A 400-12 months-Outdated Ring that Unfolds to Monitor the Actions of the Heavens

Rings with a dis­creet twin pur­pose have been in use since earlier than the com­mon period, when Han­ni­bal, fac­ing additional­di­tion, alleged­ly ingest­ed the poi­son he saved secret­ed behind a gem­stone on his fin­ger. (Newer­ly, poi­son rings gave rise to a pop­u­lar Recreation of Thrones fan the­o­ry…)

Vic­to­ri­ans pre­vent­ed their most shut­ly saved secrets and techniques—illicit love let­ters, per­haps? Final wills and testaments?—from falling into the incorrect palms by put on­ing the keys to the field­es con­tain­ing this stuff con­cealed in signet rings and oth­er state­ment-type items.

A tiny con­cealed blade may very well be deadly on the fin­ger of a talented (and little doubt, beau­ti­ful) assas­sin. As of late, they is likely to be used to col­lect a bit of 1’s assault­er’s DNA.

Enter the fic­tion­al world of James Bond, and also you’ll discover a num­ber of helpful dandy spy rings includ­ing one which dou­bles as a cam­period, and anoth­er capa­ble of shat­ter­ing bul­let­proof glass with a sin­gle twist.

Armil­lary sphere rings like those in the British Muse­um’s col­lec­tion and the Swedish His­tor­i­cal Muse­um (high) serve a extra benign pur­pose. Fold­ed togeth­er, the two-part out­er hoop and three inte­ri­or hoops give the illu­sion of a sim­ple gold band. Slipped off the wearer’s fin­ger, they will fan out right into a phys­i­cal mod­el of celes­tial lon­gi­tude and lat­i­tude.

Artwork his­to­ri­an Jes­si­ca Stew­artwork writes that within the seventeenth cen­tu­ry, rings such because the above spec­i­males had been “utilized by astronomers to review and make cal­cu­la­tions. These items of jew­el­ry had been con­sid­ered tokens of knowl­edge. Inscrip­tions or zodi­ac sym­bols had been usually used as dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments on the bands.”

The armil­lary sphere rings within the British Museum’s col­lec­tion are fabricated from a tender high-alloy gold.

Jew­el­ry-lov­ing mod­ern astronomers search­ing an old-fashioned fin­ger-based cal­cu­la­tion device that actual­ly works can order armil­lary sphere rings from Brook­lyn-based design­er Black Adept.

Word: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this publish appeared on our web site in 2021.

Relat­ed Con­tent: 

A Sixteenth-Cen­tu­ry Astron­o­my Guide Fea­tured “Ana­log Com­put­ers” to Cal­cu­late the Form of the Moon, the Posi­tion of the Solar, and Extra

When Astronomer Johannes Kepler Wrote the First Work of Sci­ence Fic­tion, The Dream (1609)

The Rem­brandt Guide Bracelet: Behold a Func­tion­al Bracelet Fea­tur­ing 1400 Rem­brandt Draw­ings

Behold the Astro­nom­icum Cae­sareum, “Per­haps the Most Beau­ti­ful Sci­en­tif­ic Guide Ever Print­ed” (1540)

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an writer, illus­tra­tor, the­ater mak­er and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist in New York Metropolis.