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BEHIND THE BRAND
Terrella (Latin for "little earth")
A terrella is a small magnetised model ball representing the Earth. To be able to recreate the effects of the Aurora Borealis for demonstration purposes.
The term terrella is first found in William Gilbert’s book De Magnete, published in 1600. Gilbert described the Earth as a large magnet and made small spheres out of lodestones to demonstrate the effects of terrestrial magnetism. Later in the century, around 1660, Otto von Guericke made a small sphere from sulphur, which could attract dust and small particles by static electricity, in order to model the attractive effects of the Earth’s gravitation.
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