Steve, I believe I have seen this use of "0" for noon very occasionally on English vertical dials - although at the moment I can't think where! I believe Bob Terwilliger is right - it's done for spacing reasons, and possibly the maker isn't religious!
John ------------------------------------------- Dr J R Davis Flowton, UK 52.08N, 1.043E email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Lelievre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sundial mailing list <sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de> Sent: 18 July 2000 15:29 Subject: Nought at noon > I have recently seen a couple of dials which use a nought (a digit zero) in > place of XII, whereas the rest of the hour labels are in their usual roman > numeral forms. In other words, they run VI, VII...XI, 0, I, II...VI. One > dial is from the 1950s and the other from the 1960s. They are both located > in Nova Scotia and presumably made in Canada or USA. I don't know the makers > of either, but I'm sure they are not made by the same company since the > quality and designs are so different. > > I've never seen this done on a clock, it's not a bona fide roman number, and > I can't think of any reason not to mark it as the 12th hour. Why does 0 > appear, and is it common practice to use it? > > I read in the BSS Glossary that a cross (looking like an Iron Cross, or as > five dots) is sometimes used in older sundials to indicate the noon > position. Are there any other symbols in use? > > Cheers, Steve > > > Steve's Site is at http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/steve.lelievre >
