Re: Finding GB patents (off list)
Diese Nachricht wurde eingewickelt um DMARC-kompatibel zu sein. Die eigentliche Nachricht steht dadurch in einem Anhang. This message was wrapped to be DMARC compliant. The actual message text is therefore in an attachment.--- Begin Message --- Good morning on the last day of 2023. Many thanks to those who responded with suggestions about finding early GB patents. Although excellent, they did not help me with either my specific problem, or the more general one of the almost impenetrable opacity of the GB IP Office. So I'm still looking for a professional searcher. Ah well, that's next year's problem! I wish everyone happiness and sunny skies in 2024, and I hope that it's somewhat better than the appalling turmoil of 2023. Cheers, John. Dr John Pickard. On 02-December-2023 19:15, John Pickard wrote: Good afternoon, As part of my research into the history of Australian rural fences (I said it was off-list!), I am trying to get copies of GB patents for fence-related items. Although I am pretty good at searching, I find GB patents the most difficult to find. Espacenet picks up some, but only a fraction of the many that I am certain exist. Many GB iron-makers manufactured a range of posts etc. and many were exported to Australia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I need the patents to finish a book I am compiling on Australian fence posts and droppers to complement my 2022 book "Australian wire strainers". My specific question: can anyone suggest the name of a company / sole trader who searches for GB patents? I'm quite happy to pay a reasonable amount in return for a complete set of PDFs of GB patents which match my keywords (fenc*, wire, post, strainer, etc.) in either the titles or specifications. I also have names of many of the patentees marked on various posts etc. manufactured in GB, or listed in catalogues. Any suggestions would be most welcome! Many thanks, John Dr John Pickard www.australianfencepublishing.com.au --- End Message --- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Finding GB patents (off list)
Diese Nachricht wurde eingewickelt um DMARC-kompatibel zu sein. Die eigentliche Nachricht steht dadurch in einem Anhang. This message was wrapped to be DMARC compliant. The actual message text is therefore in an attachment.--- Begin Message --- Good afternoon, As part of my research into the history of Australian rural fences (I said it was off-list!), I am trying to get copies of GB patents for fence-related items. Although I am pretty good at searching, I find GB patents the most difficult to find. Espacenet picks up some, but only a fraction of the many that I am certain exist. Many GB iron-makers manufactured a range of posts etc. and many were exported to Australia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I need the patents to finish a book I am compiling on Australian fence posts and droppers to complement my 2022 book "Australian wire strainers". My specific question: can anyone suggest the name of a company / sole trader who searches for GB patents? I'm quite happy to pay a reasonable amount in return for a complete set of PDFs of GB patents which match my keywords (fenc*, wire, post, strainer, etc.) in either the titles or specifications. I also have names of many of the patentees marked on various posts etc. manufactured in GB, or listed in catalogues. Any suggestions would be most welcome! Many thanks, John Dr John Pickard www.australianfencepublishing.com.au --- End Message --- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Auction of potential interest
Diese Nachricht wurde eingewickelt um DMARC-kompatibel zu sein. Die eigentliche Nachricht steht dadurch in einem Anhang. This message was wrapped to be DMARC compliant. The actual message text is therefore in an attachment.--- Begin Message --- Good evening, There are many items of potential interest to list members in the catalogues of an auction coming up in Melbourne, Australia at 1100 h AEST, 8 July. https://www.gibsonsauctions.com.au/auction/australian-maritime-natural-history-2 -- Cheers, John. Dr John Pickard. --- End Message --- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: No more leap seconds!
Sorry Steve, I sent my post before seeing yours. -- Cheers, John. Dr John Pickard. On 21-November-2022 14:56, Steve Lelievre wrote: Apparently the Powers That Be have officially decided that Clock Time is right and Solar Time is wrong. Or to put it another way, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures has voted to stop using Leap Seconds by by 2035. However, an IBWM representative said "the connection between UTC and the rotation of the Earth is not lost [...] Nothing will change [for the public]" which apparently means we'll have less frequent adjustments instead (leap minutes?). https://phys.org/news/2022-11-global-timekeepers-vote-scrap.html Steve --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Leap seconds
Good evening, I doubt it will affect dials very much, especially the EoT, ... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/18/do-not-adjust-your-clock-scientists-call-time-on-the-leap-second -- Cheers, John. Dr John Pickard. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Sun elevation tool
Good morning, Has anyone come across this dial-related device? https://picclick.co.uk/ARCHITECT-TOOL-Window-SUNLIGHT-SUN-ELEVATION-Enraf-144741549298.html Cheers, John. Dr John Pickard. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
The gift that keeps on giving: the Antikythera mechanism
Greetings from a very chilly Sydney, This may be of interest ... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-14/archaeologists-explore-mysteries-of-the-antikythera-shipwreck/101310786 Cheers, John Dr John Pickard --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Metal gnomons
Hi Dan, This book may not answer your question, but it may give you some ideas on how to achieve patination on your gnomon. Richard Hughes & Michael Rowe (1991) The colouring, bronzing and patination of metals. Thames and Hudson, London. ISBN 0500015015. The subtitle describes the contents: "A manual for fine metalworkers, sculptors and designers. Cast bronze, cast brass, copper and copper-plate, gilding metal, sheet yellow brass, silver and silver-plate." Cheers, John Dr John Pickard On 01-May-2022 01:55, Dan-George Uza wrote: Hi, Iron rusts and brass changes color, but what about different metals used as gnomons, pros & cons? What would be the appropriate choice of material for a replica of an 18th century cubical multiple sundial? It should ideally come as an industrial sheet ready for cutting and also not stain the limestone face. I like the metal in the attached photo (Sundial Atlas CH 000247). Do you know what it is? Thanks, Dan Uza --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Library of sundial-related books for sale to list members in Australia
Greetings, Due to an impending need to down-size my home, and a shift in my interests, I have reluctantly decided to dispose of my library of seventy (70) sundial-related books accumulated over the last 30-odd years. The library includes both old classics (e.g. Stone, E. (1758) /The construction and principal uses of mathematical instrument. Translated from the French of M. Bion, … /Facsimile edition 1972, The Holland Press Ltd, London) and new classics (e.g. Schechner, S.J. (2019) /Time of our lives. Sundials of the Adler Planetarium/. Adler Planetarium, Chicago.) With few exceptions, the books are in excellent condition with original binding. A very few are bound photocopies. I'm not sure what the library would cost to assemble today, but it would probably exceed $AUD1,000, and some of the titles are now out-of-print and impossible to find. Rather than fiddling around selling them individually on eBay etc, I'd prefer that they went en-bloc to a sundial enthusiast, such as a list member. Consequently, I am offering the lot to a list member living in Australia. There's only three conditions: 1. Price is $AUD300 for the lot. 2. NO cherry picking. Take the lot, or take none. 3. Whoever gets the books pays for any transport / freight costs. Alternatively, they can be collected from northern Sydney (supply your own cartons!) Please contact me off-list for a complete list of the books. Cheers, John Dr John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Impact of making instruments out of boxwood
Good morning, This is purely a curiosity question. Box wood was favoured for rules and instruments for centuries when ivory was either too expensive or not available for some reason. Given the number of rules etc. made from box wood, I would expect some contemporary concern about the reduction in the number of trees available. My questions: 1. Where did all the box wood come from? 2. Was there ever a shortage? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Messages without a subject are SPAM
Good morning, PLEASE include a subject in your emails. It's what is known as "courtesy", and it stops potentially interesting messages going straight to my Junk Folder as spam where they are automatically deleted. Put another way: if you are too lazy to include a subject, why should I waste my time opening it? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Circular Spreadsheet Software PS
Hi Simon, You are not the only one who loathes this “helpful” feature. I almost threw my Samsung Android phone against a wall and jumped on it in sheer frustration at the moronic “I’m here to help you” auto spelling correction. I was spending as much time correcting their so-called correction as I was typing in text. On my (almost antique) Galaxy IV, the feature is called “XT9 Predictive Text” described in the manual as: “XT9 is a predictive text system that has next-letter prediction and regional error correction, which compensates for users pressing the wrong keys on QWERTY keyboards. Note: XT9 is only available when ABC mode is selected. XT9 advanced settings are available only if the XT9 field has been selected.” I forget exactly where this is, but it’s hidden somewhere. When you find it and turn it off, your blood pressure will be considerably healthier. There’s an extraordinary arrogance from the OS designers who assume that the user is wrong, and axiomatically, the OS is right. Why don’t these people just accept that I can actually spell, and I know what word I want to use. I neither need not want some bloody machine telling me what I’m thinking. Get the hell out of my life! On a similar vein, Bill bloody Gates decided that dates in Word 2007 MUST fit his favourite format, and there is no way to turn off this “helpful” feature. AGH! I loathe auto-correct in all its manifestations, and I never use it. Sometimes I wish these programs came with options that allowed people with IQs larger than their shoe sizes to turn off all this unnecessary crap. Live in hope, ... Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com From: illustratingshad...@gmail.com Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2017 10:34 AM To: Steve Lelievre ; graham stapleton Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Circular Spreadsheet Software PS I have given up on my Android spell check, sorry for typos. I am beginning to long for the days of the Creed 7B teleprinters, at least they didn't "correct" spelling. Simon Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: An interesting piece of timekeeping
Thanks for the URL Jim, What an amazing piece of technology! Stunning. I’d love to see a large version, about 30 cm in diameter so that the inner guts are easier to see. It’s certainly a tribute to modern machining and manufacturing. It makes the Apple watches look like a piece of disposable plastic. I was so impressed that I was getting ready to sell my two wonderful grand-kids into white slavery to cover a cheque to buy one. But then I realised that it only has the celestial chart for the Northern Hemisphere. Not much use here in Sydney, so it looks like my grand-kids are safe for a while longer. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com From: J. Tallman Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 1:42 PM To: Sundial Mailing List Subject: An interesting piece of timekeeping It is not a sundial, but interesting nonetheless: http://www.ablogtowatch.com/vacheron-constantin-les-cabinotiers-celestia-astronomical-grand-complication-3600-watch/ It is quite a feast for the eyes, and the mind...and if you have a spare million lying around, it could be yours! Best, Jim Tallman Artisan Industrials www.artisanindustrials.com www.spectrasundial.com jtall...@artisanindustrials.com 513-253-5497 --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Astronomy Picture of the Day (Again)
Thanks Bob. What a fabulous video, and the analemma sequences are amazing. First time I’ve seen it like this. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com >From a rather cloudy Sydney, but at least it’s now summer. Roll on hot days. >Although I shouldn’t say that too loudly. We had the warmest December night on >record a week or so ago. Looks like it will be a long, very hot summer with >lots of bush fires. From: Robert Terwilliger Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 12:43 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Astronomy Picture of the Day (Again) This is a good one! Traces of the Sun http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161221.html Bob --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Permanent DST
Hi Douglas, In the spirit of accuracy, I have to point out (very gently so as to not cause offence) that noon actually occurs when the sun is due NORTH. It is only the benighted people who are forced to live in the northern hemisphere who persist with the belief of a southerly sun. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Sydney, Australia 33o 39.5’S 151o 06.4’E From: Douglas Bateman Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2016 5:31 AM To: Barbara and Augustine McCaffrey Cc: Sundial list Subject: Re: Permanent DST Dear Barbara and Augustine, I am flattered that you are following this dialogue, and I’m sure Frank is too. Frank wishes to wind up the discussion, and this can be my final, and personal, contribution. First of all, it is obvious that Frank is both happy to be a very early riser and is prepared to challenge any topic and any assumptions. For example the ‘effective day centred on 3pm’. If I rise very early in the summer, I may be enthralled by a sunrise or quiet dawn (and wonder if this is the best part of the day). However, I like to have 8 hours of sleep, AND enjoy long summer evenings, glass in hand. It follows that for most days, I am prepared to sacrifice the early hours, and therefore my day may run from 7am to 10 or 11pm. 3pm is therefore a nominal middle of the waking day. Society in the UK as a whole seems happy with this, and is the basic reason for daylight saving time. When winter approaches, the clocks are put back with many grumbles about the darker evenings. Without delving into accident statistics, it is obvious that the risks to school children walking or cycling home in the dark are increased. It is equally obvious that motorists driving home in the dark after a tiring day, and impatient to be home, increase the risks as well, both to themselves and others. I’m sure that these opinions, and similar, may have have caused some countries to adopt DST on a permanent basis. Ultimately we can define time to be whatever we want it to be, and even ignore the historical convention of noon when the sun is due south, even if this offends some of the sundial enthusiasts. Glad to know you have enjoyed the fun, even if there is a serious element. Best wishes, Doug --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Permanent DST
Hi Frank, I have to take issue with your notion that God (in her infinite wisdom) handed us a 24 hour clock. Why 24? Why not 29 just to have a prime number? Or the decimal 100 hours per day? Or perhaps a more logical 360 units per day? God may well have given us a daily rotation, but she didn't inflict the 24 hour subdivision on us, we did it to ourselves. A bit like the abomination that is the Imperial system of measurement. Cameras etc: I agree with you re the advantages of always using UTC, but I have other constraints that require me to use local time (whatever that is), and it's easier to change the time in the camera than do some post-processing. Getting out of bed: I'm sure that males past a certain age will agree with me that it's not the clock that gets us out of bed in the morning, regardless of DST being on or off! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: Frank King Sent: Monday, November 21, 2016 4:02 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Permanent DST Dear All, John Pickard notes... As a consequence in summer you can meet more than five different times in Australia which means that on a long trip you can spend a lot of time changing the clocks in cameras, etc. So why bother? The clock in my camera stays at UTC whether I am in Seattle, London or Hong Kong, whether DST is in force or not. Most of us in the southern states like DST ... and look forward to it at the end of winter. Equally, we don't like when it ends. That is probably true of most people in the U.K. but, in my view, they think that changing from DST "causes" dark evenings. Of course the funniest thing about DST are the arguments of opponents who seem to think that the 24 hour clock is some immutable thing handed down from the gods... Hang on a moment. Subject to a modicum of interpretation that is almost exactly my view... 24-hours is simply the mean time it takes the Earth to rotate relative to the sun. I don't care what time measurement system you use but this period IS handed down by the gods (or nature as I prefer to say). Still without caring what time system you use, we have a secondary problem of deciding on a reference point in the rotation to mark the end of one rotation and the start of the next. Two obvious reference points are sunrise and sunset. Even very low forms of life understand these times. Two less obvious reference points are noon and midnight, the instants of superior and inferior transit of the sun. All four reference points are given by nature (gods). That seems enough choice to me. the only thing that changes is the "time" you get out of bed. NO. NO. NO. The thing that changes is the definition that god-damn legislators decide to give to midnight. You can get out of bed whenever you wish on any day of the year so it is... UNNECESSARY TO TELL LIES ABOUT THE TIME? The arguments in favour of DST are all bogus in my view. A simple reductio ad absurdum proof will demonstrate this... Let us ACCEPT all the arguments in favour of DST. I have heard that there are fewer road accidents, that children are happier, the grass is greener and cows give more milk. Well, we can now look at a given time zone and, by this hypothesis, within that time zone, there should be fewer accidents in the west than in the east, and so on. This doesn't seem to happen. End of theory. Did you know that China uses ONE time zone for its 60-degree expanse of latitude? Are there fewer accidents in the west of China than in the east? No. In China they get out of bed at different clock times in different parts of the country but the clocks all say the same time (or should do). Good for China. I would go one better and have UTC worldwide. For an extreme BAD example take Iran. Iran has Daylight Saving [well on and off; it has it at the moment] but much of it is in the Tropics where the length of daylight doesn't change that much during the year. So what are you trying to save. MUCH worse than that... Iran is a seriously Muslim country and most people say their prayers five times a day. When the clocks change the whole pattern of the working day has to change because, by the clocks, the prayer times are shifted by an hour. Unlike when you get out of bed, you CAN'T change the prayer times. They are handed down by the gods! Remember what the Native American said when he heard about Daylight Saving: Only a white man could possibly believe that by cutting a foot off one end of a blanket and stitching it on to the other end you get a longer blanket. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Permanent DST
Hi Kevin, You have made my day with the Churchill quote. Brilliant. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com From: Kevin Karney Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2016 9:20 PM To: John Pickard Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Permanent DST Nothing much changes! UK Daylight Saving Bill - 1909 William Churchill, President of the Board of Trade … this Bill does not propose a change from Natural Time to Artificial Time, but only to substitute a convenient standard of Artificial Time for an inconvenient standard of Artificial Time … Kevin --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Permanent DST
Good morning from sunny Sydney, If you think that Europe has a problem with DST, you should try Australia which can only be described as a dog's breakfast. Queensland steadfastly refuses to go on DST because the extra couple of hours of daylight fades the curtains. Although we have a nominal three time zones (AEST, ACST, AWST) there are a couple of towns / villages with times artificially set to be outside the zones they live in. This was originally for commercial reasons, making it easier to do business in adjoining states. These days, such changes are pointless and unnecessary with the internet, but seem to be retained for no particular reason other than to be different. On top of this is DST in various states. As a consequence in summer you can meet more than five different times in Australia which means that on a long trip you can spend a lot of time changing the clocks in cameras, etc. Most of us in the southern states like DST (regardless of its effect on our curtains!) and look forward to it at the end of winter. Equally, we don't like when it ends. Of course the funniest thing about DST are the arguments of opponents who seem to think that the 24 hour clock is some immutable thing handed down from the gods, rather than a convenient human construct. And if you change the time, then the world as we all know it will come to a shuddering end. These people simply don't understand that the only thing that changes is the "time" you get out of bed. Although I mostly work from 0700 to 1800 or thereabouts, I have done fieldwork in Antarctica and Patagonia where we changed to later starts and finishes because of the extreme winds in the morning. Why start at 0700 and get hammered by wind all morning when you can start at 1200 (when the wind has died down), and work the same number of hours through the afternoon and evening relatively wind-free? So we had breakfast at 1100, hit the ice at 1200 and worked through until about 2200 with almost no wind. Of course, this is only really feasible in high latitudes in summer with very extended daylight hours. But it does show that "time" as shown on a clock face is often irrelevant. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: Isabella McFedries Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2016 4:02 PM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Permanent DST In message <cacouayqb2vmbu9l9tcs9bsv_yqmn-wsveul89cx9k9racyt...@mail.gmail.com> Dan-George Uza <cerculdest...@gmail.com> wrote: Dear group, We are witnessing a few interesting developments! After Turkey decided a few months ago to remain on Daylight Saving Time all year round, Hungary is now considering to do the same. http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/hungary-mulls-staying-on-daylight-saving-time-all-year-round/ If the measure passes, neighboring countries Hungary and Romania will share the same official time for half of the year although they are located in different time zones (CET and EET respectively). For eastern Hungary the sun sets at about 15:40 during winter, i.e more than an hour ahead of Paris, which shares its time zone. I'm wondering: aren't EU member states supposed to equally follow DST by law? Dan Uza Hi, Dan You are PARTLY correct - but (as I understand it), all EU member countries must CHANGE their clocks on the SAME date, although they still keep their individual Time-zones. For example, UK and Ireland are on GMT, whereas France/Germany are on CET, and countries such as Greece on CET + 1 hour. There are other examples of locations which are on PERMANENT 'Daylight Saving' time - for example here in Canada, the province of Saskatchewan should really be in the 'Mountain' zone (GMT-7), but always STAYS in the 'Central' zone (GMT-6) and so does NOT change its clocks twice a year. I am afraid that these things are always for the Politicians to decide! Sincerely, Isabella McFedries. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Christmas present?
Good morning, For those who have everything, here's a perfect Christmas present https://www.helios-sonnenuhren.de/en/helios-watch Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Terms to describe markings on dials (or other objects)
Good morning, As part of my research on wire strainers (tools used to tighten wire in fences) I am struggling with trying to find some generic terms to describe the markings (patent numbers, part numbers and other information) on the tools. My problem is that the markings are either "raised" (embossed) or "lowered" (engraved / stamped). The method of marking can be via casting, forging, or hand-stamping. What I am looking for is a generic term for the "lowered" markings. I have seen the word "debossed" as an antonym of "embossed", but it seems to be a neologism created specifically for this purpose. I'm trying to avoid using "cast", "forged" or "stamped" as these terms are all about the method of marking, not about the form of the markings. And both cast and forged markings can be either raised or lowered. This is not just an issue for me and the wire strainers I'm working on. Zillions of objects in museums have markings that need to be described, but I've been unable to find a suitable term to include in the "restricted vocabulary" I am developing for my work. I'm quite happy to use "raised" as a simple, clear and neutral (i.e. independent of the method or marking) term for any embossed markings, but I would welcome any suggestions for a similar generic term for markings that are below the surface. I've looked at various thesauri (pedant!), but so far I haven't found any terms that really works. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Using linkages to draw curves on sundials
Good morning all, Thanks to John Davis and Patrick Powers (and a reply off-list) for their suggestions. It is obvious that linkages have been used, but they are quite uncommon, suggesting that the traditional graphical / geometric delineation was simpler. But if you were intending to make a batch of dials, then some form of lay-out jig would be ideal if the effort of constructing the jig was less than marking out in the traditional way for each dial. Nomograms are one way of calculating the required angles etc., and have a rich history themselves. Two interesting papers on nomograms are by Doerfler: http://myreckonings.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/JournalArticle/The_Lost_Art_of_Nomography.pdf (1.3 MB) http://www.myreckonings.com/pynomo/CreatingNomogramsWithPynomo.pdf (2.8 MB) There's also a 1918 book by Joseph Lipka on Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/graphicalandmec04lipkgoog) (6.2 MB) I confess to not having much of a clue about the mathematics behind either the linkages or the nomograms, but I really like the way they work. Nomograms remind me of those wonderful analogue devices that many of us grew up with: slide rules. If you remember using a slide rule, then you probably also used meccano. And as Noel Ta’Bois demonstrated, meccano would be ideal for constructing linkages, but apparently Lego is now used for such prototyping (see the examples in the paper by Alexander Slocum that I sent earlier (http://web.mit.edu/2.75/fundamentals/FUNdaMENTALs%20Book%20pdf/FUNdaMENTALs%20Topic%204.PDF) (And I am still battling to understand the linkages in my wire strainers, and trying to calculate their mechanical advantage. I thought that this was a rather simple question, but it turned out to be a lot more complex than I thought. Oh well, life’s like that!) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Using linkages to draw curves on sundials
Good morning, While researching mechanisms of wire strainers used to tighten wires in fences, and trying to find the theoretical mechanical advantages of the different mechanisms, the first thing I learned was that "linkages" are the key to many of them. There's a whole branch of mechanics devoted to the theory of these things which involve a zillion combinations of pivots and links to achieve various purposes, usually to transmit motion in a specific manner. The best explanation I found was Slocum, A. (2008). Fundamentals of design. Topic 4. Linkages (http://web.mit.edu/2.75/fundamentals/FUNdaMENTALs%20Book%20pdf/FUNdaMENTALs%20Topic%204.PDF). 3.3 MB But my curiosity lead me further, to a more mathematical treatment. Unfortunately and for unknown reasons, the Jefferson Lab Library has removed the title page. Bizarre! I contacted the library and they gave me the full title etc. Svoboda, A. (1948). Computing mechanisms and linkages. MIT Radiation Laboratory Series, Volume 27. New York, McGraw-Hill. (https://www.jlab.org/ir/MITSeries/V27.PDF) (CAREFUL: 40.8 MB) Among other things, this book shows how you can use mechanical linkages of various forms to draw the curves of mathematical functions. And seeing that the curves on sundials are all defined by equations, I was wondering if anyone knows of any attempts to make a mechanical device of links and pivots specifically for generating sundial equations, and thus drawing sundials? It seems to be a feasible but complicated way of doing it, with some serious mathematics behind the linkages. I don't include sundial rulers in this, as they are not physically linked and pivotted. Similarly, I don't include CNC machining as this involves moving the tool / work using a pre-programmed series of x, y and z coordinates. And of course, 3-D printing is out. (And I still haven't figured out what sort of linkages are used in the wire strainers I'm studying!) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: smiling sundials & bridge
Good morning Fabio, What a lovely story about the bridge! Obviously different regimes on either side of the bridge who could not agree on which day of the week it is. Was the difference caused by the change from Julian to Gregorian calendars? This is the sort of thing that could easily happen today here in Australia where we are infested by small-minded politicians jealous of “state rights”. As an example, all of New South Wales uses Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) and Australian Eastern Summer Time (AEDT) except a small area around Broken Hill which is on Australian Central Standard Time (ACST). There are historical reasons for this, but given that AEST is used further west in both Queensland and Victoria, we have a nice anomaly. Will it change? Probably not, although there is no longer any good reason to continue with what is obviously silly. One (social) problem is that towns like Broken Hill like to be “different” just to be different! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com From: fabio.savian Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2016 9:22 PM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: smiling sundials & bridge I've just open a path, 'smiling sundials', on Sundial Atlas to collect this kind of sundials (www.sundialatlas.eu/atlas.php?sp=197), it contains 3 sundials, if you have others to report, they are welcome. In front to one of them, LT4 in Kaunas, Lithuania there is a bridge on the river Nemunas with a curious story (photos in LT4). During the XIX century it was believed the longest in the world, 13 days were needed to cross it. It depends by the two different calendars adopted in the discricts of the two sides :-) ciao Fabio Fabio Savian Inviato da Tablet Samsung.--- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Sam Goldwyn's 60th birthday sundial
Good morning, While wrapping some rubbish in an old newspaper (Sydney Morning Herald, March 26-27, 2016, p. 21), I noticed the following paragraph referring to some previous piece (which I don't have, but the context is clear). The piece comes from a section called "Column 8", and is generally occupied by quirky stories or paragraphs: "Regarding Sam Goldwyn's 60th birthday sundial ... I've heard a story that instead of the sundial being inscribed with 'Ars gratia artis' (Art for art's sake - the MGM motto), it read 'Ars gratia pecuniare' (Art for money's sake), and that apparently Goldwyn never noticed." (http://www.smh.com.au/comment/column-8/column-8-20160325-gnr1wj.html) There's a website devoted to the malapropisms attributed (rightly or wrongly) to Goldwyn, including a statement about sundials: Goldwyn walking in a garden. "What's that?" The gardener: "A sundial." Goldwyn: "What's it for?" The gardener: "It tells time by the sun." Goldwyn: "My God, what'll they think of next?" http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/goldwynisms_kanin.htm However the compiler adds a note about it's authenticity: "Does anyone believe that?" None of this gets me any closer to Goldwyn's birthday dial and its motto. My gut feeling is that anyone smart enough to run MGM for decades was surely smart enough to recognise that 'Ars gratia pecuniare' is not quite the same as 'Ars gratia artis', even if he couldn't read Latin. So I suspect that the altered motto is probably an urban myth. Can anyone confirm the motto on Goldwyn's dial? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Happy Nowruz!
Happy Nowruz!Hi Reinhold, What a nice email. I had no idea of Nowruz, and that Iranians like Chinese have a different New Year to us in the West. At least there is an astronomical basis for their year. However, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, I have to point out that the image contains an alarm clock in the right foreground, rather than a sundial ;-). I realise that it is off-topic, but do you have any idea about the significance of the two cats in the image? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com From: Reinhold Kriegler Sent: Friday, March 18, 2016 4:10 AM To: Sundial Mailing List ; Carpe Diem ML ; Gnomonicaitaliana Cc: Philippe Sauvageot Subject: Happy Nowruz! All My Dear Friends, Happy Nowruz. What is the Nowruz? Nowruz (Persian: نوروز, literally "New Day") is the name of the Iranian New Year, is celebrated by Iranian people worldwide as the beginning of the New Year. It has been celebrated for over 3,000 years in the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Nowruz is the day of the beginning of the spring occurs on March 21 or the previous. With best wishes from who forwarded this message from Younes Karimi Fardinpour & Narges Assarzadegan! Just in case you don't know the link about my Ottoman sundial: http://www.ta-dip.de/sonnenuhren/meine-sonnenuhren/ottomanische-sonnenuhr.html or this: http://www.ta-dip.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bilder/cf3c35583e62d617cb702f408accc5ef_K.R%20_Les%20marqueurs%20du%20midi.pdf * ** *** * ** *** Reinhold R. Kriegler Lat. 51,8390° N. Long. 12,25512° E. GMT +1 (DST +2) www.ta-dip.de http://www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das/r-e-i-n-h-o-l-d.html http://www.ta-dip.de/salon-der-astronomen/musik-im-salon-der-astronomen.html www.ta-dip.de/dies-und-das/das-b-a-u-h-a-u-s-museum-in-dessau-rosslau.html --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
It's still summer in Sydney (or is it?)
Good morning all (and especially those in the Northern Hemisphere still stuck in winter), The following letter appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald (Saturday 5 March 2016, p. 39) "Still summer in Sydney. It's hard not to be amused by the apparently genuine surprise expressed this past week - mainly by television weather presenters - at the high temperatures being recorded around the country 'in the first week of autumn'. I'm not sure which authority declared that autumn starts on March 1; however the change of seasons is an immutable astronomical event resulting from a shift in the earth's axis each three months on the two equinoxes and the two solstices, which coincide with the human invented calendar dates of (approximately) March and September 21; and June and December 21. So it has not been an amazingly hot start to "autumn'; it is still summer and will be for nearly three more weeks. Martyn Yeomans, St Ives." Relying on TV weather presenters for anything other than a forecast taken directly from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (in our case) is a bit silly. TV presenters are selected on their good looks (that's why I didn't make it!), laser-whitened teeth, and their ability to smile while talking under wet cement. They are never selected on their knowledge of anything. And yes, it is still summery here, temperatures in high 20s, wall-to-wall blue sky. Lovely! Cheers, John Dr John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com In a VERY sunny Sydney. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Scans of early dialling books (was Re: Horary machine)
Yes, some of the books scanned by Google lack the diagrams, or the fold-outs. But you can get many of these titles from Internet Archive, which a far easier place to start than Google Books. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Conserving historic stained glass
Good afternoon, At various times there's been discussion about stained glass dials. This recent ICOMOS book may be of interest. “Stained-glass: how to take care of a fragile heritage?”, Proceedings of 9th Forum for the conservation and technology of historic stained-glass is now available for order on the ICOMOS France website. Cost is €39 http://france.icomos.org/resources/library/0/bon_de_commande_VITRAIL_2015.pdf Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Antikythera mechanism
Thanks Bob, I guess there must be people around who have the necessary $202,020 (let's not forget the odd $20!), but I'd have to sell my beautiful grand-daughter into white slavery just to be able to afford a 10% deposit on it! And my son would definitely not approve. Looking at the rest of the site, the prices stop at $319, 680, and then become price on application. Obviously not aimed at me, but apparently some people have this sort of money, and the desire to spend it on a watch that probably isn't as accurate as the clock in a smart phone. But somehow I think that anyone who can afford to buy one of these isn't all that interested in telling the time with it. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: Robert Terwilliger Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 10:14 AM To: 'Dave Bell' ; tonylindi...@talktalk.net Cc: 'Sundial List Sundial List' Subject: RE: Antikythera mechanism ... and you cam get yours here: http://www.chrono24.com/en/hublot/masterpiece-mp-08-antikythera-sunmoon--id3 151158.htm Bob --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Emails with no subject
PLEASE include a subject in your posts. Like Roger Bailey, I delete them without reading. Apart from anything else (security etc.), it's just plain bad manners to send emails with no subject. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: sun.dials--- via sundial Sent: Friday, July 17, 2015 1:04 AM To: Sundial list --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: CHSI's new publication
Good morning Sara, Sounds like a great conclusion to a difficult project. I’d really like to get the PDF, but I don’t want to download iTunes to read it. I have more than enough software on my computer, and I’d prefer to read a PDF in Acrobat not in iTunes or some other program. Do you have any suggestions for getting the PDF without going through iTunes? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com From: Schechner, Sara Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2015 5:25 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: FW: CHSI's new publication Dear Sundial Enthusiasts, It is with great pleasure that I would like to bring to your attention this brand new publication from the CHSI. Two years ago we showcased an exhibition on time: Time Time Again: How Science and Culture Shape the Past, Present, and Future (http://chsi.harvard.edu/chsi_tta.html). Since the exhibition opened we had the idea of producing an eCatalog of the exhibition. It is with great pride that I announce today the completion of this task. I have to underscore the immense amount of work put into this project by three people: Sara Schechner, our Curator, who wrote all the texts and carefully edited the volume; Samantha van Gerbig, our photographer designer, who did the photography for the eBook; and Cira Louise Brown, who did all the programming, book design, and fixed all the bugs. It was a big endeavor, but the result is fantastic. The book is free to download in two versions: An iBook for your iPad (found on iTunes Book): https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/time-and-time-again/id977218203?mt=11 A pdf for your computer and other devices (found on iTunes U): https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/time-and-time-again/id1008852567?mt=10 Please download this book at your convenience and share the news! Again, congratulations to Sara, Sammie, and Cira. All best jfg Jean-François Gauvin, Ph.D. Director of Administration / Lecturer Harvard University | Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments 1 Oxford St, Science Center 371, Cambridge, MA 02138 Ph: 617.496-1021 | cell: 857.998-8523 gau...@fas.harvard.edu http://chsi.harvard.edu jfgauvin2008.wordpress.com Follow us on Twitter @harvardchsi Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harvardchsi --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Videos of Antikythera mechanism
Good morning, For anyone interested ... here are the URL’s for two long videos of the Computer History Museum seminar on the Antikythera mechanism. Session 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSh551cdIEY Session 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYxwnQZndTM Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Happy winter solstice!
Happy winter solstice to everyone! Now the days get longer, the weather gets warmer, and summer is one the way! (Except for all those stranded in the Northern Hemisphere, where you only have winter to look forward to.) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com (in a rather chilly Sydney, Australia) --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Aurora, the beginning of the arrival of Dawn
Hi Michael, You are making life far too complicated by worrying about which definition of sunrise to use for your assignation. Here in Australia, if you are invited by a young (or older) woman to view a sunrise from a beach, the only questions to be asked are “how much food and beer / wine do I bring?” and “are you bringing the picnic rug?” But we are now in grip of winter in Sydney, and only the truly brave (or those well fortified by alcohol anti-freeze) would venture to the beach in the vain hope of glimpsing the dawn through the clouds. I’m not too sure about using “aurora” in the context of dawn. I spent many hours lying in the snow in winter (~ –30C) in Antarctica looking up at auroras, and it’s something I’ve never forgotten. Whether rippling sheets of light, or shooting beams, they were pure magic. Far, far better than any sunrise. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Help with GB patent (off-topic)
Good evening, As part of my research I have been looking for patents of wire strainers used in fences. One GB patent has eluded me, and given the extraordinary range of knowledge and skills of list members, I am wondering if any one can help me. The patent is probably by Edward Allen Ironsides, before 1923, number 5513, probably with wire in the title. The only definite bit of information is British Patent 5513 embossed on the forged component. Despite considerable searching on all logical combinations of words and numbers in various formats, I got no relevant hits on Espacenet. I emailed the Business and IP Centre of the British Library, who are the experts in GB patents, but they were unable to find it. If any list member has unlocked some secret way into British patents, and can help me, please contact me off-list. Many thanks, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com From a cloudy Sydney, and about to get three or four days of rain. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Korean paper sundial
Fabulous dial Darek. Thanks. I think that even I could put it together, despite the instructions in Korean. Easier than Ikea. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Sunny Sydney, Australia. -Original Message- From: Darek Oczki Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2015 4:29 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Korean paper sundial Hello everyone I remember here a conversation about paper or cut-out sundials. This is what I just found: http://www.freefeelsoul.com/2014/04/15/paper-toy-scale-model-kit-kids-adult-scholas-paper-world-sundial/ -- Best regards Darek Oczki 52N 21E Warsaw, Poland GNOMONIKA.pl Sundials in Poland http://gnomonika.pl --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Telling time in outback Queensland in the early 20th century
Hi Rod, Short answer: no! Long answer: still no, but a bloke named Duane Hamacher (University of NSW) is the Australian guru on Aboriginal astronomy, and has published extensively on this. I haven't had time to trawl through his stuff to see what he says about telling time, but there may be something in his publications (http://www.nuragili.unsw.edu.au/profileduanehamacher.html) FYI, I have a paper in press refuting a suggestion by a local Aborigine that stone walls near Jindabyne (southern NSW) were erected by Aborigines as an astronomical alignment. They are dry stone walls erected as fences in difficult terrain. The European landowners may have used Aboriginal labour (paid a fraction of what whites were paid!), but there is no way that the walls are alignments. However, if you look at Hamacher's papers you'll find several which document stone arrangements which are astronomical. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: rodwall1234 Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2015 9:56 AM To: John Pickard ; sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Telling time in outback Queensland in the early 20th century Hi John, Thanks that is interesting. I have always though about how our Australian Aboriginals determined time. Do you have any information on that? Regards, Roderick Wall. John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com wrote: Good afternoon, List members may be interested in this account of how some boundary-riders in Queensland kept time in the early 1900s: Many boundary-riders do not even possess a watch, their only timekeepers being the sun and the stars. Some judge by the shadows. I saw one who had pegs stuck in the ground, at a radius of 10ft, all round a tree. There were ten of them standing exactly one hour apart, so that the shade, lying across the first at 8 a.m., would be on the last at 5 p.m. A swagman with a watch had camped with him one Sunday, and between then they had constructed this crude sun-dial. Once when passing a camp, I asked the boundary-ride the time, and was amused at the manner in which he obtained it. Taking a small twig, he broke it into two pieces about 3in long, and, holding his left hand palm upwards, he stood one piece between the second and third fingers, and the other between the third and fourth. Then, facing due north, he held his hand straight out before him and I noticed that the shadows of the twigs were just a trifle east of a direct north and south line 'Bout, 'alf-parst twelve, he said. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71523046 A boundary rider was a station employee who lived far from the homestead, and whose job it was to ride along fences to check for breaks in the wire, etc. Of course, telling the time with the 10-foot radius circle using the shadow of a tree would be as rough as guts (in the Australian vernacular), but it probably made little difference to the boundary rider. However, at least some early outback Australians understood the geometry of sundials. See my description of a dial made out of galvanised iron: Pickard, J. (1998). A 19th century vernacular horizontal sundial from outback Australia. British Sundial Society Bulletin 98(1): 26-29. Personally, I prefer using CIA-time via my GPSs. Not as much fun, but way more accurate. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Telling time in outback Queensland in the early 20th century
Good afternoon, List members may be interested in this account of how some boundary-riders in Queensland kept time in the early 1900s: Many boundary-riders do not even possess a watch, their only timekeepers being the sun and the stars. Some judge by the shadows. I saw one who had pegs stuck in the ground, at a radius of 10ft, all round a tree. There were ten of them standing exactly one hour apart, so that the shade, lying across the first at 8 a.m., would be on the last at 5 p.m. A swagman with a watch had camped with him one Sunday, and between then they had constructed this crude sun-dial. Once when passing a camp, I asked the boundary-ride the time, and was amused at the manner in which he obtained it. Taking a small twig, he broke it into two pieces about 3in long, and, holding his left hand palm upwards, he stood one piece between the second and third fingers, and the other between the third and fourth. Then, facing due north, he held his hand straight out before him and I noticed that the shadows of the twigs were just a trifle east of a direct north and south line 'Bout, 'alf-parst twelve, he said. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71523046 A boundary rider was a station employee who lived far from the homestead, and whose job it was to ride along fences to check for breaks in the wire, etc. Of course, telling the time with the 10-foot radius circle using the shadow of a tree would be as rough as guts (in the Australian vernacular), but it probably made little difference to the boundary rider. However, at least some early outback Australians understood the geometry of sundials. See my description of a dial made out of galvanised iron: Pickard, J. (1998). A 19th century vernacular horizontal sundial from outback Australia. British Sundial Society Bulletin 98(1): 26-29. Personally, I prefer using CIA-time via my GPSs. Not as much fun, but way more accurate. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Friday 13 and Friday 13
Good morning everyone, Many thanks for the replies to my (slightly trivial) question re Fri 13. I now have a better understanding of how to predict which days to stay in bed, avoid walking under ladders, and not kicking black cats! If nothing else, the replies show that dates are rather tricky things with some interesting mathematics behind them. Wouldn't it be simpler to move to decimal time and a decimal calendar? (NOT a serious question!) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: John Pickard Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2015 8:35 AM To: Sundial List Subject: Friday 13 and Friday 13 Good morning all, and a happy 2015 to everyone. Looking at my diary this morning, I noticed that 2015 is a bit unusual in having Friday 13 in consecutive months: February and March. Does anyone know how often this occurs, when was the last time, and when is the next time it will happen? (And no, I don't place any particular significance in the day!) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Friday 13 and Friday 13
Good morning all, and a happy 2015 to everyone. Looking at my diary this morning, I noticed that 2015 is a bit unusual in having Friday 13 in consecutive months: February and March. Does anyone know how often this occurs, when was the last time, and when is the next time it will happen? (And no, I don't place any particular significance in the day!) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
3D printers
Good morning, There was some discussion on the list a few months ago about 3D printers. One of the leading electronics stores in Australia is now selling DIY kits for a small 3D printer (Velleman K8200) for $AUD1300. It's a desk-top unit that purely by chance I saw in operation at the local library a day or so ago. http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=TL4020 More info on the kit: www.k8200.eu The max dimensions of printed objects is 200 x 200 x 200 mm, which would be too small for most outdoor dials, but could be ideal for prototyping portable dials (e.g. armillary spheres, ring dials, etc.) The printed resolution is: X and Y (wall thickness): 0.5 mm; Z: (layer thickness) 0.20 - 0.25 mm. Still not comparable to engraving, but an obvious harbinger of things to come. If we think about how digital cameras and smart phones now have amazing resolution, then most likely the resolution of these 3D printers will be much better in a couple of years. Software is Repetier: www.repetier.com I have no idea how you enter specifications for an object. I found no mention of CAD in my quick reading of material on the Repetier, so I guess that they have some other way of doing it. I have no doubt that similar printers are offered in most countries, and one would be a Christmas present! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Sundials of India
Thanks for the link Darek to a fascinating clip. I can't comment on the veracity of the interpretation, but it's obvious that the guide / narrator had no knowledge of the equation of time. Also the central axles do not appear to have a hole for a thin gnomon, so there's a bit of a problem about which side of the axle's shadow would be used. Every time I see carvings like those on the temple and the dial, I marvel at the sort of economy that could invest so many resources in erecting and decorating (not in a trivial sense) the buildings. Master craftsmen at work for decades / centuries. I'm sure that the relevant god was pleased at such devotion. Some of the videos on the right-hand side of the page are truly inspired with aliens responsible for many things. The people at Phenomenal Travel Videos obviously don't know much about science. And reading through the comments makes me despair at how easily people accept the sort of rubbish being peddled by PTV. A sad indictment of education systems that people are so quick to accept aliens and gods rather than natural phenomena as causes. A lovely example is Krishna's Butter Ball. There is little mystery about it that can't be explained by resolving vectors and adding in a bit of friction. The shape is classic granite weathering along orthogonal joints to produce an almost spherical shape. But as we have quite a few balancing rocks in Australia, I guess that Krishna visited here as well as the many other parts of the world where balancing rocks occur on granite. Think of the frequent flier miles! How about a simpler explanation for most of this stuff: we just don't know how these things were made! But why admit this when e.g. Von Danniken made a lot of money peddling the same rubbish. I hasten to add that we have the same sort of thing in Australia with people claiming that carvings made in the 1960s (and documented as such) are described as Egyptian hieroglyphics from 4,000 y ago. And there are ley lines running from the site to the Nazca lines in Peru. (If anyone wants to waste their time reading this rubbish, Google Bambara and hieroglyphics. There are hundreds of web sites devoted to proving the arrival of Egyptians, Phoenicians and aliens in Australia.) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: Darek Oczki Sent: Monday, December 01, 2014 10:38 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Sundials of India Hello All I am very much interested in ancient India. Let's call it Vedic times. Does anyone here have any knowledge about time measuring of that period? And I do not mean Jantar Mantar observatories but rather times much much prior to that. Someone just sent me this Youtube video about a sundial of Konark temple. I wonder it there is any real science behind what they say. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9RF9lLBIMs -- Best regards Darek Oczki 52N 21E Warsaw, Poland GNOMONIKA.pl Sundials in Poland http://gnomonika.pl --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Offer of Heinz Schumacher books (#1 and #3 only) FREE to an AUSTRALIAN list member
Good morning all, The recent discussion about Heinz Schumacher prompted me to examine my book shelves, because I remembered buying two of his books (volumes 1 and 3 only) while visiting the fabulous Deutsches Museum many years ago to look at the scientific instruments. As my German never progressed beyond bitte and danke, I was never able to read them. Apart from some dust staining on top margins, the books are in mint condition. FREE OFFER TO AUSTRALIAN LIST MEMBERS First person in Australia to email me with a postal address gets the books FREE (no catch, no hidden clauses, no core election promises, ...). I'll pay the postage. My apologies to members in other countries, but us Aussies have to stick together. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Silver Jubilee edition, BSS Bulletin
Good morning all, Thanks to the miracles of snail mail, my copy of the Jubilee Edition of the BSS Bulleting landed in my mail box. Congratulations to the authors for the great articles, and the editors for a great job of putting it all together. John Carmichael's dial is truly worthy of the cover, but it's invidious to ignore the other modern dials shown in the various articles. And the detail of engraving in early dials. Sundials may be well-and-truly dead technology, but they live and thrive in the 21st century. Somehow I doubt if iPads etc. will last as long! Many thanks to all concerned, John John Pickard In sunny (but crispy cold) Sydney, a week or so after the winter solstice, and dreaming of summer! --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: paperhenge
What a fantastic dial. It's brilliant Fabio! Just imagine the fun you could have making it with a 3-D printer. Cheers from a miserable, grey, cold, wet Sydney Australia John Dr John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Fabio nonvedolora fabio.sav...@nonvedolora.it wrote: = Hi all on sunday there was the ‘Festa delle Meridiane’ (sundial feast) in Aiello, a village in the NorthEast of Italy where there are 104 sundials and 2252 inhabitants. There also was a contest to vote for the new 4 sundials (the winner is IT11058, Sundial Atlas) and a stand of Orologi Solari (www.orologisolari.eu), the italian magazine about gnomonics. I prepared for them a paper display that I called paperhenge: it is an A1 paper sheet (594 x 841 mm or 25.5 x 36.1 in) with a solar compass in the middle, outlined for Aiello, and a layout to place 9 paper sundials, on a circle, from 120 E to 120 W, every 30°. The paper models are the n. 3 of Gnomolab -Sundial Atlas, working with a pinhole, printed with different background images, line colours, ecc. I draw the layout with Indesign and I got the executive pdf (6.3 MB) for digital print. I can easily adapt the layout for other place and event, if anyone is interested to paperhenge I’ll be glad to custom it. I attach an image, other photos are on Sundial Atlas to describe the event. The event is in menu ‘gnomonics’ ‘happenings’ choose in the right column ‘shows the events of the past’ choose ‘14a Festa delle Meridiane’ or click here: www.sundialatlas.eu/atlas.php?show=85 The ‘path’ with all the sundials is ‘le meridiane di Aiello’ ciao Fabio Fabio Savian fabio.sav...@nonvedolora.it www.nonvedolora.eu Paderno Dugnano, Milano, Italy 45° 34' 10'' N, 9° 10' 9'' E, GMT+1 (DST +2) --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Aussie hours til sunset dial
Thanks Jim, beautiful dial. I'd love my alma mater (Macquarie University in Sydney) to put up a dial. Hours to sunset: I use my good old ( 12 y) Garmin GPS and it tells me the time of sunset at my current position. Very useful when I am doing field work and thinking about when to find a campsite before sunset. Not quite the same! John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com J. Tallman jtall...@artisanindustrials.com wrote: = Hello All, I got a link today from a Spectra owner about a really big sundial project near him, and I thought some of you might be interested: http://hourstosunset.com/ Here is a pic that shows the aperture nodus: http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201302055408/arts-and-culture/new-shaun-tan-sundi al-marks-100-years-uwa They have a video available at the first site showing the scale of the thing and how the mosaic was installed, in numbered sections. Interesting! Best, Jim Tallman http://www.spectrasundial.com www.spectrasundial.com http://www.artisanindustrials.com www.artisanindustrials.com mailto:jtall...@artisanindustrials.com jtall...@artisanindustrials.com 513-253-5497 --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: 08:09:10 11/12/13
I couldn't agree more about the confusion Paul. But as an Australian, I find the US system close to an abomination. But the non-US system(s) will gradually fade as Bill Gates continues his inexorable Americanisation (i.e. bastardisation) of the English language, and people are too lazy or stupid to change the formats to e.g. Australian English and dates rather than accept his defaults. For many years I worked in a herbarium where we had plant collections going back to the 1700s. Dates were always given as day / month / year in an unambiguous format using roman numerals for month: 13.xi.2013. Because the collections covered several centuries, the year was never abbreviated to two digits. It's not just dates that are confusing, it's also time of day. I can only shake my head at Virgin Airlines which lists all the departure and arrival times on their website in 12-hour format, but uses 24-hour on the e-tickets. At least the new urban public transport timetables released in Sydney a few weeks ago have changed from 12-hour to 24-hour format. I have to confess to arriving at Sydney airport for a 6:30 flight, but when I tried to check-in, I was told it was only possible 4 hours before departure, and my flight was at 18:30! As Homer J. would say D'oh! Cheers, John Dr John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Sunclocks North America sunclock...@icloud.com wrote: = This has always been a pet peeve of mine! All of these differing date formats are confusing, as you can never really be sure which one people are using. Here in Canada, it's even worse because some people put the month first like in the USA and others put the day first and yet others put the year first! Nobody can be sure if something like 10/11/12 means October 11th 2012, November 10th 2012 or November 12th 2010! At least now that we're in 2013, some of that confusion is gone for the next 87 years. I think that the best way which everyone in the world understands is to start a four digit year: /mm/dd, and all the confusion goes away with the simple addition of two characters. Plus the dates can be easily sorted numerically. It's pretty much the only date format I ever use unless I spell out the month. Paul Ratto SunClocks North America --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: A prize for the worst 'non-dial', of the year?
Hi Anne, What a beautiful watch. I want one! Pity that it's eight months to my birthday. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: Anne Lennon Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 8:16 PM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: A prize for the worst 'non-dial', of the year? Dear John, If those sundial watches by Fossil are no longer available, then maybe this one (see attached photograph) might still be for sale. As you said, it could make a good 'conversation piece' at parties, although I think this version would be a bit more impressive! I do not have details of suppliers - but a good place to start might be Len Honey at Science Replicas, (in London). He sells a lot of similar sundial items, and a Google search can probably find him. If not, then I think Tony Moss could give you his contact details. Sincerely, Anne Lennon (Mrs). --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: A prize for the worst 'non-dial', of the year?
Hi David, No, it's certainly not the worst 'non-dial', it's actually a rather nice conversation piece. And it is obviously the birthday or christmas present to buy any dial enthusiast! I have one, and I described it to the Sundial List way back in 2002: *** Folks, I have never seen any mention on the List of a sundial watch I bought in Arizona in 1985 for $US 16.00. It is made by Fossil, a US maker of 1950s and 1960s memorabilia, and collectible watches. The latest are Harry Potter watches. I kid you not! I guess that the Tolkien watches will follow later this year. Fossil call it the Fossil Sundial. The part number is SD-7620. The dial is made of cast resin with the appearance of granite, with Roman numerals on the bezel, and considerably smaller Arabic numerals on the face. I haven't measured the gnomon angle, but it is less than 45 degrees. It comes with a rather nice leather band. All in all, not too bad for $16! When I saw it in 1985, I couldn't get my credit card out fast enough. Last year, out of curiosity, I visited a Fossil store in Sydney and I also looked at the Fossil web site (www.fossil.com) to see if they were still available. Short answer no. I have just checked the Fossil web site again, and the style is not listed. Of course, it is pretty useless in Australia, but it is fabulous at parties! ** If anyone would like to see images of the watch, and the packaging (complete with instructions), contact me off-list. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com -Original Message- From: David Andersson Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 7:25 AM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: A prize for the worst 'non-dial', of the year? Dear All, Can anyone give me information on the attached photograph - such as is it a genuine (but useless!) sun-watch, or if the whole picture is a 'spoof'? A 'body-building' friend sent it to me, today - he says it came from the website http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=152225673page=179 Instead of the Sawyer Dialling Prize (at NASS) - maybe this item could be awarded to the worst 'non-dial' design, which appears during the year! If it is a genuine commercially-available item, I might buy one as a joke. Regards, David Andersson. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: sundial Digest, Vol 85, Issue 28
C'mon John, Don't hold back, tell us what you really think! Lovely response that was warranted by the rather silly and quite rude post by Mr Senato. Of course, you realise that Mr Senato is just a troll getting cheap thrills by being offensive on the list. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: John Carmichael To: 'jim senato' ; sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 4:32 PM Subject: RE: sundial Digest, Vol 85, Issue 28 Hello Mr. Senato: Do we know you? I searched my inbox archive and see that you have only written one letter previously to the Sundial List back in 2011. In that letter you talk about FED EX and not sundials. See copy of your letter below. Let me respectfully clue you in on a few things. I have been on this mailing list for about 15 years I think, and as far as I know, there is no rule that we must only respond to the subject at hand. If this were the case, then no new subjects would ever appear. Often, several sundial-related subjects are discussed on the same day. However, since it is the Sundial List, most of us do try to limit our subjects to sundial related matter. My last letter was obviously about a sundial (a famous one by Tony Moss at that), and it included the best existing photos of that sundial as well as a photo of one of America's only stained glass sundials. It was NOT about a train set. I don't think I broke any Sundial List rules, and lots of people wrote to tell me they liked seeing the sundial photographs. The courteous thing for you to do would be to simply ignore letters that don't interest you. We all do that. But none of us EVER tells anyone on the list to shut up. How rude was that! Think before you type. Sincerely, that guy p.s. You might want to do a grammar and spelling check on your letters before you send them. I'd be embarrassed if I were you. They make you look ignorant and uneducated. Letter from Jim Senato sent on 10/29/1011 let these people know to call fedex next time why would you actually go as far as filling out a form call if you arent surewouldnt you know if you were tracking a package without filling out somethingtell them to use some common sense this is not a big threat -- Jim Senato Kansas City Personal Computers 7106 Larsen Shawnee, KS 66203 913 438 5272 John L. Carmichael Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson AZ 85718-4716 USA Tel: 520-6961709 Email: jlcarmich...@comcast.net My Websites: (business) Sundial Sculptures: http://www.sundialsculptures.com (educational) Chinook Trail Sundial: http://advanceassociates.com/Sundials/COSprings/ (educational) Earth Sky Equatorial Sundial: http://advanceassociates.com/Sundials/Earth-Sky_Dial/ (educational) My Painted Wall Sundial: http://www.advanceassociates.com/WallDial (educational) Painted Wall Sundials: http://advanceassociates.com/WallDial/PWS_Home.html (educational) Stained Glass Sundials: http://www.stainedglasssundials.com (educational) Sundial Cupolas, Towers Turrets: http://StainedGlassSundials.com/CupolaSundial/index.html From: sundial [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of jim senato Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2013 6:03 PM To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: sundial Digest, Vol 85, Issue 28 hi do you think we could get past this guys trainset? this is beginning to be a bit of a stretch for the subject at hand. On 1/24/2013 5:00 AM, sundial-requ...@uni-koeln.de wrote: Send sundial mailing list submissions to sundial@uni-koeln.de To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundialor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to sundial-requ...@uni-koeln.de You can reach the person managing the list at sundial-ow...@uni-koeln.de When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan Re: Contents of sundial digest... Today's Topics:1. Re: Man climbs Monumental Railway Sundial (Douglas Vogt) -- Message: 1Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:15:21 -0800 (PST)From: Douglas Vogt dbv...@yahoo.comTo: sundial@uni-koeln.de sundial@uni-koeln.deSubject: Re: Man climbs Monumental Railway SundialMessage-ID: 1359022521.82454.yahoomail...@web161303.mail.bf1.yahoo.comContent-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 That's rather neat. Of course the reason for the climb is the guy has no watch. Are there any plans for that sundial? It looks like something buildable on a small lathe - (a scale model of course!). From: John Carmichael jlcarmich...@comcast.netTo: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 11:52
Calculating azimuth of sunrise and sunset from present back 25, 000 years
Good evening on a chilly Winter Solstice in Sydney, As part of my research on fences, I need to calculate the azimuth of sunrise and sunset back to 25,000 y ago. The question arises from the disputed origins of some dry stone walls found in southern New South Wales. A local historian has suggested that they are an astronomical alignment built by Aborigines, but they were recorded as fences on survey plans in the late 19th C. The locations suggest to me that the walls were built as fences on terrain too steep for the log fences of the time. What I would like to is calculate the azimuths of sunrise and sunset at Winter Solstice back 25,000 y (about the length of time Aborigines occupied the area) in annual increments (or decrements to be pedantic!). I know that I can do this for any specific date in a number of excellent programs, but I don't relish the notion of that many calculations. Even if I increase the interval to 100 y, I would still have 250 calculations. My question is: does anyone know of a way of automating this to generate a table of the dates and the azimuth of sunrise and sunset? Many thanks, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Why are schools, across the world, 'banning' analemmatic sundials ?
Good morning Martina, I've been following the various replies, and I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed about stupid attempts to reduce risk to zero. We all have our favourite stories, but I think that these examples will top the list. I understand that one of the largest mining companies in the world (Rio Tinto Australia) is so concerned about risk that it has banned the use of scissors and electric staplers. I have never seen an electric stapler where you could hurt yourself unless you really wanted to. And as for scissors ...! But I fail to see how a painted or other analemmatic dial poses any sort of risk, even in the Australian sun. All primary schools here require kids to wear hats when in the playground, and I support this. After all, Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and hats make a big difference (I know from having numerous non-malignant growths removed from my face, ears and neck after decades of field work in deserts etc.) But analemmatic dials ...? I despair of the direction all this is headed. Cheers, John Martina Addiscott martina.addisc...@gmail.com wrote: Roughly one year ago, I had mentioned on this 'Mailing List' that our local Educational Authority would not permit us to install an interactive 'analemmatic' sundial on our school playground - since their opinion was that it was simply too dangerous, for children ! It now seems that other countries are 'banning' these, for similar Health and Safety reasons - which I think is totally ridiculous, and suggest that the general Sundial community should 'protest' to the people concerned, as otherwise we are in danger of losing the opportunity to have these interesting outdoor educational projects. I know that they are generally 'frowned-upon', by schools here in Britain - but it appears that Canadian and Australian schools have also decided, that these 'Human Sundials' cause too much trouble ! See the page at: www.sunclocks.com/pics/fs-007.htm#reconstituted If anyone might like to join me in a 'campaign', to stop sundials being discouraged by schools - then please get in touch with me by E-mail, or you could also contact me on my mobile: +44 7769561152. Should anyone have comments on this deplorable situation - then I would also appreciate your thoughts, direct to the 'Mailing List'. Sincerely, Martina Addiscott. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Astro Compass history (slightly off-list)
Good morning all, Sundials are a bit pointless in Sydney for the last few days. Almost never-ending cloud and rain, and the forecast for March is rain almost every day. Looks like La Nina is here to stay for a while. But it gives time for some reflection about the Astro Compass Mark II. 1. Does anyone know who actually designed the Mark II version? (Obviously not the same as who made it? as it was made in several countries under war-time contracts). Was it patented? 2. Which country adopted it first for military use? 3. Are there significant variations in production versions of the Mark II? The examples I've seen or handled (or are illustrated on the web) seem to be pretty much the same regardless of place of manufacture. (Perhaps a case of if you have a good design, stick with it, or more colloquially, if it ain't broke, don't fix it) 4. Has anyone seen any plans, illustrations, files etc. on the Mark I version which presumably came first? I am still chasing early records of the magnetic standard that was identified after my earlier post. I will report progress (when there is any!) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Question re Astro Compass mark II
Good morning, Thanks to Kevin Karney and David Pawley, my mysterious Astro Compass base has been identified. I LOVE the Sundial List! Looks like my deductions were right, but I had no idea that the base (which David Pawley told me is correctly called a standard) could be used for both a magnetic as well as an Astro Compass. I will not try to dismantle it! I will see if I can get some more information from the RAAF about the type of magnetic compass that was used in the standard. However, based on my past experiences with trying to get old information from the Australian military, I don't hold out much hope. Not a problem of security (after all, who cares about some compass made 50 y ago?), but of lost or destroyed files. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Proceedings for Future of UTC meeting
Good morning Frank, In the spirit of Christmas, I offer the following apocryphal story from Australia. A British Airways pilot approaching Darwin requested a time check from the control tower and was informed that at the third stroke, the time will be twenty thirty and thirty seconds Zulu ... beep beep beep A pilot from a local airline made a similar request and was told six o'clock in the morning, welcome to Darwin A private pilot from a remote cattle station also asked, and got the reply it's Saturday, mate, what are you doing out of bed so early?. For most of us, near enough is good enough. More seriously, it seems that a few pedants are driving this, and the Royal Institute of Navigation seems to have the right idea. Happy Christmas to all who observe it, and happy holidays to others. I'm still not sure how happy the holiday will be here. It's been rain, rain, and more rain for the last few days in Sydney, and more forecast. So much for my planned camping trip. Oh well. BTW, and linking time / date and Christmas: in his annual Christmas broadcast, the Archbishop of Sydney has made an impassioned plea for retention of BC / AD, and to eschew the secular adoption of BCE / CE. I wonder who will win this particular ideological battle? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Frank King frank.k...@cl.cam.ac.uk To: Rob Seaman sea...@noao.edu Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Friday, December 23, 2011 11:47 PM Subject: Re: Proceedings for Future of UTC meeting Dear Rob, No one seems to have responded to your message of 1 December in which you drew attention to: http://futureofutc.org/preprints Apart from the nice picture of the Prague clock this is rather heavy going! For lighter reading, I turned to the comments that were sent in from round the world: http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/futureofutc/preprints/18_AAS_11-668_Epilogue.pdf Numerous contributors familiar to readers of this mailing list sent in comments including: Tony Finch Rob Seaman Patrick Powers Frank King John Davis Christopher Daniel The summary showed that there were about 450 contributors of whom 76% were in favour of the status quo [keeping the leap second]. Two comments especially appealed to me: John Davis said: I (or my descendants) do not wish to have noon drift into the middle of the night. An anonymous contributor said: If you want a timescale with a constant offset from TAI, why not just use TAI? Many others said much the same less succinctly! The Royal Institute of Navigation seem to have been allowed the last words and say: In summary, making this change to UTC has a rather esoteric rationale, limited benefits and potentially significant costs. Unfortunately, the matter remains unresolved. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
BCE / CE versus BC / AD (was Proceedings for Future of UTC meeting )
Good morning Patrick, I realise this is a fraught topic, and one that could get out of hand, but ... As a geomorphologist working with archaeologists here in Australia and in southern Argentina, I'm quite used to working with radiometric dates, typically C-14 and other isotopes, plus other methods such as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Us geomorphologists tend to use Before Present or BP, and that is conventionally defined as pre-1954 when atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons began dropping a bunch of nuclides all over the place. Most Australian archaeologists use BP (in various combinations of corrected and uncorrected carbon dates depending on the context), but traditionally, European archaeologists tended to use AD and BC. I can envisage a date of 1200 y BP quite easily, but I struggle with 750 AD which is the equivalent. This is of course due to familiarity with BP. What I'm curious about is where did this push for BCE / CE come from? Who woke up one morning and said, no more AD / BC, it's gotta be CE / BCE? And why did they think / say that? And how did they get anyone to believe them? Why has it gathered momentum? Who / what organisation is actually pushing this? Is it just US political correctness gone totally feral, and being shoved down the throats of other societies and nations? Or worse, being slavishly adopted by people who should know better? While I don't accept the arguments (couched in very religious terms) of the Archbishop of Sydney for retaining BC / AD, I fail to see that BCE / CE is any better. So, who is pushing BCE / CE, and why? And why chose common era? What's common about it? Did someone start with a in the dictionary and go through words until they found something that was totally bland and inoffensive? Or was it more structured than that? As an aside, I confess that for quite a while I thought that CE stood for christian era! I haven't found a decent answer despite asking a lot of people. A final thought on bizarre units, and to show that I'm not a complete Aussie xenophobe ... there are three units used here by politicians and the morons in the media: Sydney Harbours ,olympic pools and football fields. A Sydney Harbour is the rather large volume of water in Sydney Harbour, but I have no idea how this is defined (how far up the estuary etc.), or even how big it is. I could look it up, but I refuse to do so! It is commonly used in comparative terms, e.g. during floods when the flow is described as equivalent to so many Sydney Harbours per day. Or the volume of water in some dam is described as so many Sydney Harbours. Talk about totally meaningless! An olympic pool is the volume of water in an olympic-size swimming pool, and again used to impress us citizens about something. The fact that an olympic pool contains 1 ML seems to escape these cretins, and ML is a unit of volume taught in schools, and is perfectly acceptable to most of the world's population (except in the US of course!). Those of us who despise this sort of dumbing-down refer to these units as sydharbs and olypols. And then we have football fields to describe area. Ho hum. There are four football codes in Australia: soccer (the round ball stuff for wannabe actors who love faking injury), rugby union (long ball, very English), rugby league (originally the working class form of the long ball game), and of course our home-grown Australian Rules football. As it happens the field size can vary considerably! Soccer, rugby union and rugby league pitches are rectangular, but aussie rules is +/- oval. So which code is being used? Yet in a country obsessed with house prices and thus the area of house blocks (square metres), we get this stuff on the news regularly. Still, if everyone adopted a single set of units, we would lose these wonderful cultural differences. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Patrick Powers To: sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Saturday, December 24, 2011 9:04 AM Subject: Re: Proceedings for Future of UTC meeting the Archbishop of Sydney has made an impassioned plea for retention of BC / AD, and to eschew the secular adoption of BCE / CE. I wonder who will win this particular ideological battle? He’s absolutely right of course and I hope the status quo is retained. The terms CE/BCE may be understood in the US and possibly Canada too but the ‘so called secular’ approach simply raises confusion in the rest of the world. I was a referee for the Institute of Physics for over 30 years on a specific topic of mass spectrometry instrumentation. At that time that encompassed those instruments used for carbon dating and I well recall a 2000 year discrepancy that was disclosed in one paper that arose from confusion between stating dates as Before the Current Era and Before the Common Era. Let the world retain what is understood. There is no need
Re: Alternative mapping sites
Good morning, For various parts of Australia, NearMap offers high-res imagery with amazing detail. They apparently take their own air photos, and for some areas, they have a time-series of earlier imagery. Home page: https://www.nearmap.com/welcome-new (log-in for personal use) Areas covered: http://files.nearmap.com/public/website/NearMap-PhotoMap-Coverage.pdf With the huge expansion of mining in Australia, their new coverage of mining areas in NW Western Australia is impressive. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Richard Mallett To: J. Tallman Cc: Sundial Mailing List Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 4:18 AM Subject: Re: Alternative mapping sites On 18/11/2011 17:02, J. Tallman wrote: Hello All, I've received a lot of gracious help from this list over the 13+ years I have belonged to it, so when I find something I think might be useful to list members I feel compelled to contribute. I'm still looking for alternative mapping/satellite photo sites in an effort to better serve my non-dialist Spectra customers who are not inclined to do remote declination shadow measurements for me. Today I found this one, and it has much more recent photography than Google Earth/Maps for the neighborhood I am seeking, but I still haven't found what I need. It may or may not be useful in all places, but I never heard of it before, so here you go: http://maps.nokia.com Again, if anyone knows of good alternative mapping sites to try when GE is lacking, constructive suggestions would be appreciated.and thank you to all those list members who have taken the time to help me with questions in the past - I appreciate it! Best, Jim Tallman www.spectrasundial.com www.artisanindustrials.com jtall...@artisanindustrials.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial I certainly like this one better than the other one. -- -- Richard Mallett Eaton Bray, Dunstable South Beds. UK -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Lunar Eclipse of 2011 Dec 10
Good evening everyone, I spoke too soon about Sydney being overcast for the lunar eclipse. For some reason the clouds pretty much cleared and the eclipse was just as predicted: an orange red disc. I know because I saw it on the TV news about 30 minutes ago. I was fast asleep at the time because I had believed the forecast! As a couple of the replies have said, we can predict some things better than others. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Lunar Eclipse of 2011 Dec 10
Hi Brad, The eclipse tonight (Sydney time) has made it to out national news, both on radio and TV. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-09/rain-may-spoil-blood-red-eclipse/3723564 Unfortunately, it's currently totally overcast, with no break expected. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com In cloudy northern Sydney (and with nothing worth watching on TV as a substitute for an eclipse) - Original Message - From: Brad Lufkin To: Sundial Mailing List Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2011 6:05 PM Subject: Lunar Eclipse of 2011 Dec 10 I thought some of you might be interested in the upcoming lunar eclipse on the 10th of this month. I've attached a diagram showing the regions of visibility of the eclipse. Brad -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Madeira Glory
Hi Roger, Fabulous image of the Glory. I've never seen one, but I can understand the power of it. In another guise, I also study landscapes, especially semi-arid. So your piccies were a double bonus for me. Many thanks, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Roger Bailey To: Sundial List Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 3:56 PM Subject: Madeira Glory Sometimes on this list we discuss other solar topics not directly associated with sundials. So let it be with the Glory phenomenon, a multiple rainbow halo around your shadow projected on clouds below. The Glory is also known as the Specter of the Brocken and is often observed from aircraft. The remarkable feature of this phenomenon is it is personal. Each person can observe their own Glory halo around their magnified shadow. Your walking shadow can have a halo. We recently observed our Glory hiking in Madeira. Here is a link to the pictures of the remarkable hike between the island's highest mountains. The show starts and ends with pictures of the Madeira Glory. https://picasaweb.google.com/rtbailey101/MadeiraGlory?authuser=0authkey=Gv1sRgCNio7PjTktOGSgfeat=directlink Enjoy Roger Bailey Walking Shadow Designs -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Sam Goldwyn story
Good afternoon Astro, The version I heard featured George Dubya Bush. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Sydney, Australia where it is currently raining. - Original Message - From: Astro To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011 5:23 PM Subject: Sam Goldwyn story I suppose most of you will have heard this funny story about movie producer Sam Goldwyn: Whilst strolling through a friend's garden Sam happened upon a sundial. Having never seen one before he asked his host what it was and, upon being told, replied whatever will they think of next?. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: a reverse sundial for the blind
Good morning Papa, While I realise that the point the watch at the sun etc. method is widely touted as a way of finding north, I ran a series of trials several years ago near Sydney (Australia, 34oS 151oE) and found that the accuracy is woeful to say the least. Even allowing for longitude offsets from our standard time meridian the error can be up to 30o off north, and varies through the year. While I didn't run the measurements for a full year, they were sufficient to tell me that the method is a borderline urban myth. When I have finished a bunch of other work that has priority, I will compile the results and publish them. Your final suggestion seems more appropriate for both the sighted and the blind: face the sun about mid-day and when your face is warm, you are looking more-or-less south in N Hemisphere, and north in S Hemisphere. Sure it is pretty rough, but it gets rid of the spurious accuracy of the watch method. Anyone interested in astronomy or sundials who has travelled to the other hemisphere has probably had the same experience as me: almost total disorientation because the sun is in the wrong place. I have spent over 60 years with the sun in the north (which is where it should be!), and when I travel to the N Hemisphere, I have to remind myself constantly that the sun is in the south, or I end up going the wrong way. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: byzmusic byzmu...@yahoo.com To: sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 11:43 PM Subject: a reverse sundial for the blind I have written the following small article to help the blind navigate using the position of the sun. But before it is published in a periodical for the blind, I would like to know if anyone could tell me if all my statements are scientifically correct. Thank you very much. Papa Ephraim Here's the article: Knowing which way is north can be very helpful when navigating in unfamiliar places. An easy trick to determine your orientation is to point the hour hand of your watch at the sun, and south will be halfway between it and 12:00 noon on your watch (or halfway between it and 1:00 when on daylight savings time). This method works even without a watch, as long as you know roughly what time it is so that you can imagine where the hour hand of a watch would be. It is a reverse sundial because instead of determining the time using the sun's position and a dial aligned north, north is determined using the sun's position and the time. In the Southern Hemisphere this method is inverted: Before pointing the hour hand of your watch at the sun, you need to flip your watch upside-down, so that the back side of your watch (which is usually touching your skin) is facing you. Then north (not south) will be halfway between the hour hand and 12:00 on your watch. This method is accurate enough for most practical purposes except in locations near the equator. One way to improve its accuracy is to adjust the calculation based on your longitude. Instead of finding the halfway point between 12:00 and the hour hand of the current time, subtract from the current time eight minutes for every degree longitude west you are located from the central meridian of your time zone. The central meridian in most places around the world is a multiple of fifteen (because there are twenty-four time zones in 360 degrees around the globe). For example, if you are in Tucson, Arizona, the longitude is 111 degrees west. This is six degrees west of the central meridian of Mountain Time Zone, which is located at 105 degrees west (a multiple of fifteen). Six times eight is forty-eight, so to determine south in Tucson it is necessary to imagine where the hour hand would be after subtracting forty-eight minutes from the current time, and then find the halfway poin! t between that imaginary hour hand and 12:00. If you are east of your time zone's central meridian, you add (instead of subtract) eight minutes for every degree longitude east of it you are located. A simple non-visual technique to find the sun's position precisely on a sunny day is to rotate until you feel the sun on your face. Then cover your face with your palm and gradually move it away from your face in the direction necessary to keep its cool shadow on your face. Once your arm is fully extended with your palm's shadow still on your face, you will know quite accurately where the sun is. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Digital ruler and protractor for use on computer screen
Good afternoon, A couple of people replied to my request for info on a screen ruler and protractor, offering specific code, or a link to software called MB-Ruler http://www.markus-bader.de/MB-Ruler/index.htm. Interestingly, an identical request to another list that I am on also came up with MB-Ruler. I've now had a look at it, and it's exactly what I wanted. Many thanks to all who replied to my original email. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Digital ruler and protractor for use on computer screen
Good morning all, I frequently want to set stuff up on my desktop (Windows XP), usually when I am rotating images, aligning things, or drawing diagrams, and I want to both measure lengths between things on the screen, and determine angles. More specifically, I'm looking for some (preferably free) software to download. There is a nice free screen ruler (Cool Ruler) from several sites (e.g. http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Other-Desktop-Enhancements/Cool-Ruler.shtml), but it only works vertically and horizontally. This doesn't help if the line or distance to be measure is sloping. The Digital Caliper from Iconico (http://www.iconico.com/caliper/) can be rotated, but it doesn't appear to actually display the angle. The full specs are at http://www.iconico.com/caliper/specs.aspx You can get a trial version (with very restricted capability) of a protractor (Screen Protractor 4.0) from http://www.iconico.com/protractor/, but as far as I can see, it only measures angles, and not distances along the legs, which makes it less than fully optimal for $USD30. Iconico have a couple of other measuring tools (each $USD30), and a bundled package for $USD75 (Screen Caliper, Screen Protractor and Screen Compass) (http://www.iconico.com/download.aspx?app=Caliper), but the website is a dog's breakfast, and there doesn't seem to be a link to a spec of what the package actually does or how it is integrated. What I'm after is a single tool which simultaneously measures angles and distances, and I don't see that this is what I get from Iconico for $75. I don't mind paying for software, but I would prefer that it actually does what I want, and as far as I can see, the Iconico package is not fully integrated into a single distance and angle tool, i.e. a protractor with two rotating arms. I realise that various programs have this sort of capability built in, but I want some stand-alone stuff that I can use with anything that appears on the screen. Does anyone have any suggestions? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Astronomical heritage
Good morning, I can't remember if this has been mentioned on the Sundial List before, but just in case ... ICOMOS and the IAU have prepared a joint thematic study of astronomical heritage and archaeoastronomy. http://www.astronomicalheritage.org/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=28Itemid=33 I must confess that I was unaware of the Australian site at Wurdi Youang in Victoria (Case study 4.3 in the ICOMOS-IAU book). Although I am reluctant to comment too much on the conclusions about alignments with equinoxes, stars, etc., I wonder about the effects of precession, etc. on the position of the celestial objects over thousands of years. Can anyone on the List who has better knowledge of this comment please? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Longitude grid vector file
Good morning Chris, At the severe risk of being on the receiving end of opprobrium from the Northern Hemisphere, your question is all wrong. Rather than asking do you want Australia to be visible, anyone in Australia would be asking why would you want Britain to be visible? Sorry, but I couldn't help myself! Now to remove my tongue from my cheek, and go out to enjoy the sun! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Beautiful Sydney, Australia where the waratahs are flowering in my backyard. I love spring! 30o 40'S 151o 06'E - Original Message - From: Chris Lusby Taylor To: Astrovisuals ; sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Monday, September 26, 2011 8:59 PM Subject: Re: Longitude grid vector file By a map of the earth do you mean a map that shows continents and so on? If so, do you want Australia to be visible? The grid you are after is extremely simple. Each longitude line is an ellipse, with major axis equal to the diameter of the overall map and minor axis equal to this multiplied by the sine of the longitude (assuming longitude 0 is the central north-south line on the map). One way to generate such ellipses is to create a circle, copy it 8 times and stretch/shrink each copy in the X direction only by the factor sin(10 degrees), sin(20 degrees) and so on respectively (0 degrees is trivial). Then select them all and align their centres. I don't know Illustrator, but imagine it takes less time to do this than to describe it. Hope this helps Chris 51.4N, 1.3W (i.e. Newbury, where we've just enjoyed the twenty-second annual Newbury British Sundial Society conference.) - Original Message - From: Astrovisuals To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Monday, September 26, 2011 8:34 AM Subject: Longitude grid vector file Does anyone have a map of the Earth, showing a full hemisphere with longitude lines spaced every ten degrees? I need the grid as a vector file to use with a Moon Map I am producing, so it has to be exact. Very difficult to find details about what shape the lines are, or how to generate them in a program like Illustrator! Any suggestions about this would be most welcome. Link shows the sort of Moon Map I am generating, with longitude lines. Thanks! http://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Moon_landing_map.jpg * David Widdowson, ASTROVISUALS, * * 6 Lind St, Strathmore, 3041, AUSTRALIA * Ph/fax: 61- (0)3 - 9379 5753 * EMAIL: mailto:m...@astrovisuals.com.au WEB: http://www.astrovisuals.com.au/ --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Flow of medieval glass
Good morning all, The (alleged) flow of glass in old windows is covered by Jearl Walker in his excellent The flying circus of physics 2nd edition, ISBN 978-0-471-76273-7 on p. 105. Walker provides a number of references on his website (http://www.flyingcircusofphysics.com/) (Click on link to Chap 2, and scroll down to item 2.57 Flow of medieval cathedral window glass). Here are the references listed by Walker. 2.57 Flow of medieval cathedral window glass This item is discussed in the book The Flying Circus of Physics, second edition, by Jearl Walker, published by John Wiley Sons, June 2006, The material here is located at www.flyingcircusofphysics.com and will be updated periodically. Comments References Dots ? through ??? indicate level of difficulty Journal reference style: author, title, journal, volume, pages (date) Book reference style: author, title, publisher, date, pages ? Newton, R. G., Fact or fiction? Can cold glass flow under its own weight and what happens to stained glass windows? Glass Technology, 37, No. 4, 143 (1996) ??? Zanotto, E. D., Do cathedral glasses flow? American Journal of Physics, 66, No. 5, 392-395 (May 1998) ??? Zanotto, E. D., and P. K. Gupta, Do cathedral glasses flow? --- Additional remarks, American Journal of Physics, 67, No. 3, 260-262 (March 1999) ??? Stokes, Y. M., Flowing windowpanes: fact or fiction? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A, 455, 2751-2756 (1999) ??? Stokes, Y. M., Flowing windowpanes: a comparison of Newtonian and Maxwell fluid models, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A, 456, 1861-1864 (2000) While I can't offer any professional opinion on the evidence for flow or urban myth, I have found Walker's book a great source of all sorts of arcane information fully supported by documentation. It's also a great source of information for high school physics etc. assignments! This is the sort of book that shows how science is completely integrated into society. It's a pity that such clear writing is not used in high schools to turn kids on to science and physics. After all, how many of them know that planes are kept in the air by Bernoulli's principle? And the same principle is responsible for sand dunes etc. (I guess I'm preaching to the converted in this sundial list!) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: facebook, anyone?
Hello Daniel, I was hoping this was the case, and you have reassured me. Thank you. I would be reluctant to quit this list as it is really so helpful. The recent emails on stone cutting demonstrate this. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: r...@infraroth.de To: john.pick...@bigpond.com; sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 10:11 PM Subject: Re: facebook, anyone? Hello all, just to clarify: No one was added automatically to any Facebook group. If someone has an interest in the Facebook group Gnomonica he or she actively has to call from within Facebook to be added to that group. Best regards - - Daniel, sundial mailing list --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: facebook, anyone?
MessageGood afternoon, Please count me out of any sundial group on Facebook. I do NOT want to be anyone's friend on Facebook. It's not that the people on this list are really great: well-mannered, considered replies to all sorts of questions from basic to arcane, informative, argumentative, helpful, ... You know what I mean. I consider you my extended sundial virtual friends, because you are at the other end of my keyboard via email. Simple, list-wide or personal, and SAFE. From everything I've seen and heard, Facebook is nothing short of toxic. Any program that by default invites any email contact to become a friend is a gross invasion of my privacy. Any program that doesn't allow you to delete information is to be avoided like the plague. Why give any information to Zuckerberg and Facebook so they can on-sell it for targeted advertising? Sorry folks, count me well and truly out, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Chinese sundials circa 1280
Good morning Sara, Definitely an interesting book. Prices vary somewhat: Springer 46 euro vs Amazon $USD 40 (or $AUD 62 vs $AUD 37). Guess where I ordered mine? I simply do not understand how this sort of price differential happens. Springer is well-known as being an expensive publisher, but it seems ridiculous that a bookshop (even one as big as Amazon) can sell the book about 50% cheaper. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Schechner, Sara To: sundial list Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 11:25 PM Subject: Chinese sundials circa 1280 Those interested in Chinese astronomy and sundials around 1280 might wish to consult: Nathan Sivin, Granting the Seasons: The Chinese Astronomical Reform of 1280, With a Study of Its Many Dimensions and a Translation of its Records (2009) http://www.springer.com/mathematics/history+of+mathematics/book/978-0-387-78955-2 I highly recommend this work. Sara Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D. David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Department of the History of Science, Harvard University Science Center 251c, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617-496-9542 | Fax: 617-496-5932 | sche...@fas.harvard.edu http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: time, off topic
Good afternoon Frank, Although I failed statistics as an undergraduate, I later became fairly good at it when I was involved in research. My memory seems to recall that the minimum number of samples for a reasonable approximation of a normal distribution was in the low twenties. But as I haven't had to worry about minimum sample numbers for a while (my current set is 5,000), I may well be incorrect on this. Doubtless someone else on this list will gently correct me! But would Fitzroy really have known much about statistical distributions? Perhaps more likely he was taking multiple backups, plus a few freebies? During my field work I have learnt the hard way about backups. A notebook computer completely died on me in the middle of outback Queensland, and I had to spend hours reloading Windows and essential software. Now I travel with two notebooks, two GPSs, etc. And this is for trips of only a few months. If I'd been Fitzroy on a research voyage of several years, I'd have made very sure I wasn't going to have chronometer problems Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Frank Evans frankev...@zooplankton.co.uk To: Sundial sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 6:51 PM Subject: time, off topic During Darwin's famous voyage aboard the Beagle, Captain Fitzroy had 22 chronometers aboard, no doubt to obtain accurate longitudes. This seems pretty excessive and I'm wondering how many (or few) chronometers would have reduced his time errors to an acceptable level. Any thoughts? Poisson distribution, perhaps? Frank 55N 1W --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Two programs of interest to list members
Good afternoon and a happy winter solstice to all, The following two Windows programs may be of interest to list members: Time Zone Master www.relativedata.com/time-zone-master MyStars! www.relativedata.com/mystars Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: A wristwatch
Good morning Darek, Thanks for the post, it is a FABULOUS sundial, I want one for Christmas! Far better than a Patek Philippe, or my old Fossil sundial watch which I bought many years ago in Canada. Does anyone on the List know if they are actually being made and sold, or is it just a concept? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com In cold and cloudy Sydney, Australia - Original Message - From: Dariusz Oczki dhar...@o2.pl To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 6:57 AM Subject: A wristwatch Dear Diallists I do not recall here a talk about wrist sundials and particulary about the one below. However please forgive me if I'm mistaken. Here you will find a presentation of an interesting portable dial: http://flippies.com/adflipoff/diana-a-wristwatch-concepting-the-ancient-sundial-system/ -- Best regards Darek Oczki 52N 21E Warsaw, Poland GNOMONIKA.pl Sundials in Poland http://gnomonika.pl --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Are there any commercially-available 'Teaching Sundials', for schools ?
Good afternoon Frank, Brilliant response. Here in Australia the nanny state is alive and thriving, so your thoughtful analysis would be welcomed by some local councils. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Frank King frank.k...@cl.cam.ac.uk To: John Carmichael jlcarmich...@comcast.net Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2011 1:57 AM Subject: Re: Are there any commercially-available 'Teaching Sundials', for schools ? Dear John You write... How in the world did your local Education Authority reach the absurd conclusion that interactive human analemmatics are dangerous for children. Have you never heard of the expression about being afraid of your own shadow? This is a well-known phobia which has to be taken seriously... Clearly, the Local Education Authority knew all about this risk and maybe had read about children going home in a state of shock after being forced to use their own shadows to tell the time. It gets worse... This would also be a case of using children as experimental subjects. As such, even written consent is insufficient. It has to be clear that you are giving *informed* consent too so you would need to take legal advice before giving such consent. You don't seem to appreciate what a dangerous business we are in :-) I can see that the paperwork involved in letting children loose on an analemmatic sundial is too horrendous to contemplate. Do they outlaw hopscotch too? Don't even think about it. You are getting very close to encouraging child abuse and someone will soon insist that this site is closed down. The world is mad. All the best Frank --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Where are the women?
Way to go Sara! Cheers, John (a bloke last time I checked!) John Pickard PhD Department of Environment and Geography Macquarie University NSW 2109 Australia john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Schechner, Sara To: Marcelo ; Sundial List Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 10:23 AM Subject: RE: Where are the women? Hey, hey, I just wrote in to the list a day ago. JBut I'll grant you that some of us are rather quiet online because we are too busy with other things-like cataloguing sundials in museums. Sara (a woman last I checked) Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D. David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Department of the History of Science, Harvard University Science Center 251c, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617-496-9542 | Fax: 617-496-5932 | sche...@fas.harvard.edu http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html From: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Marcelo Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2011 6:13 PM To: Sundial List Subject: Where are the women? I've just noticed that, as long as I remember, there is no female participation in this mailing list. As I study in the Astronomical and Geophysical Institute at the University of Sao Paulo, where we lack not of the gracious presence of women - there are more men here, but women are expressive too - I strange their absence from our astronomical inquiries and conversations. Maybe there is some truth in that old cliché of men being more prone to math and abstration than them? -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Fw: Icarus dial from Helios
Good morning everyone, See below for a very quick reply from Carlo Heller of ICARUS. It seems that his email to me around Christmas went astray. Perhaps some Australian Santa Claus grabbed it by mistake?? Now all I need is some sun to cast shadows. The weather here in Sydney is total overcast and cloudy, but at least we are being spared the torrential downpours of the last couple of days in Darwin (~ 650 mm rain in 3 days, including 340 mm on 16 Feb) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Carlo Heller To: john.pick...@bigpond.com Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 9:59 PM Subject: WG: Icarus dial from Helios Dear John, we have received your message from 2010-12-25 and I have answered on the same day. May be something went wrong with the e-mail transfer. Finally we have received hints from several sundial friends that you did not get my response. You can buy the ICARUS pocket sundial in our Internet shop. The price will be 247.90 EURO taxfree, the shipping to Australia including ensurance costs 55.00 EURO. Please use our secure German shop if you want to pay by credit card. http://www.helios-sonnenuhren.de/Bestellung.html If you have any specific questions please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Yours faithfully Carlo Helios e.K. Inhaber: Dr.-Ing. Carlo Heller Begasweg 3 65195 Wiesbaden Tel.: +49 - (0)611 - 185 11 06 Fax: +49 - (0)611 - 59 83 29 www.helios-sonnenuhren.de john.pick...@bigpond.com--- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: upside down world
Good morning Mike, Last time I checked, the sun rose in the east here in Sydney, and sets in the west. Of course, if you step from New South Wales into Queensland, the sun rises an hour later. Wow, I've just lost an hour of my life, but at least the curtains don't fade in Queensland! I suspect that the reason for confusion in the UK advertising industry is that they are a bit like ours: basically pig-ignorant! The best (?worst) example I have seen of the sun setting in the east was in the appalling John Wayne film Green Berets where the final scene has the Duke watching the sunset over a beach in Vietnam. My maps suggest that Vietnam doesn't have a west coast, but hey, that's Hollywood, and movies are not exactly known for letting the facts get in the way of a good (or in the case of Green Berets, a lousy) story. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Mike Shaw jmikes...@ntlworld.com To: bren...@verizon.net; Sundial List sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 2:48 AM Subject: Re: upside down world Perhaps if the cradles of civilisation had been in the southern hemisphere, our clocks would all go round the other way. Incidentally, I am surprised by how many television adverts in the UK show the sun rising or setting the wrong way. Do you suppose a lot of the filming is done in Australia? Mike Shaw 53.37N 3.02W www.wiz.to/sundials --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Icarus dial from Helios
Good afternoon everyone, I have been trying to contact Helios to buy one of their Icarus dials, but I haven't been able to get a response. Does anyone know if they are still in business? Helios: http://www.helios-sundials.com/ Icarus dial: http://www.helios-sundials.com/Icarus-Pocket-Sundial-Overview.html Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: part 2 of longitude correction
Good morning all, Very interesting discussion on time zone boundaries in UK and USA. Here in Australia, time zones are simply bizarre with major anomalies between states. If we ignore those states (e.g. Queensland) where the curtains don't fade in summer because they don't use Daylight Saving, then we have Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) and Australian Western Standard Time (AWST). Logically, the boundaries would be on some sensible longitude, but the boundaries are on state borders with some interesting anomalies. Parts of western New South Wales use ACST because historically, businesses in the mining town of Broken Hill did business in Adelaide (South Australia) rather than Sydney. However, AEST goes further west in Victoria, and a long way further west in Queensland. Why this historic anomaly persists is beyond me. It has long since outlived its value, and now seems to be maintained to satisfy a few businesses in Broken Hill. I also think that there is a large dose of we are different involved, but that's a political comment! The most interesting anomaly is a small section of Western Australia near the South Australian border which has its own little time zone, sort of mid-way between ACST and AWST. Presumably this is to allow the public servants who work in the village to communicate with their bosses in Perth. Many years ago when working in Antarctica, we used an informal local time that was designed to better mesh with AEST to allow for easier communication with head office in Melbourne and then Hobart which are a long way to the east. I forget the offset from UT, but it was at least a couple of hours. Despite these anomalies, people manage to survive OK, and it's fun to watch the time displayed on mobile phones change from AEST to ACST when heading west. Presumably, when the mobile phone handshakes with the first phone tower in the central zone, it gets the signal and changes the time. However, my GPSs don't do this automatically because they operate on CIA time which is invariant. I have to make a manual offset through the setup menu. I guess that a smarter GPS could be programmed to do this automatically. After all, the GPS knows where it is, and thus it should be able to check which time zone it's in. It would require some form of database of time zone boundaries to be loaded onto the GPS, but given the strange boundaries in Australia and the US, perhaps it is just too difficult. Gotta love technology! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Free download of Gatty Book of sun-dials (was: Re: Some quotable quotes on sundials)
Good afternoon, Gatty's book is available as a free download from Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/). Advanced searching on title contains Book of sun-dials gave five hists (http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28Book%20of%20Sun-dials%20%29), of which four are Gatty's book (?different editions) and the fifth is a much earlier work with a title so long that it would cause this email to exceed the 50kb limit! Downloading books scanned by Google is a bit tricky, and just clicking on the link PDF (Google.com) is useless. Click on the HTTP link at the bottom of the list, and then select the file ***.pdf. Searching on the reasonable alternative spellings (sundial, sun dial, sun-dial) and plurals give some interesting results that are well worth looking at. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: sasch stephens To: triplederby100-pro...@yahoo.com ; sundial list Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2011 10:45 AM Subject: RE: Some quotable quotes on sundials Ye who make rhymes of sundials stand in good company! A good source of sundial sayings and mottoes is: The Book of Sun-dials by Mrs. Alfred Gatty, 1872. It includes chapters of mottoes, translations from Latin and related stories. One of my favorites: Make time, save time while time lasts, All time is no time, when time is past and: You must account at last for all your moments past And what I tell my daughter: Time is what keeps everything from happening at once. Sasch Stephens --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: A Stellar Flag
Good morning Roger, Several nations in the Southern Hemisphere include the Southern Cross on the flags (Australia, NZ, etc.) Unfortunately, too many (including Australia) retain the Union Jack. Perhaps the most attractive is the relatively young flag of the Provincia del Tierra del Fuego of Argentina which combines a stylised outline of the province, with an albatross forming the junction between land and Atlantic Ocean, plus the Southern Cross (URL: http://flagspot.net/flags/ar-v.html) The Australian flag is described officially by the Australian government at http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/symbols/flag.cfm with details of its history etc. Here you will find why Australian kids are taught that the large single star is the FEDERATION star (not confederation) with seven points representing the states and territories of the Commonwealth. There is no connection at all between the Federation Star and Alpha Centauri. However, I agree that few Australians know that Alpha Centauri is the SECOND closest star to Earth. Rhetorically I could ask why would they know? After all, it is depressing to find how many people have little idea of earth geography let alone that of the heavens! Every visiting Northern Hemisphere field-based scientist who I escorted around parts of Australia became very excited when camping under the stars and they saw the Southern Cross and the Clouds of Magellan for the first time. They had a similar reaction to seeing kangaroos and koalas in the wild. To me, these are just background, always there and easy to see if you know where to look. But I got the same buzz when I saw Polaris for the first time during field work in Canada. Wow! (Some of us are easily amused!). Regardless of the hemisphere, the sheer pleasure of camping under the stars on a fine moon-free night is fantastic. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Cloudy Sydney, Australia 38o 39.6'S 151o 06.3'E - Original Message - From: Roger Bailey To: Richard Mallett ; Sundial Mailing List Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 4:49 PM Subject: A Stellar Flag The Australian national flag does not show a sundial but it is of astronomical interest as a stellar flag. It shows the Southern Cross and another star to the lower left. When visiting Australia, I would often ask about this single star on the left. Everyone knew about the Southern Cross but not this bright star. Most told me it was the Confederation star, with seven points to represent the six original states in Australia and the territories. This is what they are taught in school. Nobody I asked knew the significance of the real star depicted on the flag, Alpha Centauri, the multiple star closest to earth, 4.37 light years away. Look up! The stars are real with individual characteristics, histories and personalities. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri, The sun is not the centre of the universe. Regards, Roger Bailey -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Fwd: [Flags] (pt) Canedo Commune (Ribeira de Pena Municipality, Portugal)
Good morning again Roger. You asked I have learned a lesson on whom we should trust as a data source. Wiki or the CIA? The answer is obvious! Neither. Trust WikiLeaks, after all several governments are embarrassed about having their pants down around their ankles. More seriously, each nation usually has some sort of official description of its national symbols (see the Australian example in my earlier post). I'd be surprised if Brazil didn't also have such a site. All we need is for someone who reads Brazilian Portuguese to find it and translate it for us. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Roger Bailey To: Frank King Cc: Sundial Mailing List Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 5:18 AM Subject: Re: Fwd: [Flags] (pt) Canedo Commune (Ribeira de Pena Municipality,Portugal) Yes, the armillary sphere was more prominent on historical flags of Brazil. The white band, the ecliptic ring, is all that remains of the armillary. My concerns on the misrepresentation of the armillary on the Portuguese flag were based on the image in my presentation from this data source, the CIA World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/po.html . In this image, the sections of the rings do not lie up and sections of the tropical rings are missing. Other images on the internet show clearly show the Manueline Armillary behind the crest. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Portugal.svg Only the lower front right section of the tropic of Capricorn is missing. I have learned a lesson on whom we should trust as a data source. Wiki or the CIA? Regards, Roger --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Calculating days and dates (was: Re: 360 degree/Fabian)
Good afternoon all, Frank King noted that A good many people don't know the day's date without checking but most know the day of the week. It would be odd to have the date changing at one time and the day at another. If you need to check days of weeks for arcane dates, JoneSoft Date Calculator is a free program that will give you the day of the week for just about any date, and the number of days between two specific dates. http://jonesoft-date-calculator.en.softonic.com/ I've used an earlier version for several years, and for the odd occasion when I needed to know days for certain dates, or numbers of months between my sample observations during research, it was very quick. I'm sure that there are other similar programs around. The review at the site claims that the program can also calculate the number of hours between specified dates / times, but I can't see how to do this in the current version I have just downloaded. Just be careful when downloading as the site (Softonic) wants to install its own useless toolbar to further clutter up your browser. PS to Frank: oddly enough, since I semi-retired, I frequently have look at my computer to find out both the date and the day of the week. When your time is your own, certain conventions become a lot less important! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: stop the earth: TI 59 PPX; No No Nooooooo!
Good morning Roger and Bill, I'm not an engineer, just a field scientist (ecologist and geomorphologist) who now prefers the label eclectic naturalist. I tried HP and TI calculators way back when, and I went with TI. I found the RPN of the HP counter-intuitive and difficult to program. The TI was also about half the price of the equivalent HP. I used my programmable TI-59 for many years, and especially during a 15 months of field work in Antarctica, and it was pure magic. I was able to write all the programs for reducing a range of surveys, etc. I used the printer constantly, and I still have the printouts pasted in my field books. A few years ago I gave the entire set of TI-59, printer, programs, manuals and magnetic cards to a computer collector here in Sydney. The whole lot fitted beautifully in a suitcase designed (of all things) to carry lawn bowling balls. HP vs TI; PC vs Mac: it's all a bit ho-hum. My criterion has always been if I have a PC at work and I can get training, support and software free, then that's what I use. My son who is a successful pro photographer continually berates me for using PCs rather than Macs. As he rightly says, Macs are definitely the tool of choice for high-end and heavy graphic use. Like lots of people my superannuated age, I started with punch cards on a mainframe, but I decided that I would never learn Fortran etc. I was a field scientist: I could and did remove, overhaul and replace gearboxes in my Land Rover, but I couldn't program x + y = z. There were experts who could do that for me. My first PhD was on a small Australian-made PC called a Microbee. It had all of 128k of memory (yep, 128k!), and it used 8 floppies. By the time I got around to trying to transfer my punched cards to disk, there was only one working card reader extant in Australia, and I guess it's in a museum now. Now I'm thinking of putting a 1TB disk in my desktop. Cost: $AUD200. Almost unbelievable. But the biggest change has been the explosion of fabulous software. Back in the old days, if you wanted to do a regression analysis, you either wrote the program yourself in Fortran, or got someone to do it for you. Now you buy any one of a number of great software packages (e.g. Minitab) which come with excellent help files and after-market books. It's a bit like GPSs. My first field work was all with paper maps and using the Land Rover odometer to determine location. Now I have a GPS connected to a notebook loaded with maps or satellite images and I track my position in real time. Or I use a hand-held for the same thing when I'm doing field work on foot. And all in the comfort of a quiet air-conditioned Toyota Prado with 160L of fuel tanks as standard instead of the noisy, blazing hot Land Rover with 45L of fuel. Good old days?? You must be joking! But we had a lot of fun in the Land Rover even if I had to carry full sets of open-end, ring and socket spanners (wrenches for you benighted people who speak American instead of English) in BSW, SAE, BA and metric. For the Toyota, it's one set: metric. The job's the same, but as you say, the tools are infinitely better. The real negative change has been the blanket of OHS rules that are stifling. I could go away for a month-long trip, and never make contact with work. These days, carrying personal EPIRBs and call-backs every 24 h are mandatory, and it is almost a disciplinary offence to miss a call. Am I safer? Yes, but not because of this garbage which replaces common-sense and experience with reliance on electronics. One of my favourite movies is Master and Commander in which Russell Crowe is told to capture a French frigate, and he heads off half-way round the world on the pursuit. No contact with the Lords of the Admiralty except via rare despatches at some ports. These days, he would be deluged with micro-management emails from a bunch of oxygen thieves in head office who have nothing better to do that demand constant reports solely to justify their own jobs. But them's the rules, and if you take the pay, you accept the new rules. The nadir of this is if you want to do field work in water catchment areas controlled by Sydney Water. You have to call back EVERY time you change location, which may be five times in a day. Are they kidding? For this, give me the good old days when you told them where you were going, and called them when you got back. No fuss, no muss, no drama. Gee, I'm starting to sound like a grumpy old man. It must be the upcoming summer solstice. Love the Abbott and Costello routine! So I'll hit the Start button, and then Log-off. Gotta love them PCs. Cheers, John John Pickard Sunny and hot Sydney, Australia john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Roger Bailey rtbai...@telus.net To: Bill Gottesman billgottes...@comcast.net; sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Monday, December 13, 2010 3:37 PM Subject: Re: stop the earth: TI 59 PPX
Re: stop the earth: TI 59 PPX; No No Nooooooo!
Hi Bill, What? You didn't get invited to join the Oprah Winfrey juggernaut that is currently taking over Sydney? Eat ya heart out! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Bill Gottesman billgottes...@comcast.net To: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 9:52 AM Subject: Re: stop the earth: TI 59 PPX; No No Nooo! Summer solstice! You lucky dog. -Bill On 12/13/2010 5:35 PM, John Pickard wrote: Gee, I'm starting to sound like a grumpy old man. It must be the upcoming summer solstice. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Burt Astronomical Compass (was Mechanically Complex Solar Compass on sale at auction)
Good morning Bill, The compass is a Burt Astronomical Compass invented by William Austin Burt in 1855 or thereabouts. Burt described its function and use in some detail. Burt, William A. (1881) A key to the solar compass, and surveyor's companion; comprising all the rules necessary for use in the field. Also, description of the linear surveys, and public land system of the United States; notes on the barometer, suggestions for an outfit for a survey of four months, etc., etc. New York, D. Van Nostrand. 5th edition. (Facsimile reprint by Carben Surveying Reprints) There is also some more information in his biography Burt, John S. 1985 They left their mark. William Austin Burt and his sons, surveyors of the public domain. Landmark Enterprises, Rancho Cordova. The Key to the solar compass is available as a free download from Internet Archive (a wonderful source of all sorts of old books and journals). Different editions are at the following URLs http://www.archive.org/details/keytosolarcompas00burtrich http://www.archive.org/details/akeytosolarcomp00burtgoog http://www.archive.org/details/akeytosolarcomp01burtgoog Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com In cold, overcast and rainy Sydney. Where has spring gone? - Original Message - From: Bill Gottesman To: Sundial Mailing List Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 1:04 PM Subject: Mechanically Complex Solar Compass on sale at auction I saw (on-line) this interesting sun compass for sale by auction this coming November 20th. I have not seen anything like it. Other scientific instruments, clocks, sundials for sale at same auction. I doubt I will bid on it. -Bill http://www.skinnerinc.com/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=2527M363+refno=++874110 Lot 363 Brass Solar Compass by W. L. E. Gurley, Troy, New York, the brass instrument with Burt's solar attachment, horizontal circle read by opposing verniers, blued steel needle and scale calibrated 0-15 in two segments and engraved W. L. E. Gurley, Troy, NY, silvered vertical half circle arc graduated to 30 minutes with vernier scale and sighting mounts, silvered declination and hour calibrated arcs, dual spirit levels, graduated sighting vanes and thumb screw leveling tripod attachment, ht. 14 in. Estimate $2,000-4,000 -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Re: Cultural heritage of astronomical observatories
Good morning Wolfgang, Thanks for the URL. Please pass on my thanks to Giancarlo Truffa. WARNING: the file is 149 MB! Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Wolfgang R. Dick wd...@astrohist.org To: sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 8:13 PM Subject: Fwd: Re: Cultural heritage of astronomical observatories Original-Nachricht Datum: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:22:35 +0200 Von: Giancarlo TRUFFA giancarlo.tru...@st.com An: hastr...@listserv.wvu.edu Betreff: Re: [HASTRO-L] Cultural heritage of astronomical observatories Hello all. The pdf file is here: http://www.math.uni-hamburg.de/spag/ign/stw/Icomos09e.pdf Regards Giancarlo Truffa Milan, Italy --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Publication Cultural heritage of astronomical observatories
Good afternoon from a very chilly Sydney (where's Spring when you want it?), The following book may be of interest to list members: Wolfschmidt, G. (ed) 2009 Cultural heritage of astronomical observatories: From astronomical observatories to modern astrophysics (Proceedings of the International ICOMOS Symposium in Hamburg, October 14-17, 2008) Monuments and Sites series, No. XVIII. Berlin, ICOMOS-Hendrik Bäßler-Verlag, 2009. 378 pp. ISBN: 978-3-930388-53-0 You can order it from the ICOMOS Documentation Centre: http://www.international.icomos.org/icomos//publications/ms18.htm However, despite some looking, I could not find a price mentioned anywhere, and it is not a free PDF. The title page, and table of contents can be seen at http://www.math.uni-hamburg.de/spag/ign/stw/icomos221109-inhalt.pdf (5 MB) Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Sale of books from dialling library of Ted Hesketh
Good afternoon, Members of this list might be interested in the sale of some 161 dialling books from the library of the late Ted Hesketh. The books range from late 16th C to late 20th C, and include many rare classics. They are being sold by Rogers Turner Book, with a dedicated catalogue (no. 50). Contact: rogerstur...@compuserve.com Phone / fax +44 (0)208 692 2472. I have no financial interest in the sale, I'm just passing on the information to sundial enthusiasts who are likely to be interested. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Using shadows to date photographs
Greetings all, Although not strictly related to sundials, the following URLs briefly describe using shadows to date historical photos, and may be useful for members of the list: http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/using-shadows-to-date-photographs/ http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/using-shadows-to-date-photographs-part-2/ The book which is mentioned contains a CD with the details of the method used: Fitzpatrick, C. (2004) Forensic genealogy Rice Book Press, Fountain Valley. ISBN 0976716003 I haven't yet had a chance to look at either the book or the CD, so I don't know how useful or easy it is to use the approach. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com Sunny (finally after a week of rain) Sydney, Australia ___ No viruses found in this outgoing message Scanned by iolo AntiVirus 1.5.8.3 http://www.iolo.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Source of books etc. on metal finishing
Good evening everyone, Although many of the books are targeted at industry, this website offers a wide range of books that may be of interest to dial makers. Have you ever considered plating your dial with rhodium? There's a book here for you! http://finpubs-dwh.demonweb.co.uk/index.html Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com ___ No viruses found in this outgoing message Scanned by iolo AntiVirus 1.5.8.3 http://www.iolo.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: 52 YEARS OF MATH
Hi Mike, Been doing that for years! I was formally disciplined many years ago for defacing official notices put up by the state government organisation that employed me. Even more fun is pointing out stupid illogicalities. Maybe we should get back to sundials?? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Mike Shaw To: John Pickard ; John Carmichael ; 'Sundial List' Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 7:43 AM Subject: Re: 52 YEARS OF MATH Now that we are all having a rant - I'd like to raise the issue of 52 years of punctuation Please consider joining the Apostrophe Preservation Society. All you have to do to become a member is promise to carry around with you a large felt tipped pen and ostentatiously correct all errors that you see. Great fun in the shops. Mike Shaw 53.37N 3.02W www.wiz.to/sundials--- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Awesome eclipse photos
Good morning from cloudy and chilly Sydney, This site has 32 stunning images of the recent total solar eclipse. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/the_longest_solar_eclipse_of_t.html Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: French dam to be world´s biggest sundial
Hello Tony, You can't be serious that the dial in your image cost 3 M Euros. Surely not. While it looks like a rather attractive design, there doesn't seem to be anything remarkable about it. I could understand maybe ten or twenty thousand Euros (nice work if you can get it!), but not 3 M. Is it platinum, or perhaps the new unnamed element number 112? Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com In chilly wintery Sydney. Looking forward to 21 June, and a return to longer days. - Original Message - From: Tony Moss t...@lindisun.demon.co.uk To: and...@lucastes.co.uk Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 3:44 AM Subject: Re: French dam to be world´s biggest sundial Andrew Pettit wrote: Fantastic! At 200,000 Euros is it also the world's most expensive sundial? Regards Not by miles! During the BSS Safari to Nuremberg we were shown a comparatively plain polar dial which, if I recall correctly, cost.wait for it...Three MILLION Euros. I've risked attaching a small 100k jpeg of it with a well-know BSS member nearby for scale. Tony Moss --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Translations
Hello Steve, Google offer a translator (http://translate.google.com/translate_t#) , but I've never tried it with French, nor with sun dial literature. I have used the English to Spanish translator and vice versa, and it's pretty rough to say the least. You can set it up in Internet Explorer or other browser without too much trouble. Cheers, John John Pickard john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Steve steve-ir...@cox.net To: robic.joel robic.j...@wanadoo.fr; Sundial related list with international audience sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:32 AM Subject: Translations Confrere: I am interested in translating email and web pages into English. I use as example the note from Joel about the Castillon Dam. The link contained in his email is to a web page in French and so my question. I use Eudora for mail and have receded to FireFox version 2.00.18. However, I have tried various translators with several versions without much success. My question. Does anyone use a translation program for email and the web, with success. Thanks Steve Yorktown VA --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Duixons sundial
Hello ChiLian, It is a truly beautiful dial, but I was wondering about two pock-marks in image 135. They appear to be bullet marks. Could this be the case? Cheers, John John Pickard Sydney, Australia john.pick...@bigpond.com - Original Message - From: Chiu ?,Chi lian To: jlcarmich...@comcast.net ; sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 2:55 AM Subject: Re: Duixons sundial Hi, John, Thank you for pointing out my error. The correct webpage should be http://photo.xuite.net/nycl.chiu/1477368/134.jpg#support_xuite and http://photo.xuite.net/nycl.chiu/1477368/135.jpg#support_xuite The one gave in the last mail was for me to use only. I copied that by mistake while I was signed on. It's my fault. Please forget that webpage. ChiLian 2009/5/15 John Carmichael jlcarmich...@comcast.net Hello ChiLian I do not see any photos at this webpage. It appears to be asking us for Member ID’s and/or passwords. But I can’t read it because it is in Chinese. John From: 587...@gmail.com [mailto:587...@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Chiu ?,Chi lian Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 9:08 AM To: jlcarmich...@comcast.net; sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de Subject: Duixons sundial Hi, John, Since you like the Duixons sundial, I put on two more pictures of it. One from another angle and may give you more idea about its 3D structure. The other is the plaque on the ground in front of the dial. It is about the designer's name and the date it was made. See http://photo.xuite.net/_my/b_6_5?ab_id=1477368p=134 and the one next to it. ChiLian --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Hartshorne 1881 Household cyclopedia
Greetings from cloudy Sydney, Some of you may be interested in this compendium of lots of useful, useless, arcane and some dangerous recipes (e.g. how to make gun cotton). It has a lot of information and recipes of various processes for colouring, enamelling, etching, engraving, etc. that were used at the end of the 19th century. Many seem relevant to dialling. I have not tested any of the recipes, so I take no responsibility for the safety of them. WARNING: the file is 18MB, so you better have broadband! http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/download/cyclopedia.pdf Cheers, John John Pickard [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Knowing where we are
Hello Tony, You are either blessed with such amazing information in Europe, or cursed with too many people, too many towns, etc. Most pre-loaded GPSs in Australia only have decent maps of the major urban areas. They are next to useless for long-distance trip planning. A few people (me included) use navigation software like OziExplorer (www.oziexplorer.com) on a notebook loaded with digital maps. I have used this for nearly ten years doing field work all over Australia, including roads (well, let's be more honest, tracks!) that can be pretty lonely and in one case, the next fuel stop was 1200 km away. I doubt if you would have that problem in the UK! While this is an excellent system with some major advantages, it is far less convenient (you need a notebook, a GPS, external aerial on the vehicle, probably a 240V power supply or inverter, etc.) than the Garmin nuvi770T, but it can be used anywhere in the world. I spent four months on field work in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and the system worked fine (although some of the maps were a bit old). The other advantage is that OziExplorer accepts any form of map provided it to geo-referenced. I have used topo maps, satellite images (free downloads from NASA of the entire world https://zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsid/), aerial photos, old parish maps, etc. There is a version of OziExplorer that runs on pocket PCs that use Windows CE or whatever the current portable Windows OS is called. As you can now buy any number of pocket PCs with built-in GPS, or you can add one in a sleeve, this system is pretty convenient. But, you still need a notebook or desktop to load the map images. A somewhat similar alternative is ESRI's ArcPad which has capability of real-time tracking etc. Unfortunately, it is quite expensive compared with OziExplorer. However it does have a huge advantage if you are working with GIS. Pity about the price! Sell the kids into white slavery?? Cheers, John John Pickard [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: Tony Moss [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sundial Mailing List sundial@uni-koeln.de Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 11:09 PM Subject: Re: Knowing where we are Tony Moss wrote: Gordon Uber wrote: Thanks for responding to Doug's query and correcting my incorrect response. It is continually amazing to me how well this software works (on a Garmin GPS system and Microsoft Streets) both in routing between two points and Streets in optimizing multipoint routes. And all that in a case not much bigger than a cigarette packet. My GARMIN nuvi770T can pinpoint every house, in every street, in every village, town and city in 95% of Europe, the UK and Ireland as well as the all of USA and Canada while showing every bend in the road between them with hotels, cashpoint machines, petrol stations, Lat. Long. etc. etc. Or at least it did until I entered the wrong security code by mistake recently and had to return it to Garmin for unlocking. ;-( Miraculous! Walking on water seems easy by comparison. Tony Moss --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Dump Horizon Observatory - Construction in progress
NachrichtHello Roger, I have been reading the exchange of postings on this discussion, and I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Roger. Many of us have numerous digital clocks around us (on our wrists, walls at home or in the office, on our computers, in our cars, etc.) Even the cheapest is far more accurate than any sundial except perhaps a few rarities. But we are still interested / fascinated by ancient and mediaeval solutions of three-dimensional geometry that relates the sun's position to time. Many of us cheerfully accept the challenge of calculating and then making dials of new materials or new designs. Some are successful, and incorporate great aesthetic values, others less so. But to assume that all dials must mimic or mirror old designs is to ignore the changes in other technology and civilisation that have happened since the first dials were calculated. What is wrong with incorporating the best of ancient dials with the best of modern technology? I'm sure that any of the classic makers would have used modern methods and materials had they been available. Why would I hand-beat a lump of latten to make brass sheet when I can buy it at the local engineering supply store? Who wants to hand-divide a circle when you can do the job far quicker, and probably more accurately with a $400 rotary table (made in Taiwan) set up on a $1500 milling machine (also made in Taiwan). Although I can use the tools and machines in my workshop, early dials literally take my breath away with my admiration for the skill of the craftsmen who made them. Let's see more dials in public places to remind us of where we have come from. Yes, some of the designs are almost frighteningly stark in their minimalism, but why not? Aesthetics is in the eye of the beholder, and we need not be slaves to tradition for its own sake. That is sterile and a dead-end for development. I know that dials have been dead technology for over a century, but so what? It's obvious that people are still developing new variations. Reading postings over the last couple of years, the number of new dials surprises me. And the designs are wonderful. I, for one, am glad that dial does not automatically mean horizontal, and that diallers devote (or as others would say waste) their intellect and skills on something that doesn't address any problem facing humanity. Let's see dials for public places being made in modern materials as well as incorporating traditional materials and concepts. The diversity of sundials is one of their great attractions. Modern dials are simply continuing this tradition. Long may it be so! And long may we have this wonderful sundial list where we can mull over these issues. Cheers, John John Pickard [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: Roger Bailey To: Reinhold Kriegler ; 'Josef Pastor' ; 'Sonnenuhr (Uni Köln)' Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 3:12 AM Subject: Re: Dump Horizon Observatory - Construction in progress Hi Reinhold, It is now my turn to disagree with your comments. Horizon astronomy is important. Civilization began when people observed celestial events at the horizon: rising and setting phenomenon, heliacal risings, solstice determinations etc.The first measured and recorded information on our place in the universe came from such observations of celestial bodies with reference to the horizon. Only at the horizon could the solstices be measured and the cycle of the seasons understood in pre-historic times. Many archeoastronomy studies have confirmed the importance of horizon astronomy. Stonehenge, standing stones and circles, medicine wheels, Mayan towers etc all had astronomical purposes. Have a look at my website for presentations on this topic. 1. http://www.walkingshadow.info/WinterSolstice.ppt 2. http://www.walkingshadow.info/Publications/Archeoastronomy.pdf 3. http://www.walkingshadow.info/Publications/Armillary%20Spheres.pdf The next major step in astronomy was tracking celestial objects above the horizon. Here the Greek concept of the celestial sphere has served us well. This concept describes the observed universe. Early sundials where based on tracking the sun with a shadow in a bowl, a reversed image of the celestial sphere. Patient observations of shadows on a simple equatorial disc led to the determination of the length of the year and by Hipparchus about 250 BC. He was able to calculate the difference the solar and stellar years due to precession. The simplified celestial sphere is represented with the armillary sphere and the astrolabe. These became useful teaching devices for astronomers and navigators. The armillary sphere was important enough for the Portuguese to incorporate it as their national symbol. This is shown on their flag, their (pre-Euro) money, and Manualene architecture. The dump Observatory, featuring horizon astronomy and rings of an armillary sphere, is very relevant
The Simpsons and the astrolabe
Good morning all, After all the crowing about summer arriving in the other hemisphere, you may feel even more smug when I tell you that Easter in Sydney is currently wet, dismal and grey. Quite a change from a long unbroken stretch of fine sunny days in the past few weeks. Anyway, here's a question that may seem incongruous: has anyone seen the episode of The Simpsons where Homer is walking around with a rather large astrolabe? I know it sounds strange that someone with Homer's IQ is holding an astrolabe, but maybe he read Jim Morrison's great book! My memory is that Homer wins a Nobel Prize and part of the booty is the astrolabe. This URL mentions an astrolabe, but the episode description doesn't seem right. http://www.tv.com//tis-the-fifteenth-season/episode/280491/summary.html?q=tag=search_results;more;1 But it does mention a talking astrolabe. Now there's one that Jim Morrison missed! Cheers, John John Pickard [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
