Betts’s Portable Globe: Old World Innovation

Invented by John Betts, the Betts’s Portable Globe (a.k.a. Betts Patent Portable Globe) is a collapsible globe that operates somewhat like an umbrella. The Betts’s Globe is a printed fabric sphere stretched over a wire frame with a rod running through the poles. The operator expands and collapses the globe using a locking cylindrical brace located at the South Pole. When not in use, the globe folds down to a convenient, portable size and shape; however, the true value of the Betts’s Portable Globe is found in its uniqueness. The Betts’s Portable Globe is a truly unusual piece that demonstrates the charming innovation of the mid-19th Century.