Accession No
1419
Brief Description
design certificate for Hailes’ Universal Orrery Globe, by Robertson and Company, English, 1848
Origin
England; Cambridgeshire; Linton
Maker
Robertson and Company [printer]
Class
astronomy; demonstration; ephemera
Earliest Date
1848
Latest Date
1848
Inscription Date
Material
Dimensions
breadth 394mm; height 609mm (mounted)
Special Collection
Provenance
Transferred from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge in 12/1961.
Inscription
‘J.D. Hailes’
Universal Orrery Globe
John Davey Hailes of Linton, Cambridgeshire, Inventor & Proprietor’ (top)
Description Notes
Design certificate; printed and handwritten; for Hailes’ Universal Orrery Globe; contains a description of the globe; mounted.
Complete (except one corner).
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 orrerys 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:45204
Images (Click to view full size):
