Putnam Gallery Orreries, Harvard University - Cambridge, MA, USA
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NorStar
N 42° 22.535 W 071° 06.984
19T E 325755 N 4693647
In the Putnam Gallery of scientific instruments and teaching aids within Harvard University are at least two beautiful solar orreries and a lunarium that date back to the 18th century.
Waymark Code: WM8724
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 02/10/2010
Views: 10
On the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, is the Putnam Gallery, which is a smallish museum of scientific instruments and teaching aids. This gallery is housed on the first and second floors of the modern looking Science Building, which is on Cambridge Street, next to the gothic looking Memorial Hall. According to The Crimson, the museum is open Monday-Thursday from 10 am to 4 pm, and is free.
When you first encounter the gallery, you are confronted with a lot of tightly arranged instruments of all sizes in a single room. This room is the permanent exhibit. The room upstairs is the place for their changing exhibit.
One of the first artifacts that you encounted when you enter is a cylindrical device that is about 5 ft high and 5 ft in diameter. There are figurines on the side and contains a miniature solar system from the sun out to Saturn, with representations of the known moons around their respective planets. The wood is mahogany and the metal used is brass. The planets move around via a hand crank. This orrery was built by famed clock-maker Joseph Pope from 1776 to 1787 (a plate is installed on it). The web page for this orrery states that from the start the orrery didn't work properly. Many clock makers were brought in to make it work and failed. Finally, famed Simon Willard came and fixed it with a single rivet. Link:
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visit link)
Another orrery is in the same room. This one dates even further back to 1767 and was make by Benjamin Martin of London, England. This device was made of brass, glass, irory and mahogany (brass items were silvered). The planets represented are from Mercury to Saturn, plus known moons. This one operates by a clock machine and was delivered at a much higher price than first quoted. See the story by going on the link here:
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visit link)
Another item in the collection (not seen since I was not aware of it at the time), is a lunarium, which is a model that demonstrates the phases of the moon. This one was built around 1765 in London, England, and was bought to replace a similar instrument lost in a great fire along with many other instruments. More information can be found by clicking on this link:
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visit link)
This gallery is well worth stopping by to not only see the orreries, but many of the other wonderful artifacts on display, as well. Many of these instruments were provided with funding from Benjamin Franklin.