Show TTTE SALT LA7TR TRIBUNE liis 1600 Million-Million-- SUNDAY MORNING FEBRUARY 2f 1DU 5 Mi rod Science’s Newest Astral Wonder the ‘ Sendter Orrery ” Shows the Positions and Movements of Our Planets as They Whirl About the Sun f v- - i STAR-GAZE- James Stokley Associate Director of Franklin Institute Philadelphia Pearing into the Orrery or Glaaa Sphere Which He Brought From Munich It Is the Germany Creation of Michael Sendter One of the World’ Foremost Mechanic CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE Photographic View of the Inside of the Glast Orrery Showing the Sun a Brat Ball and the Constellation It Indicates the Relative Position of the Earth Third Planet Out From the Sun the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia stands a brilliantly lighted glass globe five feet in diameter Within it one sees what at first appears to be a confusion of tiny balls rods and other gadgets If you gaze into the globe long nough you will notice that the balls are whirling some swiftly others wnth What you see painstaking slowness there reflects with dimensional and motional accuracy the whole picture of cur solar system —even the universe The strange device is called the “orrery" and is intended to illustrate by balls set on rods the motions magnitudes and positions of the planets Suppose it were possible to be transported 1600 million million miles away to Polaris the North Star — which since time immemorable has been the guiding Star of mariners Then peering through a telescope many times more powerful than any now in existence one would behold exactly what is seen when gazing into the five-foglass ball It is when you study this miniature reproduction of the universe that you realize how insignificant the earth is in the big scheme of things Even our olar system is revealed as but a little part of the universe revolving about the sun Wearily the Earth and Mercury and Venus (both close to old Sol) and Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune (all farther away) revolve while other moons of their own revolve about them Although science long ago learned to compute with accuracy the motions of the planets it was unable to make its findings plain to the layman That is why man has tried for a long time to show these movements with mechanical toys It is far easier to understand the universe from a glass N ot it all from books and charts Thus it was that many years ago George Graham a celebrated London watchmaker employed a man named Rowley to make a small model showing the movements of one or two of the planets about the sun Rowley kept a model of the device for himself later interesting Charles Boyle Earl of Orrery The Earl financed Rowley in making a larger machine rather crude and inaccurate' But it was sold to George the First King of England for a large sum In this way the Earl of Orrery got credit for the invention and the devices became known as orreries Many Improvements were made until finally James Stokley associate director in charge of astronomy of the Franklin Institute was recently successful in his world-wid- e search for an accurate device to be placed in the institution's Planetarium He happened upon the orrery made by Michael Sendter while exploring the Deutsches Museum in Munich Germany Stokley prevailed upon that master mechanic to make a second one for Philadelphia It is the one to be seen in Franklin Institute today Michael Sendter it appears has gone further than any of his predecessors in graphically illustrating what really is happening in this old universe In the center of his great globe is a small brass ball representing the Sun the center of everything Around the Sun revolve the planets each definitely marked and each traveling at its relative speed Around each planet revolve its own “moons" The Earth goes around the Sun every fifteen minutes m Sendter'i orrery which means that one year is equal to fifteen minutes four years equal to an hour Time passes quickly 7 f i while watching the Franklin Institute! Of course it really takes Mother Earth 365(4 days to get around the globe than to grasp m&&x — Sun but in the orrery it is fifteen minutes and all the other planets move at correspondingly fast speeds Spinning about the Earth it self is the moon which in takesrealityt twenty-eigh- days to get around the earth but in the glass ball goes much Nep faster tune the out-- r e planet along drags requiring forty hours to do what the earth does in fifteen minutes is Everything in motion as in the skies While the p a n e ts spin 1 about the sun the sun does some spinning on its own For in axis reality the sun takes from 24 to 26 days to turn about itself In Send-ter’- s device it MANY WORLDS Lxclusiv Takan For This of a Student Gazing loto th Marvelous Sondtor Orrery in FrenUlin Museum The Device Consists of Bell Set on Rod Which Show tho Relation of does that in less than one Phots minute New-pep- Driven by a small electric motor and ac-- c u r a t e 1 y timed the Solar system travels about the same relative speeds as th Planet to Each Other and Illustrate with Dimension! and' Motional Accuracy Their Magnitude and Movement the same bodies pursue in the heavens Little balls ivory take the place of planets all rushing about a central bras ball the sun Once the switch is thrown and the “Universe" is set in motion one wonders at the intricacy of it all beautiful young TheBut this is far from the whole story solar system the Sun and its blond you see at planets whirl about In a five-foglass the left Is not a ball On the ball are painted the Follies girl nor the winvarious stars old Polana at its proper ner of th very latest position in the north and all the rest —with the constellations accurately bathing beauty contest marked out She ia a brilliant and While the timlnr of the Sendter popular physician in orrery is practically perfect some liberties had to be taken with distance Vienna Austria For instance actually Tolaris Is 272 Her name is Dr Maria A light light years from the Farth Ehrenstein Austrians year is the distance that light will travel in one year That makes in round call perhaps justifiably her “the world’s loveliest numbers about six million million miles and six million-millio- n times 272 light physician” No doubt the years equals n million miles! Aristocracy of Vienna That Is rather staggering to the are apt to be leas reluchuman brain but it is the kind of tant to call the doctor figure astronomers deal in Naturally it took some squeezing to reduce 1600 when the family physimillion million mile to less than five cian happens to be Dr feet the approximate diameter of the Lhrenstein Truly In th ball Yet the story Is there and look field of medicine It may ing at the glass sphere one gets a very be said that Austrian good idea of the universe This is not however the only famous gentlemen prefer blonde In the Bame in the world ofrery More Interesting how building of the Franklin Institute Is ever Is the fact that Dr the famous Rittenhouse orrery made by David Rittenhouse first astronomer Lhrenstein is not sati of America (and first director of the fied with being merely United States Mint) bark In the latter beautiful Some philosTwo part of the eighteenth century said that of these were made one for I'rinreton opher ha woman's only duty to which ha disappeared The other was for the University of Pennsylvania and to be charmhumanity Is now being r stored It will be di But Dr Uiren-ueiing biyed 8t the 200th anniversary of th ha added: “and helpful” rtb of Rittc nhouse T 1600-millio- 5indin For s Doctor Is Vienne Is s PUsunl Duly the Family Physician Is Dr Maria Ehrantlam Who A You See Is Blond and Beautiful M-l-f er stnrriani 1S81 There is a remarkable point of comparison in the Sendter and the Rittenhouse orreries While look- ing at the moon whirling about the earth and the earth whirling about the sun In the Sendter orrery it is sometimes to be 'noticed that the moon gets between earth and sun This of course causes an eclipse In some parts of the earth these eclipses totally obscure the sun and there is a short period of darkness Now Rittcnhouse’i orrery makes it possible V duration and degree of every eclipse for a period of 5000 yean before and after 1760! Lven the great Zeiss Planetarium does not attempt this Next August there Will be an eclipse of the Fun that will be total in the northeastern part of the United States This accurate timing and placing of old eclipses is important to the historian Some old as well as to the astronomer record will tell of a peculiar darkening of the skies in mid-dasome place in y the world The time will be lost in By finding the time of antiquity an eclipse it is possible to fix th time of the record These intricate orreries have a very practical use in this way Standing before the Sendter’s orrery with its whirling worlds or the Rittenhouse orrery with its scope of 10009 years one i indeed faced with the immensity of the universe and th smallness of man Yet it also must b said that in realizing the calculation ingenuity and conception behind thes orreries help recognizing the greatness and glory of man one-cann- ot this age when throne have a habit of toppling along with titles members of royalty are only too anxious to proclaim their “democratic" spirit Indeed it is sometimes astonishing to what lengths they will go to show that although born to the purple they still have the common touch Here for instance you see Princess Ingrid of Sweden “learning" how to 1ff wash divhes in the kitchen of a Sweii- Not lonj ago she ' ieh culinnry school posed for another pirture in which she was dusting household furniture and in another she was preparing salads All this gave the shop girls and servants of Sweden a thrill They saw the princess as one of themselves and It made them feel better to know that princessess have the same domestic am Ditions they The truth ia of course that Inpnd hasn't much use for such knowledge There are others in the royal palaee to wait on her Still In these tumultuous times it isn't a bad Idea for member of royalty to learn how to take rare Just an Ordinary Democratic Housekeeper — That’s Whet Princes Ingrid f of themsilves A good many ex kings Sweden (Next to the Kithen Sink) Tries To Prove She Is As She Poses While tell them that Washing Dishes in a Swedish Culinary School 'J kiss Sssiviss 4rt SisS'— ' f |