Lattices

In 1854, George Boole (1815–1864) introduced an important class of algebraic structures in connection with his research in mathematical logic. His goal was to find a mathematical model for human reasoning. In his honor these structures have been called Boolean algebras. They are special types of lattices. It was E. Schröder, who about 1890 considered the lattice concept in today’s sense. At approximately the same time, R. Dedekind developed a similar concept in his work on groups and ideals. Dedekind defined, in modern terminology, modular and distributive lattices, which are types of lattices of importance in applications. The rapid development of lattice theory proper started around 1930, when G. Birkhoff made major contributions to the. theory.