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Astronomy. BARRITT, Leon/ SERVISS, Garrett P. [New York, 1906] The Barritt-Serviss Star And Planet Finder Northern Hemisphere… 15 x 15 inches. Pressed-paper, lithographed, rotating disc with an astronomical map mounted on a black board, above which is attached, another similarly made board to be used in coordination with the rotating disc. Light staining & wear, but excellent overall. Leon Barritt was a newspaperman and amateur astronomer, who was publisher of The Evening Sky Map, an astronomical magazine. Barritt’s obituary in New York Times prominently noted this device: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/02/02/96792956.html?auth=login-smartlock&pageNumber=19 “Garrett Putman Serviss was an American astronomer, popularizer of astronomy, and early science fiction writer. He majored in science at Cornell and in 1876 joined the staff of the The New York Sun newspaper, working as a journalist until 1892. Serviss showed a talent for explaining scientific details in a way that made them clear to the ordinary reader, leading Andrew Carnegie to invite him to deliver The Urania Lectures in 1894 on astronomy, cosmology, geology, and related matters. Serviss toured the United States for over two years delivering these lectures. He also wrote a syndicated newspaper column devoted to astronomy and other sciences.” https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6477566.Garrett_P_Serviss
A very nice product of American ingenuity, this “star and planet finder” operates with admirable simplicity, achieving much the same result as today’s digital astronomical apps such as Skyview. One merely rotates the interior disc on which is a star map “until the day of the month desired stands opposite the hour of the day you wish…” One then merely holds the device up to the sky to reveal “the stars and planets in view at that hour.”
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