Glorious Astronomical Gearworks

Glorious Gearworks, Extended--Models of the Solar System, 1817-1821

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

I'd like to make a quick addition to an earlier post on a form of  Pearson's planetarium.  This is from the same source, though from a few years later, and involves Pearson's Satellitian, which was a differently-abled device.  All of the images appeared in the magisterial if not occasionally problematic Cyclopedia of Abraham Rees (1743-1825).

The first image is a cross section for he "Satellite Machine by Roemer", followed by "Janvier's Jovilabe, and the with Willliam Pearson's "Satellitian", all appearing on the same 11x8" sheet and printed in 1820.

First, the Roemer:

Here's a description from Rees on the Roemer instrument (this courtesy of Google Books; the images are my own):

• A good article on the Roemer and the Pearson machines appears in the Edinburgh Magazine, volume 15, 1832,  http://tinyurl.com/ogo36n9 

 And the Janvier:

And the Pearson machine:

This is the second Pearson instrument, the heart of  a beautiful orrey created by William Pearson (1767-1847, and one of the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society) as found in the 1817 volume of Rees, and features the main gearing for a mechanical display of the functioning of the Solar System:

This is the detail from the following, full-length version, which is 8"x10"--so there's a fair amount of detail in a limited field:

And the beautiful Dadaist detail of Jupiter and Saturn:

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

I'd like to make a quick addition to an earlier post on a form of  Pearson's planetarium.  This is from the same source, though from a few years later, and involves Pearson's Satellitian, which was a differently-abled device.  All of the images appeared in the magisterial if not occasionally problematic Cyclopedia of Abraham Rees (1743-1825).

The first image is a cross section for he "Satellite Machine by Roemer", followed by "Janvier's Jovilabe, and the with Willliam Pearson's "Satellitian", all appearing on the same 11x8" sheet and printed in 1820.

First, the Roemer:

Here's a description from Rees on the Roemer instrument (this courtesy of Google Books; the images are my own):

• A good article on the Roemer and the Pearson machines appears in the Edinburgh Magazine, volume 15, 1832,  http://tinyurl.com/ogo36n9 

 And the Janvier:

And the Pearson machine:

This is the second Pearson instrument, the heart of  a beautiful orrey created by William Pearson (1767-1847, and one of the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society) as found in the 1817 volume of Rees, and features the main gearing for a mechanical display of the functioning of the Solar System:

This is the detail from the following, full-length version, which is 8"x10"--so there's a fair amount of detail in a limited field:

And the beautiful Dadaist detail of Jupiter and Saturn: