GLOBE. 



Ptolemy. Strabo makes mention of the 

 terrestrial globe ; and a contemporary of 

 his, Propertius, refers directly to depicted 

 worlds ; and Claudius, who describes Ar- 

 chimedes's glass sphere, evinces great 

 knowledge of the constructions of an or- 

 rery, spheres, &c. that then existed among 

 mathematicians. 



Among the improvers and makers of 

 globes may be subsequently ranked the 

 following as chief : Tycho Brahe, Regio- 

 montanus, Schonerus, Gemma Fricius, 

 Gr. Mercator, J. Hondius, Johnsonius, 

 Wm. Saunderson, Wm. Bleau, &c ; some 

 of whom wrote learnedly on their uses: 

 but, in this respect, the preference is 

 certainly due to our countryman, Mr. 

 Robert Hues, whose Latin treatise was 

 afterwards published by Handinus, and 

 then by Pontanus, with figures and notes. 

 This work was afterwads translated 

 into English by J. Chilmead, in the year 

 1639. 



No globes had any pretensions to accu- 

 racy, taste, or elegance, till the time of 

 Mr John Senex, F. R. S. ; who, about the 

 year 1739, delineated and engraved sets 

 of plates for globes of nine, twelve, se- 

 venteen, and twenty-eight inches in di- 

 ameter, which he used with the globes 

 then manufactured by himself,and making 

 these instruments more accurate and 

 useful than any former maker. The terms 

 and names of places on the globes of 

 seventeen and twenty-eight inches in di- 

 ameter were in Latin. 



About the year 1759, and just after the 

 decease of Mr. Senex, Mr. Benjamin 

 Martin,alearned optician,became possess- 

 ed of Mr. Senex's plates, and continued 

 for many years to manufacture the globes, 

 but with additional skill, and with various 

 improvements. 



About the year 1765, the late Mr. 

 George Adams caused new plates for 

 eighteen and twelve inches globes to be 

 engraved. The terms and names of these, 

 like the larger ones of Senex,wereprinted 

 in Latin. Instead of horary circles fixed 

 on the meridian, with moveable indices 

 for computation of time, Mr. Adams con- 

 trived circular wires, to envelop the 

 globe about the equinoctial circles, with 

 sliding brass points; so that, as the globes 

 were revolved on their axes, the time by 

 these was pointed out on the graduations 

 of the above great circle ; which conse- 

 quently gave a more extensive and con- 

 spicuous scale of time, than could be had 

 by means of the smaller horary circles. 

 He also applied to each globe a semi-cir- 

 cular slip of'brass, connected at the poles, 



having on the terrestrial a sliding com- 

 pass bearing circle ; and on the celes- 

 tial a small sliding sun. The brass 

 slips were graduated each way from 

 the equinoctial, so that the positions for 

 rhomb-lines, right ascensions, and decli- 

 nations, could be better and more readily 

 obtained. 



The horary, or hour circle of the 

 globes being usually attached to the ex- 

 ternal edge of the meridians, prevented a 

 free and uninterrupted motion of the me- 

 ridians, with their poles through the ho- 

 rizons of the globes, to admit of an uni- 

 versal position of the axis with respect 

 to the horizon, for all latitudes of places. 

 Mr. James Harris, of the Mint, in the 

 year 1740, contrived a method of fixing 

 the brass horary circles at the poles, un- 

 der the meridians ; i. e. between the sur- 

 face of the globes and interior edge of 

 the meridian, and to be occasionally 

 moveable,independent eitherof the globe 

 or meridian. In this manner the globes 

 were rendered completely useful for the 

 solution of problems in all latitudes. 



About the year 1785, Mr, G. Wright 

 contrived a moveable index, applicable to 

 the poles of a globe, to act in a similar 

 manner to the circle of Mr. Harris, 

 which pointed to a circle of hours en- 

 graved round the poles of each globe. 

 This he considered a method of obvi- 

 ating the great friction, or adherence, 

 that sometimes inconveniently takes place 

 between the surfaces of the circle and 

 globe. 



From the lapse of years, the numerous 

 astronomical and geographical discove- 

 ries, and the Latin termsj adopted in the 

 larger globes of Senex and Adams, these 

 globes became inconvenient, embarras- 

 sing, and finally obsolete. A short time 

 before the year 1800, sets of new and ac- 

 curately engraved plates were suggested, 

 and considered as a desideratum in as- 

 tronomy, by the Astronomer Royal, Dr. 

 Maskelyne, Sir Joseph Banks, Professor 

 Vince, and others ; and conformably to 

 this object, in the year 1800 were com- 

 pleted and produced a set of entirely new 

 plates for globes of eighteen inches in 

 diameter, and under the denomination of 

 the " New British Globes." The gradua- 

 tions and lines are laid down in the most 

 correct manner, and with much greater 

 accuracy than in any former globe plates. 

 The drawing from which the terrestial 

 is engraved was an entirely new one, 

 from the hands of Mr. Arrow-smith, an 

 eminent geographer. The latitudes and 

 longitudes of places are rectified from 



