Space Group - History

History

Space groups in 2 dimensions are the 17 wallpaper groups which have been known for several centuries.

In 1879 Leonhard Sohncke listed the 65 space groups (sometimes called Sohncke space groups or chiral space groups) whose elements preserve the orientation. (In fact he listed 66 groups, but as Fyodorov and Schönflies both noticed two of them were really the same.) The space groups in 3 dimensions were first enumerated by Fyodorov (1891) (whose list had 2 omissions and one duplication), and shortly afterwards were independently enumerated by Schönflies (1891) (whose list had 4 omissions and one duplication). The correct list of 230 space groups was found by 1892 during correspondence between Fyodorov and Schönflies. Barlow (1894) later enumerated the groups with a different method, but managed to omit one group even though he already had the correct list of 230 groups from Fyodorov and Schönflies; the common claim that Barlow was unaware of their work is a myth. Burckhardt (1967) describes the history of the discovery of the space groups in detail.