Select mechanical exercises : shewing how to construct different clocks, orreries, and sun-dials, on plain and easy principles : with several miscellaneous articles, and new tables ... : to which is prefixed, a short account of the life of the author
Select Mechanical Exercises, a 1773 London handbook by the Scottish lecturer James Ferguson, with an added life of the author, teaching readers to build clocks, orreries and sundials from simple principles. The first picture is a large engraved dial plate with Roman numerals around its edge and faint construction circles, and the second is a decorative lattice border with a small ornamental head, which together suggest clean geometric layout and ornamental rules a designer could borrow.
