At the NASS conference in 2005 in Chicago, Stephen Luecking gave a Rope Geometry Workshop, "Laying Out a Sundial on the Landscape Using Ancient Rope Geometry".This was based on his paper "Rope Geometry: History and Methods" These described other methods for telling time with rope,different from Marchants . People used what they had at hand.
Roger Bailey On Thu, Mar 3, 2022 at 11:45 AM Jack Aubert <j...@chezaubert.net> wrote: > I tired searching for “pommeau de ciel” and “pommeau des cieux”, which not > surprisingly I did not recognize in either English or French. Pommel is > Pommeau in French. I mostly got hits for shower heads and gear shift > knobs… but did find a reference to the original French on Google Books: > > > > > https://books.google.com/books?id=BVtcAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA108&lpg=PA108&dq=pommeau+de+ciel&source=bl&ots=4NKJk6haHD&sig=ACfU3U0xr9oORL7S6zs-nKRg-NnTizDKfQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD_trVyqr2AhVlkeAKHacJDbwQ6AF6BAghEAM#v=onepage&q=pommeau%20de%20ciel&f=false > > > > But reading the text, it does appear that “pommel of the sky” could only > refer to Polaris, as Steve surmises. That being said, I have to suspect > that Guy Marchant came up with this method, that would be beyond the > interest the vast majority of shepherds, on his own. A shepherd, who is > probably illiterate, is supposed to identify a star and remember to adjust > its time position throughout the year? Also, why would he care what time > it is at night? Maybe they taught that in advanced shepherd class. > > > > Jack > > > > > > > > *From:* sundial <sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de> *On Behalf Of *Steve > Lelievre > *Sent:* Thursday, March 3, 2022 2:17 PM > *To:* sundial@uni-koeln.de > *Subject:* Re: Telling time with a rope? > > > > Hi, > > > > I think the pommel of the sky refers to the celestial north pole, i.e. > where we see the Pole Star or Polaris. > > > > Then, on the summer solstice hold a plumb line in front of you such that > it obscures the Pole Star, and find another circumpolar that is also hidden > by the plumbline. In the rest of the year, the angular displacement of > this second star tells you how far from midnight you are, provided you make > an adjustment of 1 hour per half month. > > > > For the method to work, you need to have established midnight on the > summer solstice. This is done by fixing two plumb lines one behind the > other, so that they are aligned to the solstice's midday sun, i.e. they > show you the meridian. I think the text is saying that on the day of the > summer solstice, as the shepherd faces north looking through the plumb > lines, if Cancer is seen slightly to the east and Capricorn slightly to the > west, then it is midnight (presumably that's only in the British Isles). > > > > I got this from a rather quick scan of the text, so I may have missed > something. There's also discussion of the learning the rising positions of > the signs of the zodiac but I don't quite follow how it relates to the rest. > > > > Steve > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 2022-03-03 10:11 a.m., Dan-George Uza wrote: > > Hello, > > > > In the "Kalendar and Compost of Shepherds" by Guy Marchant, an illustrated > work translated from French into English in the early 1500s, there is a > chapter with the following title: "Shepherds practise their quadrant at > night as you see by the figure hereafter". Could someone more versed in old > English please explain how this technique actually worked? I attach the > relevant pages from the 1931 edition. > > > > Thanks, > > > > -- > > Dan-George Uza > > > > > <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> > > Virus-free. www.avast.com > <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > > > > > ///workers.exist.lookout > > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > >
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