Dr. Sara Schechner, curator, just posted this on the sundial reflector:
............
The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments (CHSI) at Harvard
University would like to invite you to an informal gathering during this
year's HSS Annual Meeting, held in Boston. We will open our museum doors
on Friday, 22 November 2013 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Wine and cheese will
accompany the visit of our two current exhibits: Time, Life & Matter:
Science in Cambridge AND Time & Time Again: How Science & Culture Shape
the Past, Present, & Future. For more information, go to our website:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi-exhibitions.html
We are located on the Oxford Street side of the Science Center at
Harvard University:
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Science Center 136 and 251
1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA.
(map: http://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/museums/files/hmsc_map.pdf)
Please join us for this special occasion. We are eager to see old
friends and make new ones!
Please RSVP to either Dr. Sara Schechner (sche...@fas.harvard.edu) or
myself, your two hosts.
............
The Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments is simply
outstanding and there are two large exhibits running at present. I
presented a paper on the Dent Dipleidoscope at the August annual meeting
of the North American Sundial Society, held in Cambridge this year at
Harvard. We toured the Harvard exhibits and enjoyed a lengthy
behind-the-scene tour of their extensive collection storage area in the
basement. This is surely the largest room of rolling shelves filled with
scientific antiques I've ever seen!
I serve as Registrar for NASS, maintaining an 8.6 GB database of
sundials throughout North America. Sundials, of course, were our first
time-telling instruments! By 1850, the Industrial Revolution and the
extensive train system in England led to demand for more accurate time
than sundials and mechanical clocks of the day could provide. For
example, train schedules used London Time (as opposed to local solar
time) and showed train arrivals/departures to the nearest minute.
The Dent Dipleidoscope was the first instrument available to the layman
that allowed identifying correct time within just a few seconds. It was
easy to use and relatively inexpensive. My presentation was titled, "The
Dent Dipleidoscope: A Sundial By Another Name."
So, as Time Nuts, we can appreciate that time accuracy has come a long
way in just 150 years!
If you should happen to be in Cambridge for this event, do visit "The
Coop" bookstore near the Harvard campus. It is an amazing, 5-story high
place!
Larry McDavid W6FUB
On 11/12/2013 9:32 AM, Brooke Clarke wrote:
Hi:
Two exhibits based on time:
March 6 - December 6, 2013
Time, Life & Matter: Science in Cambridge
and
Time & Time Again: How Science & Culture Shape the Past, Present, & Future
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi-exhibitions.html
--
Best wishes,
Larry McDavid W6FUB
Anaheim, California (SE of Los Angeles, near Disneyland)
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