Cometarium
date: label: date made
content: ca 1758
name: label: maker
content: Rix, John
notes: label: Description
content: Small mechanical model showing the orbit of a comet around the sun, with “The Comet of 1682, J. Rix, Fecit” inscription. John Rix was a London instrument maker who probably made this in anticipation of the return of Halley’s Comet in 1758. William Crawford Winlock (1859-1896), the donor, was a young astronomer who worked at the United States Naval Observatory and then, briefly, as Curator of Exchanges at the Smithsonian Institution.
label: Description
content: Ref: Martin Beech, “Cometaria and the Demonstration of Kepler’s 1st and 2nd Laws,” <i>Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society</i> 82 (2005): 29-33.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Astronomy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Globes
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: William Crawford Winlock
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.204630
label: accession number
content: 36169
label: catalog number
content: 204630
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Cometarium
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 in x 4 in; 15.24 cm x 10.16 cm