1712: The English clockmaker George Graham (1673-1751) produced two models of the Earth-moon system in the year 1704. It was a construction of arms and balls and gears, run by a precise clockwork. The moon revolved around the Earth, while the Earth spinned around its own axis, and both encircled outwards the sun. The Earth typically took about ten minutes to go round once. Graham gave his first model to the instrument maker John Rowley (1665-1728) in Ireland, to make a copy for Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery. The latter had a large collection of such toys. His passion was subject to an article in a local newspaper, so, these mechanical systems of the solar system were named after the Earl and became widely known as "Orreries".

The orrery became a popular amusement and teaching device; no progressive educational establishment was without one. Usually they are not built to scale. A special case of an orrery is the tellurion. It depicts how day, night and the seasons are caused by the movement of the Earth on its axis and around the sun. Another modification is a lunarium. It considers the moon phases and the inclination of its orbit against the ecliptic, such that it can be used for eclipses. All such devices (including Jovilabiums) were also understood as "planetariums" as a generic term in the 18th century.