| 词源 |
orrery. All planetariums can trace their ancestry to the first orrery invented in about 1700 by George Graham. This compli- cated mechanical device showed the movements of the planets and satellites around the sun by means of rotating and revolv- ing balls. Graham sent his model to instrument maker John Rowley, who made a copy that he presented to his patron Charles Boyle (1676–1731), fourth earl of Orrery, the apparatus being named in the earl’s honor. Orrery, who used the device to help educate his children, was a noted patron of science and a descendant of the physicist Robert Boyle. |