| Maker(s): | Murdock, David Clark
| | Culture: | American (1805-1886)
| | Title: | orrery
| | Date Made: | ca. 1825-1835
| | Type: | Weights & Measure
| | Materials: | wood: walnut, maple; plaster, paper, string, paint, wax, base metal: brass, iron
| | Place Made: | United States; Massachusetts; West Boylston
| | Measurements: | overall: 16 1/2 x 3 x 9 in.; 41.91 x 7.62 x 22.86 cm
| | Accession Number: | HD 2116.1
| | Museum Collection: | Historic Deerfield
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Description:
Murdock, a cabinet maker and mechanic living just north of Worcester, Massachusetts, operated a shop where he developed a stop machine used in the manufacture of cotton yarn. He also engaged in making “school apparatus,” mostly marketed by J. M Wightman of Boston. Among Murdock’s known works are four terrestrial globes and this orrery, made for classroom use in the teaching of astronomy. Orrery by David Clark Murdock, a table-top model of the sun, earth, and moon in rotation. A grasp of the order of things was essential to polite conversation. Of all knowledge, understanding natural science determined man’s place in the universe and his ability to improve the human condition. Scientific apparatus, like this orrery, which charts the simultaneous orbit of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun, was a source of learning and dialogue. It has a turned wooden base and arm, brass mechanism of gears and pulleys, painted wooden balls for the sun and moon, a printed paper-covered wooden ball for the earth, and waxed string connecting the brass pulleys and causing the spheres to rotate when the handle is moved.
Label Text:
North by Northeast: Murdock, a cabinet maker and mechanic living just north of Worcester, Massachusetts, operated a shop where he developed a stop machine used in the manufacture of cotton yarn. He also engaged in making “school apparatus,” mostly marketed by J. M Wightman of Boston. Among Murdock’s known works are four terrestrial globes and this orrery, made for classroom use in the teaching of astronomy. Grow Up: This orrery, made for classroom use in the teaching of astronomy, charts the simultaneous orbit of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun. It has a turned wooden base and arm, brass mechanism of gears and pulleys, painted wooden balls for the sun and moon, a printed paper-covered wooden ball for the earth, and waxed string connecting the brass pulleys and causing the spheres to rotate when the handle is moved.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2116.1 |
