Tellurion

This article is about the astronomical device. For other uses, see Tellurian (disambiguation).

A tellurion (also spelled tellurian, tellurium, and yet another name is loxocosm), is a clock, typically of French or Swiss origin, surmounted by a mechanism that depicts how day, night and the seasons are caused by the movement of the Earth on its axis and its orbit around the sun. The clock normally also displays the age of the moon, and the four-year (perpetual) calendar.[1]

It is related to the orrery, which illustrates the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons in the solar system in a heliocentric model.

The word tellurion derives from the Latin tellus, meaning Earth.[2]

A tellurion made in 1766, used by John Winthrop to teach astronomy at Harvard 
Tellurion made between 1700 and 1725, on display at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris 

References

  1. ↑ De Carle, D., Watch and Clock Encyclopedia, (NAG/Robert Hale, London, 1988)
  2. ↑ Shipley, Joseph Twadell. (2001). The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. JHU Press. ISBN 0801867843. p. 403.

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