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 ![The Grand Orrery](/sites/g/files/omnuum6316/files/chsi/files/pope_orrery_lg.jpg)

 

**The Grand Orrery**  
  
**The Grand Orrery is one of the most well-known objects in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. It is a gear-driven, hand-cranked representation of how the first six planets of our solar system revolve around the Sun. It is the handiwork of Joseph Pope of Boston (1750-1826), an artisan heralded by his contemporaries as "a talented mathematician, watchmaker, and mechanical genius." The orrery was the only such scientific instrument Pope built; he spent twelve years on this astronomical model, between 1776 and 1787. The seventh planet, Uranus, was discovered during this interval, but it was too late to be included in the device already teeming with complexity.   
  
 The initial construction of the orrery was not sponsored or funded by any individual or institution, but was undertaken by Pope seemingly for his own edification. Clearly aware of the explorations of scientists and natural philosophers of his time, both in colonial Massachusetts and abroad, Pope’s labor in conceiving and constructing his orrery may have been an effort to take part in the larger scientific conversation of his day. This is reflected in his embellishment of the orrery with gilt brass effigies representing three men considered to have made especially significant scientific contributions: Massachusetts Governor and scientific patron James Bowdoin, experimental scientist, entrepreneur, and statesman Benjamin Franklin, and famed English mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton.**   
 **CHSI Inv. Number [ 0005](https://bit.ly/3cV7HnN)  
Date: 1776-1787  
Joseph Pope  
Boston, United States  
  
  
Back to ["Time, Life, & Matter: Colonial Science"](/exhibitions/tlm-colonial-science).**