Théodore Olivier

Théodore Olivier was a French geometer and teacher, remembered chiefly for the three-dimensional models of geometry that he built to teach students. He studied at the École Polytechnique, became a professor at the Artillery School at Metz, spent time in Sweden organising the military school of Marieberg, and in 1829 helped found the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris, where he taught geometry and mechanics for the rest of his life. He also studied the theory of gears and wrote an extensive treatise on the subject. Most of his geometrical models were sold to North American institutions such as Union College, Columbia University and West Point, where they are still preserved. He was born in 1793 and died in 1853.