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Mechanical solar system with Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon and Mars 1870
$15,575.87
£11,593.07
€13,000
CA$21,335.04
A$23,729.23
CHF 12,390.66
MX$288,759.43
NOK 158,247.69
SEK 148,408.41
DKK 98,964.46
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About the Item
Tellurium or representative and demonstrative mechanical model of the solar system composed of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon and Mars, realized by the Prague geographer and cartographer Jan Felkl around the second half of the 19th century, the most important and famous manufacturer of globes and astronomical instruments in the Austro-Hungarian Empire internationally.
The cartouche of the globe reads: Obraz Zemekoule Vydal J. Felkl a syn Roztoky u Prahy
Bronze and brass patinated cast iron frame, brass gears, wooden planets and papier-mâché globe.
Good condition, fully functional.
Measurements 81x20x50 cm - inches 32x7.9x19.6
This is an ancient astronomical instrument consisting of clockwork mechanisms, which allows observation from the outside by operating a crank located under the gear of the Sun the motion that the Moon and Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars make within the Solar System.
Mercury completes its rotation around the Sun in 88 days; Venus in 225 days; Earth in 365 days and Mars in 780 days.
With the establishment of the heliocentric system theorized by Copernicus, it was possible to construct simplified mechanical models of the entire known Universe, with the Earth moving about itself, while the Moon revolved around the Earth and with it around the Sun, along with all the other planets.
Related to the doctrine that the Universe moves like a giant clockwork device, the mechanical planetarium is able to represent this theory.
The complex gearing system of a mechanical planetarium ensures that the planets revolve around the Sun according to their exact relative motion.
Planetarians of these types were used for educational purposes by private tutors serving noble families throughout Europe, who entrusted them with the education of their heirs.
The mechanical planetarium is the most intricate and complex form of representation of the cosmos, representing not only the movement of the Earth but also that of the moon and planets, almost as if it were a giant clock device.
Among these devices, one of the oldest was the work of Archimedes, about whom Cicero speaks extensively in Tusculanae disputationes I, 63: when Roman troops sacked Syracuse in 212 B.C., Consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus brought to Rome the instrument of Archimedes, who, thanks to his skill and "a divine intelligence" that he possessed, had managed to generate the motions of the planets, so different from each other, from a single rotation.
Jan Felkl (1817-1878) was born in Bohemia and as early as 1840 made illustrated prospectuses for globes in 6 different sizes. Over the next twenty years, it grew to become the largest globe manufactory in the Austro-Hungarian market, producing terrestrial and celestial globes, in 17 different languages, as well as lunar, planetary and tellurian globes.
Felkl presented his globes at the 1867 World's Fair in Paris and in 1873 in Vienna.
Early globes were produced by engraving and coloring by hand the wedges.
Felkl founded his own Geographical and Lithographic Institute in Prague to produce globes and maps.
In 1870 Felkl moved the factory from Prague to Roztok and took his younger son as a partner in his company renamed Felkl & Son, producing globes for export, throughout Europe and even the United States. The business grew to employ more than 40 people, even opening a branch in Vienna. The main customers were: schools, public institutions and libraries.
After Jan Felkl's death the business was continued by the family until the early 1900s.
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