Greetings fellow dialists, Mixed in with the discussion on the Missouri Ottoman dial was a question from Frank King about when the use of equal hours by the Romans began. I don't know the answer but Bede quoted Pliny the Elder as giving a value for the daily retardation of the moon. It was a /dodrans/ plus a /semiunicia/ or three quarters plus one twenty-fourth of an hour or, as we would say, forty seven and a half minutes. In "The Reckoning of Time" Bede revised that figure to four /puncti/ or forty eight minutes, more nearly correct but still short of the actual figure which is close to fifty minutes.
Little doubt that the refined values quoted by these ancient fellows refer to equal hours. I can give a reference should anyone be troubled. Frank 55N 1W --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
