Terrestrial and celestial globes; their history and ... - 24grammata.com

Last Quarter of the Sixteenth Century.
movements which it executes."^ In the year 1580 a descrip-
tion of the same was prepared and published by Dasypodius
himself.^ Although calling for frequent repairs the clock
continued running until the year 1789, when it ceased, and
after fifty years had passed the old mechanism was replaced
by new, the work of Schwilgue." Remarkable as is the entire
masterpiece, it is the globes with which Dasypodius furnished
it that especially interest us here. At the base of the
clock is placed a celestial sphere (Fig. 70) three feet in
diameter, supported by four columns of wood richly carved.
On the surface appear the forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations,
each constellation having its appropriate figure, and
the 1022 stars which had been located in Ptolemy's day. The
which the
globe is so connected with the machinery, by
various parts of the clock are made to perform their func-
tions, that it makes one revolution on its axis every twentyfour
hours, thus representing the rising and the setting of the
several celestial bodies. Two circles were added, one carrying
the sun and the other the moon, adjusted so as to turn about
the globe, the first in twenty-four hours, and the second in
about twenty-five. The arrangement of the movements, it
appears, was not greatly
altered in the reconstruction of
1838-1842, and the clock, as it now stands, is thus described
by Britten: "On the fioor level is a celestial globe indicating
siderial time. In its motion round its axis the globe carries
with it the circles that surround it— namely, the equator, the
ecliptic, the solstitial and equinoctial colures, while the me-
ridian and horizon circles remain motionless, so that there
are shown the rising and the setting, as well as the passage
over the meridian of Strassburg, of all stars that are visible
to the naked eye, and which appear above the horizon. Be-
hind the celestial globe is the calendar; on a metallic band,
nine inches wide and thirty feet in circumference, are the
months and the days of the months, Dominical letters, fixed
and movable feast days. The band is shifted at midnight,
and a statue of Apollo points out the day of the month and
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