Thinking of the canting of the dial, I wonder if it was moved from a different location. Could then the PI refer to Previous Installation; or if at one time it was PL, Previous Location?
I know it is really stretching it, but could the 'PI Long' somehow refer to the co-latitude of the original location, which in that case would be some 10.8 km south of the present position, ie possibly Broughton-in-Furness, Lowick, or Newby Bridge. Very far-fetched, I know, but maybe some local historian might know. What a lot of theories! John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sundial" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 9:48 PM Subject: strange longitude > Greetings fellow dialists, > > John Foad has written to say that Keith Scobie-Youngs of the Cumbria > Clock Co, Dacre, Penrith, last restored the Hawkshead dial in 1997. He > asked the restorer if there was any clue from its original state, for > example whether any of the lettering had been uncertain. But Keith > Scobie-Youngs assured him that, though in poor condition, there was no > doubt about the previous inscription. He unfortunately had no > information or theory on what the "PL Long" meant, nor indeed as to why > the dial is canted to no apparently significant declination! > > It has now been made clear to me by Fer de Vries, who has a good clear > photograph, that the letters "PL" that I cited are in fact "PI". > Moreover his picture reveals the missing declining values printed beside > the locations values as "Decl. 30 deg 20 min." > > Here I take the liberty of passing on his message to me: > > In the mean time I found a larger picture of this dial and there is > more text as you describe. > The part of the text I mean is in the attached picture. > A new value I read is: Decl 30 (degrees) 20 (minutes) > Now we are able to calculate all the constants of the sundial. > I get with ZW2000: > Style height 30.19 > Angle of substyle 160.1 or 29.9 > Hourangle of substyle -35.75 > All decimal degrees. > > I thought: bingo, hour angle of the substyle. But the value you > mentioned gives 35.7277.. decimal. > Still not all questions answered but perhaps this gives you another > idea how to solve it." > > Well, this looks pretty close indeed and we may be nearing the answer. > Can anyone consequently suggest a relationship between the letters "PI" > and hour angle? Polar something? Moreover, actual longitude values > having proved pretty unlikely (problematic observatories in Brazil, > rural Russia, South Georgia, etc.) it is worth observing that actual > longitude values are not common on nineteenth century dials anyway. > Frank 55N 1W > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.463 / Virus Database: 269.6.1/776 - Release Date: 25/04/2007 > 12:19 > > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > > --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
