Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
October 1774
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 15r
Notes:
This may have been a scioptic ball, a universal joint allowing an optical instrument mounted on a ball to be swiveled to point anywhere in a wide arc. Scioptic balls have been used as camera obscuras, projecting images from the outside on walls in darkened rooms. See Wikipedia, ,s.v. Scioptic ball, and https://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/museum/esim.asp?c=406020
The donor, the Rev. Jacob Duché (1737–1798), was a Rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the first chaplain to the Continental Congress.
