U of Penn's Rittenhouse Orrery

  • Type: Orrery
I would have you pursue your Orrery in your own way, without any regard to an ignorant or prevailing taste. All you have to study is truth, and to display the glorious system of Copernicus in a proper manner;--and to make your machine as much an original, as possible. I beg you will not limit yourself in the price. I am now perfectly convinced, that you can dispose of it to advantage; and should be sorry you would lose one hour more in fears or doubts about it. In fact, I have laid such plans for the disposal of it, that I have almost a moral certainty of having a demand for more than one of the kind. - Thomas Barton
This Machine is intended to have three faces, standing perpendicular to the horizon: that in the front to be four feet square, made of sheet-brass, curiously polished, silvered, and painted in proper places, and otherwise ornamented. From the centre arises an axis, to support a gilded brass ball, intended to represent the Sun. Round this ball move others, made of brass or ivory, to represent the Planets: They are to move in elliptical orbits, having the central ball in one focus; and their motions to be sometimes swifter, and sometimes slower, as nearly according to the true law of an equable description of areas as is possible, without too great a complication of wheel-work. The orbit of each Planet is likewise to be properly inclined to those of the others; and their Aphelia and Nodes justly placed; and their velocities so accurately adjusted, as not to differ sensibly from the tables of Astronomy in some thousands of years. David Rittenhouse

University of Pennsylvania's Rittenhouse Orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system built in 1771 by Pennsylvania clockmaker and self-taught astronomer, David Rittenhouse. The device demonstrates the motions of the known planets in the center panel, the moon in the right panel and moons of Jupiter and Saturn in the left panel (now missing). Envisioned to demonstrate the motion of the planets for 5,000 years, the mechanism is contains of hundreds of gears and driven by a crank. Unlike many other orreries, Rittenhouse correctly replicates the elliptical rotation of the planets, which was an unsurpassed technical achievement. The Rittenhouse Orrery is housed in an Chippendale cabinet crafted in Philadelphia by John Holwell and Parnell Gibbsin and can be found in the Special Collections Center, The University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Art Collection of the University of Pennsylvania. - AsNotedIn




Google Ad

Timeline

Y/M/D Association Description Place Locale Food Event
1767/02/21 Rev Thomas Barton offers to pay David Rittenhouse's expenses, not exceeding a stipulated sum, create two Orreries and to dispose of them a set price.
1770/02/05 I never met with greater mortification than to find Mr Rittenhouse had, in my absence, made a sort of agreement to let his Orrery go to the Jersey College. - Rev Thomas Barton
1770/03/12 David Rittenhouse Inventor I am to begin another (Orrery) immediately, and finish it expeditiously, for the College of Philadelphia. This I am not sorry for since the making of a second will be but an amusement, compared with the first. - Rittenhouse Rittenhouse Farmhouse Norristown, PA
1771/03/22 Rev William Smith (Provost) Benefactor Dr Smith has done wonders, in favour of our friend Rittenhouse. His zeal has been very active: he has got enough to pay him for a second orrery, and the assembly has given him 300 pounds. - Rev Dr Peters wrote Mr Barton
2013/01/00 U of Penn orrery is installed in the Penn libraries' new Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts located on the sixth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center Philadelphia, PA

Information »



Particulars for U of Penn's Rittenhouse Orrery:
Science Astronomy branch of science which deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole
Structure type Mechanical
Art Type Objet d'art a small, ornamental work of art
Device Orrery a mechanical model of the solar system, or of just the sun, earth, and moon, used to represent their relative positions and motions



Shopping on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Google Ad

Google Ad