Special Collections Center, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Philadelphia, PA.
This mechanical model of the solar system is the second (of two) orreries that clockmaker and astronomer David Rittenhouse created. The first, less elaborate, was purchased by President John Witherspoon of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and installed in Nassau Hall in 1771.
America had a common language, unlike the European nations, none of which was linguistically homogeneous. in 1789 the majority of Frenchmen did not speak French but were divided by a variety of provincial patois. Englishmen from Yorkshire were incomprehensible to those from Cornwall and vice versa. By contrast, Americans could understand one another from Maine to Georgia. It was very obvious why this should be so, said John Witherspoon, president of Princeton. Since Americans were much more unsettled, and move frequently from place to place, they are not as liable to local peculiarities, either in accent or phraseology.