G is for Globe: Inventions by Women A-Z

What a clever a woman. Ellen Eliza Fitz (1836-??) was an American working as a governess in New Brunswick, Canada, when she decided to design a better globe. She was teaching her young charges about geography and the changing seasons with the course of the sun, and thought she could do a better job . . . so she designed a special globe mounting to do just that. 

The Fitz Globe is the first globe designed by a woman.

In 1875 Ellen filed a patent for the new globe mounting that showed the effects of the earth's daily rotation on its axis, and yearly revolution around the sun. Finally, her students could follow the path of the sun and durations during the day, night and twilight throughout the year. The globe made its debut in Philadelphia at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876. In 1882, she filed a second patent to show the position of the stars.

The handbook Ellen wrote to assist

Thinking back on the globes in my life, I don't recall every seeing one this complicated. My parents had a standard globe that I rotated and played with once in awhile. I found the atlas more useful, but the Fitz Globe sounds interesting.  

Are you familiar with the Fitz Globe?

In case you are wondering what an 1879 Fitz Globe might cost today should you find one, I checked. I found one at Bonhams (an online auction house) that sold for $4,375 (U.S.) in Oct. 2014.

 


Sources:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr133.html
http://maps.bpl.org/id/m8671
http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22247/lot/26/ 

Copyright 2015 © Sharon Marie Himsl