Author: Tony Buick
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461470439
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
“Orrery” appeals to almost anyone interested in popular astronomy, astronomical mechanical devices, scientific instruments, the history of clocks - and even the history of aristocratic and prestigious families! Many people these days – not only astronomers – have a good idea of the main components of the Solar System. They might also know about the orrery, a mechanical model that shows the movements of the Moon and planets. But not too many know why it was so named and who it was named after. The Boyle family – the Earls of Orrery –include the famous Boyle of Boyle’s Law. But others were key in the history of the orrery, not the least being clockmakers. Aware of the lunar and planetary content of the sky, they strove to make scientific instruments to demonstrate their movements and introduced measuring devices to predict their positions. In antiquity, their lives on occasion depended on the accuracy; upsetting kings and lords was dangerous business! Orreries are found everywhere. They can be made of wood or metal, and are even available today as home-assembly kits and children’s toys. They appear in paintings, on computers, on the side of royal clocks, in stately home hallways, and of course, in museums all over the world. This book contains illustrations of orreries to give a guide as to what is and was available and where to see the best examples. It also contains information and references to help readers who want to make (or buy) their own orrery. The story of the Boyles is not just relevant to a tiny corner of Ireland, but spans the world. “Orrery” highlights the process of discovery and humankind’s universal fascination with the heavens. Provides a fascinating example of the relationship between innovative thinking (invention) and precision engineering (execution).
Author: J. R.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 354
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Book Description
Author: Patrick Delany
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Authors, Irish
Languages : en
Pages : 336
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Book Description
Author: Tony Buick
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030617777
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 367
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Book Description
Orreries—mechanical models of the Solar System and its motions—are found everywhere. They appear in paintings, on computers, across natural landscapes, and in museums all over the world. The more you look, the more you find, yet their significance is often overlooked aside other great astronomical inventions. This book reclaims the history of the orrery, offering a fascinating look into its evolution over the centuries. With a particular focus on London society and clockmakers, it weaves together historical narrative with practical know-hows and scientific fact, showing how the orrery changed from a fanciful toy to a high-tech instrument to a vessel for art and education. The first edition, Orrery, explained what an orrery is and how it got its name. This revised edition goes several steps further, tracing the instrument back to the time of Ptolemy and forward to planetariums and star projectors. In addition, it features new sections on how to construct your own orrery at home. This book will appeal to anybody interested in astronomical mechanical devices, scientific instruments, horology, or the history of clocks.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bills, Legislative
Languages : en
Pages : 586
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Book Description
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 710
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Book Description
Author: James Ferguson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronomers
Languages : en
Pages : 534
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Book Description
Author: Richard Kenney
Publisher: Atheneum Books
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 136
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Book Description
Author: Donna Kane
Publisher: Harbour Publishing
ISBN: 1550179195
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 80
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Book Description
Orrery is a collection that orbits around the theme of Pioneer 10, an American space probe launched in 1972 to study Jupiter’s moons. Having achieved many firsts before reaching Jupiter and a few more after being hurled away from the solar system, the probe was retired in 2003 when NASA stopped sending signals to it, leaving it to wander alone through deep space. On a trajectory that may long outlast Earth, Pioneer has transformed from a finite object into an infinite one, a muddling of the mundane and the sublime, of mortality and immortality, that is echoed throughout the collection: “I could have been a dancer, a stunt double, / and you, Pioneer 10, a pop can, a pie plate, / a gear driving the orrery of all you sail beyond.” Inhabiting the perceived imaginative and philosophical space of the probe, Kane’s poems ignite a radical empathy in which human beings, caterpillars, stars, animal bones and other hunks of the material stuff of the universe are seen to share a common condition. Exploring ideas of materiality, consciousness, transformation and space travel, Orrery is as exquisite as its namesake, a compact vision of our world that helps us to orient ourselves in time and space, inspiring wonder.
Author: David Dickson
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299211806
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 756
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Book Description
This is a groundbreaking study of Cork's rise from insignificance to international importance as a city and port, and of South Munster's development from agricultural hinterland to one of early modern Ireland's wealthiest regions and a symbol of a new commercial order. Reconstructing the framework of a pre-modern regional society in a way never before attempted for Ireland, Old World Colony integrates social, economic, and political history across the heartlands of "the Hidden Ireland" from the seventeenth century's civil wars to Catholic emancipation in the 1820s. Dickson shows that colonization and commerce transformed the region, but at a price: even in South Munster's formative years, the problems of pre-Famine Ireland-gross income inequality and land scarcity-were already evident. Co-published with Cork University Press, Ireland Wisconsin edition for sale only in the U.S., its territories and possessions, and Canada. "A masterful account. . . . So finely nuanced and meticulously researched that it effectively raises the historiographical bar for Irish regional history."--James G. Patterson, H-Atlantic, H-Net Reviews
