MAKER TALES. 1st in a series: Athanasius Kircher's "Magnetic Clock" - from the travel journal of Sir Robert Moray. This 23 page booklet tells the tale of Moray's quest to unlock the secrets of Kircher's experiments with magnetism and the mysterious "Magnetic Clock". His travel journal was recently rediscovered in the Biblioteca in Rome, this is the facsimile version. We've seen it listed for over $50 in other online stores, but it's offered here for a much more reasonable price!
During his lifetime, the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) was widely regarded as the physical embodiment of all the learning of his age. A refugee from war-torn Germany, Kircher arrived in Rome just after Galileo's condemnation, where he was heralded as possessing the secret of deciphering hieroglyphics. He wrote over thirty separate works dealing with subjects ranging from optics to music, from Egyptology to magnetism. He devised a host of remarkable pneumatic, hydraulic, catoptric and magnetic machines, which he displayed for visitors to his famous museum, housed in the Jesuit College in Rome.
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