The description and use of a new portable orrery, on a simple construction, representing the motions and phenomena of the planetary system, but more particularly the motions of the earth and moon round the sun ... To which is prefixed, a short account of the solar system, or the true system of the world / by William Jones.

  • William Jones
Date:
1812
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The description and use of a new portable orrery, on a simple construction, representing the motions and phenomena of the planetary system, but more particularly the motions of the earth and moon round the sun ... To which is prefixed, a short account of the solar system, or the true system of the world / by William Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF A LARGER AND MORE ILLUSTRATIVE PORTABLE ORRERY, SHEWING THE MOTIONS OF THE EARTH, MOON, AND INFERIOR PLANETS, BY WHEEL-WORK. The Planetarium part of the Orrery described in the preceding pages, requires the respective planets to be moved, and set in their heliocentric places in the ecliptic by hand; and also in its application to the board, the trou¬ ble of unscrewing off the Tellurian, and screwing on the Planetarium. Orreries therefore are the more complete, according as all the periodical and diurnal revolutions are shewn by wheel-w ork, at one operation, and in one en¬ tire machine. In proportion to the quantity of wheel- work and the dimensions of these machines, the expenses we make them at, are various and considerable; and, un¬ til a few years ago, when I contrived the Portable Orrery, the large Orrery was as elaborate and expensive an article, as it was a rare and admirable curiosity. The reader will see, by the list of prices affixed, the reduced prices at which we now make them; and the instrument I am proceeding to describe is made but at a small expense more than the other described in the preceding pages, and packs up into a case very little larger, of the dimen¬ sions of only fourteen inches square and eight inches deep.
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