-5
19. A. M. Lyapunov. Pafnuty Lovovich Chebyshev. Kharkov, 1895.
20. V. A. Nikiforovskii. “Pafnutii Chebyshev - man, mathematician, teacher” (Russian), Vestnik Ross. Akad. Nauk 65 (5) (1995): 448-51.
21. L. A. Onufrieva. “The Chebyshev interpolation method in the case of a large number of data” (Russian), Istor.-Mat. Issled. No. 27 (1983): 259-74.
22. “Pafnutii Lvovich Chebyshev (on the 175th anniversary of his birth)” (Russian), Teor. Veroyatnost. i Primenen. 41 (3) (1996): 612-27.
23. “Pafnutii Lvovich Chebyshev (on the 175th anniversary of his birth),” Theory Probab. Appl. 41 (3) (1996): 519-31.
24. V. E. Prudnikov. Pafnutii Lvovich Chebyshev (1821-1894) (Russian). Moscow, 1976.
25. V. E. Prudnikov. P. L. Chebyshev scientist and teacher (Russian). Moscow, 1964.
26. M. I. Pulatova. “The Chebyshev mathematical school” (Russian), in Achievements in the development of the mathematical sciences. Kiev, 1994: 17-23.
27. R. Roy. “The work of Chebyshev on orthogonal polynomials,” in Topics in polynomials of one and several variables and their applications. River Edge, NJ, 1993: 495-512.
28. O. Sheynin. “Chebyshev's lectures on the theory of probability,” Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 46 (4) (1993-94), 321-340.
29. D. Stander. “Makers of modern mathematics: Pafnuty Liwowich Chebyshev,” Bull. Inst. Math. Appl. 26 (1-2) (1990): 18-19.
30. V. M. Tikhomirov. “The papers of P L Chebyshev on approximation theory” (Russian), Vestnik Moskov. Univ. Ser. I Mat. Mekh. (6) (1995): 86-90, 119.
31. V. M. Tikhomirov. “The papers of P L Chebyshev on approximation theory,” Moscow Univ. Math. Bull. 50 (6) (1995): 39-42.
32. http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Chebyshev.html

 

 

Items Owned by Cornell Library:

1.     Author:                 Chebyshev, P. L.

Title:                     Izbrannye matematicheskie trudy.

Published:             Moskva, OGIZ, Gos. izd. tekhniko-teoreticheskoi literatury, 1946

Description:          199, [1] p. port. 20 cm

Location:               Mathematics Library (Malott Hall)

Call Number:         QA3.C51 I9

 

2.     Author:                 Chebyshev, P. L.

Uniform Title:       Works. 1962

Title:                     Oeuvres de P. L. Tchebychef. Publiées par les soins de A. Markoff et N. Sonin

Published:             New York, Chelsea Pub. Co. [1962?]

Description:          2 v. illus. 22 cm

Location:               Mathematics Library (Malott Hall)

Call Number:         QA3 .C51 1962

 

3.     Author:                 Chebyshev, P. L.

Title:                     Polnoe sobranie sochinenii

Published:             Moskva, 1944-51.

Description:          5 v. port., diagrs., tables. 27 cm

Location:               Mathematics Library (Malott Hall)

Call Number:         QA3 .C51 1944

 

4.     Author:                 Chebyshev, P. L.

Title:                     Theorie der Congruenzen (Elemente der Zahlentheorie) von P. L. Tschebyscheff. Deutsch mit Autorisation des Verfassers, herausgegeben von dr. Hermann Schapira.

Published:             Berlin, Mayer & Müller, 1889

Description:          xvii, [1], 313, [1], 31, [1], p. incl. tables. 22 cm.

Location:               Mathematics Library (Malott Hall)

Call Number:         QA241 .C51 1889