At 09:34 AM 5/3/99 +0200, fer j. de vries wrote: > >But please, have in mind we are dealing with sundials, not with >instruments to read a time in parts of a second or minute. > >Don't forget the history of sundials. How did people the things at their >time? >In our time we have other instruments to measure time as precisely and >accurate as we want. >A sundial still has to reflect to the older times and a suntime hour is >irregular in length. > Hello Fer and all,
I agree. We have to consider the historical use of sundials. In North America sundials are not a traditional part of our culture. For us they are interesting technical artifacts without links to our history or artistic and architectural traditions. On this theme I gave a presentation at a recent NASS conference entitled "The Most Important Things for Sundial Design are Location, Location and Location." The first location factor is Scientific: what are the mathematics of the design for a specific latitude, longitude and orientation. Most of the discussion on this list involves this scientific location factor. The second location factor is Cultural: what are the architectural and artistic traditions of this area to be considered in the design of the dial? An English country garden is a very different setting compared to an alpine village square or a majestic cathedral. The traditional design of vertical declining dials of France has been carried to Quebec and the Austrian style has been adopted on appropriate houses in the mountain community where I live. The third location factor is Personal: what are the unique personal interests of the owner or designer and how are they reflected in the design? I have designed a dial based on a family crest and a dial for an alpine hut based on mountaineer's ice axe. Each design can be unique and consider the three location factors. For the next three weeks I am abandoning the discussions on factor one (Science) and will be concentrating on factor two (Culture). My wife thinks we are on vacation but I will be chasing sundials in "La France Profond" armed with my "Cadrans Solaires Francais Catalogue" from the "Societe Astronomique de France". I am looking forward to irregular times. A bientot, Roger Bailey Walking Shadow Designs heading for N 44:38 E 2:03
