weaktwos: (Default)
weaktwos ([personal profile] weaktwos) wrote2004-01-05 04:46 pm

As you can see, work isn't all that busy...

Today's word of the day:

orrery (OR-uh-ree) noun

A mechanical model of the solar system that represents the relative
positions and motions of the planets around the sun.

[After Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (1676-1731), who was given one of those models by John Rowley, a London instrument-maker. They were invented by George Graham c. 1700.]

A picture of an orrery: http://blaubac.co.uk/images/orrery.jpg


What intrigues me about this word is that the Earl of Orrery didn't even invent or build the original "orrery". He just received it as a gift. I think it ought to be renamed a Rowleytron or a Grahamobile, or something related to the manufacturer or inventor. Damn the Man!