838 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and in the close, when he came to mention the orrery, he over- 

 excelled his very self." The members of the Assembly of Pennsyl- 

 vania took a view of the orrery, and, " being of the opinion that it 

 greatly exceeds all others hitherto constructed, in demonstrating 

 the true Situations of the celestial Bodies, their Magnitudes, Mo- 

 tions, Distances, Periods, Eclipses, and Order, upon the principles 

 of the Newtonian System," voted the constructor three hundred 

 pounds in consideration of his mathematical genius and mechan- 

 ical abilities, and appointed a committee to agree with him for a 

 new orrery for the use of the public. This purpose was not car- 

 ried out. Mr. Rittenhouse became engaged in public enterprises, 

 which occupied his time till the beginning of the Revolution, 

 when all other interests were suspended. 



The praises which were bestowed upon Mr. Rittenhouse for his 

 orrery were extravagant, and seem now even absurd ; but noth- 

 ing, perhaps, can more clearly illustrate the infantine condition of 

 American science at the time. 



Mr. Barton, by way of emphasizing the assertion that the skill 

 and accuracy he displayed in the construction of his mathemat- 

 ical and astronomical instruments were not surpassed by similar 

 works of the most celebrated British mathematicians, remarks 

 that " his profoundness in astronomical science and his wonderful 

 ingenuity, manifested in the construction of his orrery, leave him 

 without a rival in the twofold character of an astronomer and 

 mechanic." Dr. Jedediah Morse, in his " Geography " (1789), 

 noticing some of the more prominent productions of scientific in- 

 genuity and skill in America, observed that " every combination 

 of machinery may be expected from a country, a native son of 

 which, reaching this inestimable object in its highest point, has 

 epitomized the motions of the spheres that roll throughout the 

 universe." Mr. Thomas Penn, of London, was surprised that the 

 instrument could have been executed in Pennsylvania. Joel Bar- 

 low wrote, in the " Vision of Columbus " : 



See the sage Rittenhouse, with ardent eye, 

 Lift the long tube and pierce the starry sky; 

 Clear in his view the circling systems roll, 

 And broader splendors gild the central pole; 

 He marks what laws th' eccentric wand'rers bind, 

 Copies Creation in his forming mind, 

 And bids beneath his hand in semblance rise, 

 With mimic orbs, the labors of the skies. 



Thomas Jefferson, the sober statesman, Mr. Rittenhouse's suc- 

 cessor as President of the American Philosophical Society, wrote, 

 in his " Notes on Virginia," in refutation of the Abbs' Reynal's 

 assertion that America had " not produced one able mathemati- 

 cian, one man of genius in a single art or science " : " We have 



