Clockwork equatorial sundial
Date
29 November 1668
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p338
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 313mm
width (page): 195mm
width (page): 195mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Design of a kind of mechanical clock, which 'by means of a pendulum, would instead of hands turn a pointer fitted with sights continually and pretty accurately towards the sun or fixed stars'. Johannes Hevelius sent this design 'by a friend' to Henry Oldenburg in a letter dated 29 November 1668, which was read at the meeting of the Royal Society on 17 December 1668. It is an equatorial sundial rotated by clockwork, which Oldenburg believed to have been designed by the Italian instrument-maker Titio Livio Burattini (1617-1681), though there seems to be no evidence to confirm this (see The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, vol. 5, pp. 190-92).
This is copied from EL/H2/18/008. Another copy can be found at LBC/2/389.
This is copied from EL/H2/18/008. Another copy can be found at LBC/2/389.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 17 December 1668, ‘Mr. Oldenburg produced a letter to him from Mr. Hevelius, dated at Dantzick, November 29, 1668, N.S. giving an account of the late eclipse of the sun, November 4, N.S. as also the description of an engine, quae, to use his words, beneficio perpendiculi, loco indicis, regulam cum dioptris perpetuo et satis exacte ad solem stellasve fixas obvertit. This letter was ordered to be entered in the Letter-Book’ (Birch 2:336).
Related fellows
Johannes Hevelius (1611 - 1687, German/Polish) , Astronomer
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Associated place