Accession No
2915
Brief Description
orrery by Newton & Son, 1850 (c)
Origin
66 Chancery Lane; London; England
Maker
Newton and Son
Class
astronomy; demonstration
Earliest Date
1850
Latest Date
1850
Inscription Date
1850
Material
wood; paper; plaster; metal (gold, brass); ivory
Dimensions
orrery height 260mm; length 652mm; breadth 465mm box length 470mm; breadth 465mm; height 335mm stand height 955mm; breadth 460mm; depth 460mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Purchased from Phillips, London, England; lot 33, 20/10/1982. Purchased with assistance of a Grant in Aid administered by the Science Museum (PRISM).
Inscription
‘Published 1st Jan 1850 by
NEWTON AND SON 66 Chancery Lane
LONDON’
Description Notes
Manual orrery; circular wooden base with 3 turned feet; paper dial printed and hand coloured with 32 compass points; degree scale divided 0 - 90˚ - 0 - 90˚ - 0; names of the zodiac and a star plate, and calendar to single days.
Gilt plaster sun on central shaft with ivory planets to Uranus with five satellites; each on separate shaft with ring fitting round axis; plaster earth with paper. Gores on manually operated lunarium with strips and wheels to central shaft. Wooden box.
Black painted octagonal wooden stand with 8 turned legs and octagonal base; central octagonal column; brass knob and brass locations for feet of orrery.
Complete.
References
Events
Description
Orrery
First made in about 1713, orrerys modelled the motions of the earth, moon and sun and sometimes other planets and satellites too. They illustrate the sun centred Copernican cosmology.
Grand orreries were actually pieces of furniture. They tended to be very decorative and very large (although smaller versions were designed to be portable). This is illustrative of the fact that astronomy was commonly done by polite society, and that orrerys were used for entertainment as well as education.
18/10/2002
Created by: Saffron Clackson on 18/10/2002
FM:43125
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