1840 Schulz German Edition of LeGrande's Mechanical Globe

A very attractive example of Augustin Legrand's collapsible mechanical globe, here in a c. 1840 German edition. The globe is a novel educational tool, allowing the Earth to be presented as a globe, but also in various other formats, thus more deeply illustrating the curvature of the Earth and the challenges of presenting it on a flat map. Moreover, by holding the globe up to light and spinning it, one can mimic various astronomical events.

A Closer Look

The globe consists of six hand-colored engraved gores combined along the equator and connected with a network of strings, which emerge from both the top and the bottom. Sliding toggles can contract the string to force the gores into globular form. The globe is undated, but its inclusion of Ascension (Himelsfarth) Island, St. Helena Island, and the Galapagos suggests an early date of 1840. (They do not appear on the original Legrand, and Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, which touched on all these places, was published 1839.) In addition, the globe comes with an 8-page geographical text, as well as a double-sided chart explaining the application of the globe to illustrate the rotation of the Earth, the Zodiac, and more.

Publication History and Census

The present example was published in Stuttgart by Friederich Gustav Schulz. Legrand patented the original in 1823, and it was subsequently copied by publishers in France, Italy, England, and, as here, Germany. Although it appears on the market from time to time, it is rare in working order. We see one example of Schultz' edition in the collection of the Universitats und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt.