I've just got back from the Exhibition of the proposed sundials in Manchester at the Urbis museum. I was hoping to take photos of models of the proposals, but so far the sundials are only drawings with written explanations - so that makes it difficult to have anything to show.
A few ideas that were shown in diagram form were:- 1) Very tall flowers (lamp post size) arranged so that on the hour, light would shine directly down the "stem", so illuminating a light sensitive switch which would then make the flower open for an hour - one flower for each hour. 2) A series of tent like structures, again arranged so that the sun would shine in the top on the hour - one per hour again. 3) A polar dial on top of a bus stop (diagram from Peter Drinkwater's book shown) - arranged so that the shadow a stopped bus will not interfere even at the winter solstice 4) The shadow of the top corner of a building to fall on an analemma in a public square indicating 9am 5) An analemma using a human as gnomon - stand on this spot (but surely that would be height dependent) 6) Two upright monoliths with a small gap to indicate noon 7) An upright rectangular slab which rotates throughout the day to always keep the shadow to a minimum, and which rises out of (and falls into) the ground to keep the shadow length the same height all day. There were several more that I couldn't really understand. There was nobody there to ask. I e-mailed the organiser several days ago asking for more details - no response to date. I have also left my e-mail and phone number at the museum with a request that the Urbis curator contact me. I did try to get some photos - when I process them, I'll put any that are worth viewing on my web page - watch this space. Mike Shaw 53' 22" North 03' 02" west Wirral, UK -
