Product Description
The Planetarium is signed Trippensee, with a terrestrial globe rotating at the end of a maple arm, and with a black-and-white painted wood representation of the moon revolving the earth, both revolving around a central brass sphere representing the sun, and with a black-and-white painted wood representation of Venus also revolving the sun. The entire assembly is mounted on a turned maple central standard, set on a round, stepped and weighted brass base, with an inset circular zodiac dial. a maker’s label. When turned by hand by a metal post under the arm, the earth rotates, and the earth, moon and Venus revolve. The three-inch terrestrial globe was manufactured by Rand McNally and copyrighted 1891; oceans are colored blue, the United States pink, Canada yellow, and Mexico green, with similar coloring throughout.
The Trippensee Planetarium is a demonstration model of the movement of the earth, moon and Venus relative to each other and to the sun. It shows such phenomena as the succession of seasons, and solar and lunar eclipses. In addition to its educational objective, the tellurian is also decorative and entertaining.