On Fri, 25 Oct 2002, John Carmichael wrote: > You are a mindreader. Your sliding gnomon mechanism is exactly what I had > envisioned. The only change I considered would be to thread the bottom of > the style so that it would be screwed into the sliding mechanism. That way > it could be removed for transport, storage or replacement if damaged. The > whole mechanism would be inlayed into the stone (or metal) dial face. I > would engrave the date scale into the brass. But the more I think about it, > I believe that I like the "chess piece" design better. But that's just my > personal artistic preference. (I love the spiral legs.) I have a picture in > my mind of a possible Tony Table-top metal analemmatic and it's beautiful! I > think you could sell that.
For artistic reasons, I also like the freely moveable gnomon better. But I have a bent towards shiny mechanisms too, thus the "clockwork"! Actually, a brass subunit could be made separately, then let into a stone dial, and would still look nice. Again, it's something that can break, jam, corrode, or otherwise get trashed. Your moveable gnomon can simply be replaced if lost... Dave 37.28N 121.97W -
