Many of you may remember a thread on this list in March of this year about the "bifilar" name. (I tried to look for it on the AstroArchive site but I could not do a search for titles or keywords. The egroup site is much better: http://www.egroups.com/group/sundial)
There seems to be continuing concern for the use of this name. As before, there seems to be no other reason to refer to these non-linear gnomons as "bifilar" other than the total lack of any better terminology! The new BSS glossary does not even list the term, "bifilar". After much consideration, I think a better term would be "bi-gnomon". This would help relate to the use of "bifilar" which seems to have been used since 1920 but improve and broaden the definition. As Chris Lusby Taylor wrote: >Many recent so-called bifilar sundials merely use the >intersection of the shadows of two rather arbitrary lines/curves. We might use the term "intersecting gnomon" or "bi-style" except that it seems clumsy. If we accept the definition of gnomon as any type of shadow casting object, we have a description of the physical dial. My thanks to Frans Maes for the posting of more views of the Appingedam dial and the English translation. He has produced a very richly illustrated site with valuable references. Claude Hartman 35N 120W
