New views of crystal symmetry guided by profound admiration of the extraordinary works of Grassmann and Clifford

Eckhard Hitzer

pp. 413-422

in: Steve Russ, Jörg Liesen (eds), From Past to Future: Graßmann's Work in Context, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

Already Hermann Grassmann's father Justus (1829, 1830) published two works on the geometrical description of crystals, influenced by the earlier works of C. S. Weiss (1780–1856) on three main crystal forces governing crystal formation. In his 1840 essay on the derivation of crystal shapes from the general law of crystal formation Hermann established the notion of a three-dimensional vectorial system of forces with rational coefficients, that represent the interior crystal structure, regulate its formation, its shape and physical behavior.