Orrery
WordNet
noun
(1) Planetarium consisting of an apparatus that illustrates the relative positions and motions of bodies in the solar system by rotation and revolution of balls moved by wheelwork; sometimes incorporated in a clock
WiktionaryText
Etymology
Named after Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (1676-1731), for whom such a device was made.
Noun
- a clockwork model of the solar system
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- 1985: To which his answer was: why, that God is eternal motion, Lacy. This is his first orrery. — John Fowles, A Maggot
- 1997: Ethelmer for a split second is gazing straight up into her nostrils, one of which now flares into pink illumination as Pitt’s Taper sets alight the central Lanthorn of the Orrery, representing the Sun. The other Planets wait, all but humming, taut within their spidery Linkages back to the Crank-Shaft and the Crank, held in the didactic Grasp of the Revd Cherrycoke. — Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
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