Priestley’s Orrery

Description

This orrery was owned by Joseph Priestley who was an Enlightenment thinker and is credited with the discovery of oxygen. Priestley’s orrery depicts Mercury, Venus, and Earth rotating around the sun. The moon, with phases engraved below, orbits the Earth.

Object Information

Date Created:

1795 

Local ID:

FI Catalog # 3020

Collection:

The Franklin Institute Astronomy Collection

Credit Line:

Gift

Count:

1

Citation:

Priestley’s Orrery (FI Catalog # 3020) from the collections of The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA. USA 

Dimensions:

12 inch diameter

Creator(s):

W&S Jones 

Materials:

brass, paper, wood, ivory 

Classification:

T&E For Science & Technology, Astronomical T&E

Rights:

Fair Use for educational purposes

Appears In

Resource Kit
The Franklin Institute

Treading Among the Stars: How We’ve Found Our Way

Long before there were advanced technologies available for studying the sky, people devised ways of depicting the sun, moon, planets, and stars in relation to the Earth to figure out how our planet fit into the vast universe. Our method of exploring the night sky has grown to now include actual trips into space, even visiting another celestial body in person. But before technology made direct exploration possible, we had to use remote methods to map the expanse we could see from Earth.

Created by: The Franklin Institute

Grade 3-8