The Description and Use of the Globes, and the Orrery.

Tenth printing of this successful guide to the situation of the Earth in the solar system (including latitude and longitude and the explanation for the days and seasons), illustrated with seven fine folding plates including one depicting the Great Orrery constructed by instrument maker Thomas Wright. An untrimmed copy in the original boards, the contents unusually fresh.

As a youth Joseph Harris (bap. 1704, d. 1764) showed great mathematical proficiency, and was sent to London to meet Edmund Halley. 'He went to sea in late summer 1725, probably as a teacher of navigation. His magnetic and eclipse observations made in Vera Cruz in 1726 and 1727 were published as Astronomical Observations made at Vera Cruz by the Royal Society, to whom they were submitted by Halley. At the request of the lord commissioners of the Admiralty, Halley examined and approved Harris's Treatise of Navigation (1730), which criticized navigation as conventionally taught for not reflecting shipboard realities... His elementary exposition The Description and Use of the Globes and the Orrery … [and] of the Solar System (1731) was reprinted fourteen times by 1793' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Following a voyage to Jamaica to assist with the set-up of an observatory in the early 1730s, Harris obtained a post as assayer at the Royal Mint, where he remained for the rest of his career, making notable contributions to the literature on currency and to meteorological and weight standards. He retained his interest in astronomy and observed the transit of Venus in 1761, only a few years before his death.

Tenth edition; 8vo; 7 engraved folding plates, unpaginated 4-page ad for instruments at rear, edges of textblock untrimmed, occasional small spots to contents but overall fresh; original blue boards, backstrip lacking, corners bumped, boards worn, very good condition; 220pp.