Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 2: Their History and Construction Including a Consideration of their Value as Aids in the Study of Geography and AstronomyStevenson, Edward Luther
History
Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 2: Their History and Construction Including a Consideration of their Value as Aids in the Study of Geography and Astronomy
Stevenson, Edward Luther
Geography -- History; Globes
A brief concluding word may well be added touching those globes which
may of course be classed as celestial, but which are known as moon
globes and planetariums or orreries. There could be no practical value
in an attempt to set forth a map of the surface of the stars, nor of the
planets while our knowledge is so limited, although Schiaparelli has
undertaken, with measurable success, to map the surface of Mars,[209]
and it would be next in order to construct a Mars globe. Of the surface
of our moon much is known and maps of it have been constructed, as
indeed have been moon globes. We are informed that about the middle of
the seventeenth century the Danish astronomer, Hevelius, who designed so
successfully star maps, entertained the idea of constructing a moon
globe,[210] but we do not know that he set his hand to the work. A
century later it appears that the French astronomer La Hire actually
completed a moon globe,[211] but it has been possible to obtain only the
briefest reference to it.
Tobias Mayer of Nürnberg, a contemporary of La Hire, set himself to the
draughting of gore maps[212] intended for use in the manufacture of
moon globes. Mayer found employment in the Homann establishment of
Nürnberg, being regarded as an exceedingly skilful draughtsman, able to
sketch on his draughting sheet that which he saw through his telescope.
His plan contemplated the making of twelve gores or segments, six for
the northern half of the moon and six for the southern. His plan, of
course, would enable him to represent but one side of the moon,--that
turned toward the earth,--although it appeared that he contemplated the
addition of two segments on which, in at least a fragmentary manner, he
was to represent what we may call the border of the opposite side of the
moon. Mayer seems not to have completed his work, since we find nowhere
an example of his finished product.
It was not until near the close of the eighteenth that we again meet
with an attempt to construct a moon globe and it seems that the task was
accomplished by the Englishman, John Russel. It was in the year 1796
that he proposed to raise by subscription the necessary funds for making
his undertaking a success. His globe has a diameter of 12 inches,[213]
and was furnished with the necessary adjustable shield that the moon’s
waxing and waning could be represented. That this moon globe was
actually constructed, although no copy has been located, we are informed
by Wolf. Such attempts as were made in the nineteenth century with a
good measure of success do not here call for consideration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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