Message text written by "Henry Hatem"

>The "human" dials I have seen at the gnomon point have a "ladder" painted
on
the ground marked off in height so if you are 5' you stand here and 6' up
one "rung" 4' down one "rung"<

Excellent suggestion.  I think you are referring to an interesting
alternative version of the horizontal dial where the human's head
effectively forms a nodus along the style of the 'non existant' gnomon. 
Thus taller people stand nearer the Noon mark and the shorter stand further
away - the ladder scale being set so that the different heights of people
form the sloping gnomon.  Time is read by judgement of where the shadow of
one's head falls among the hour lines.  

This idea may actually make it a little easier to design a workable dial
for the lower latitudes.  John C might like to consider it instead of a
true analemmatic dial....  

John, were you commissioned to design a 'human' dial of any appropriate
design or does it have to be an 'analemmatic' one?

Patrick

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