Orrery
device · 1712 · Early modern era
A mechanical model of the Solar System.
What it is made of
- Gear — has part. Gear trains.
Principles and materials it uses
- Heliocentric system — uses. The Copernican model.
- Brass — is made of. An orrery is a brass mechanism.
History: what it evolved from and what it influenced
- Planetarium — evolved into. Models of the sky.
Things built in a similar way
- Antikythera mechanism — works like. Mechanical models of celestial motions.
- Armillary sphere — works like. Both are mechanical models of the sky: the armillary sphere shows celestial circles, the orrery the planets' motion.