Tellurian
date: label: date made
content: ca 1870
name: label: maker
content: Campbell, Stillman P.
label: maker
content: Tellurian Manufacturing Co.
notes: label: Description
content: Stillman P. Campbell was an itinerant doctor who invented several quite unrelated devices. While living in Buffalo in 1867, he obtained a patent (#66,791) for a hand-cranked orrery in which the Earth with its moon moved in an elliptical orbit around a gas-jet Sun. The Tellurian Manufacturing Co. of Hartford obtained the rights for this patent and showed “the improved Campbell tellurian” at the American Institute fair of 1870. This tellurian was available in two sizes: 18 inches diameter with a 3-inch globe, and 36 inches diameter with a 6-inch globe.
label: Description
content: This example is of the larger size. Its octagonal wooden box is marked “TELLURION / Patented July 16th 1867 / Dr. S. P. CAMPBELL”
label: Description
content: Ref: <i>An Epitome of Astronomy, Arranged to Assist in the Manipulation and Understanding of Campbell’s Tellurian</i> (Hartford, 1870).
label: Description
content: D. J. Warner, “The Geography of Heaven and Earth,” <i>Rittenhouse</i> 2 (1988): 52.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Connecticut, Hartford
topic: label: Subject
content: Astronomy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Globes
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: John Sands
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.334912
label: accession number
content: 315268
label: catalog number
content: 334912
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Orrery (Tellurian)
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 35 in; 88.9 cm