"It was on the terrace of the tower that the Chinese astronomers had set
their instruments, and though few in number they occupied the whole area.
But Father Verbiest, the Director of the Observatory, considering them
useless for astronomical observation, persuaded the Emperor to let them be
removed, to make way for several instruments of his own construction. The
instruments set aside by the European astronomers are still in a hall
adjoining the tower, buried in dust and oblivion; and we saw them only
through a grated window. They appeared to us to be very large and well
cast, in form approaching our astronomical circles; that is all that we
could make out. There was, however, thrown into a back yard by itself, a
celestial globe of bronze, of about 3 feet in diameter. Of this we were
able to take a nearer view. Its form was somewhat oval; the divisions by
no means exact, and the whole work coarse enough.
"Besides this in a lower hall they had established a gnomon.... This
observatory, not worthy of much consideration for its ancient instruments,
much less for its situation, its form, or its construction, is now
enriched by several bronze instruments which Father Verbiest has placed
there. These are large, well cast, adorned in every case with figures of
dragons," etc. He then proceeds to describe them:
"(1). Armillary Zodiacal Sphere of 6 feet diameter. This sphere reposes on
the heads of four dragons, the bodies of which after various convolutions
come to rest upon the extremities of two brazen beams forming a cross, and
thus bear the entire weight of the instrument. These dragons ... are
represented according to the notion the Chinese form of them, enveloped in
clouds, covered above the horns with long hair, with a tufted beard on the
lower jaw, flaming eyes, long sharp teeth, the gaping throat ever vomiting
a torrent of fire. Four lion-cubs of the same material bear the ends of
the cross beams, and the heads of these are raised or depressed by means
of attached screws, according to what is required. The circles are divided
on both exterior and interior surface into 360 degrees; each degree into
60 minutes by transverse lines, and the minutes into sections of 10
seconds each by the sight-edge[2] applied to them."
Of Verbiest's other instruments we need give only the names: (2)
Equinoxial Sphere, 6 feet diameter. (3) Azimuthal Horizon, same diam. (4)
Great Quadrant, of 6 feet radius. (5) Sextant of about 8 feet radius. (6)
Celestial Globe of 6 feet diameter.
As Lecomte gives no details of the old instruments which he saw through a
grating, and as the description of this zodiacal sphere (No. 1)
corresponds in some of its main features with that represented in the
photograph, I could not but recognize the possibility that this
instrument of Verbiest's had for some reason or other been removed from
the Terrace, and that the photograph might therefore possibly not be a
representation of one of the ancient instruments displaced by him.[3]
