Wow, Ron, I'm impressed by this language stuff! Let me play around with it for a few days and see how it works.
Patrick, You asked whether I have tried to classify multiple dials, Saxon dials, mass dials, stained glass dials, cruciform dials, heliochronometers, armillary dials, etc. The short answer is Yes. I have considered all these forms and more. The Adler catalogue has roughly 60 types within its collection of 500 time finding instruments. Of necessity I have classified them all. In my email, I didn't bother to itemize each form or put them into classes and subclasses. I would like to work with the BSS and the sundial list to take this forward. I will post a list in a few days. I have some reservations about the way the BSS list is organized. For instance, I see cruciform sundials as just a special case of polyhedral dial. Other cases are cube dials and various regular and irregular polyhedrons. All are hour-angle instruments in which multiple sundials are combined on a single object. (Sorry about the delay in putting up my list for comment, but I'm finishing a draft of an essay for a journal. It deals with historical sundials as evidence of human values and consumer culture. It draws upon my work for the Adler catalogue and a book I'm writing with the title "Sundials, Science, and Social Change."). More soon. I think if we work together, we can come up with some good stuff. Cheers, Sara NASS Secretary 39.02 N 77.01 W
