Thanks for all your advice, about my 'Human Sundial' business
Dear List Members, Many, many, thanks to all of you who responded so positively to my recent request for advice - on setting-up a Human Sundial business. Most of you replied directly to myself, instead of to this Mailing List (which surprised me) - but perhaps you wanted to keep your own ideas 'private', and not have them viewed by the other members! All of your suggestions were helpful - and I must mention special thanks to the following people, for their very kind assistance. (a). Linda Reid, who offered to produce 'kits' (using mosaic). (b). David Patte, who can assist with the design of my website. (c). Martina Addiscott, giving advice on marketing to Schools. (d). Dave Andersson, who could help with 'website ranking'. (e). Anne Lennon, suggesting contacts for layout information. Based on all of your advice, I will initially be concentrating on the large 'up-market' properties within outer London suburbs - as they have big gardens, plus being owned by wealthy people who also want to possess unique features which their neighbours do not have. I shall be contacting Landscapers and Garden Designers so that they will do some of the 'marketing' of this concept for me, but I already have around twenty expressions of interest. At 1,500 Pounds profit per sale, that could be 30,000 Pounds of (pre-tax) income - but I suppose that I should not count my chickens! Even at just one order per month, on average, (based on the whole of the UK, plus allowing for a lull in Autumn/Winter), it is 18,000 Pounds basic profit in a year. If I also charged for an 'installation service', there could be even more income - but I would obviously have to pay people, to do that aspect for me. Each layout should become its own advertisement, as well, plus automatically giving me further 'word-of-mouth' referral orders. If/when Linda Reid can produce her mosaic kits, it will provide a more colourful alternative to the ones being made by Fosstone, and so I may even be able to charge more than 2,500 Pounds each. For example, some local Councils have indicated that they would be willing to pay up to 5,000 Pounds for a complete installation. Do any members of this List know people who could offer parts made in 'rustic wood', as potential clients asked me for those? They think it may look better in their garden than a stone effect, and I suppose kits in wood will be cheaper to make (plus transport). That would give me a much bigger 'profit-margin' per sale, (or I could lower the price to attract even more orders) - and Martina Addiscott also suggested wood for environmental School Gardens. All I can say, is that this Mailing List is amazingly useful - and please watch this space, for any developments with my business! Yours sincerely, Reena Gagneja. -- --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Alt Augsburg revisited
I find it curious that nobody chose to respond to, or comment on, the instruments illustrated in the book Kunstuhrmacher in Alt Augsburg I put images online at: http://www.twigsdigs.com/sundials/kunstuhrmacher/kunstuhrmacher.htm These instruments had to be expensive, and since there seem to be a few surviving, somebody must have purchased and used them. I have a l lot of questions. How were these instruments used? Were they to be used in sunlight? If not, what was the gnomon for? How and why did the single hand indicate the hours from VI to VI? What happened at night? Two of them have the sundial-style line and curves to indicate declination/astrological sign. How did this work? Is it possible that these instruments were so early that the makers gave them the appearance of sundials to give the impression of accuracy to users who previously knew only sundials as time keepers? The first instrument illustrated is the only horizontal one and it appears to have been photographed from the north. It also has a dial (the left one) divided into eight segments with engraved illustrations and Latin text I wonder what that's about Until seeing these photographs I didn't know such things existed. Bob --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Alt Augsburg revisited
I will start a guess. I think the Hour hand below the gnomon was to be set manually by the user to align with the shadow line from the gnomon. This hand was mechanically linked to the central clock dial minute hand, to show minutes past the hour. In this manner, a user would use the sundial to get a close estimate of the exact time, told by an hour hand and a minute hand. There exist other less complicated examples of German dials using a minute hand mechanically linked to some kind of moveable shadow indicator. The other clock dials seem to show day-of-week and day of month, and maybe a lunar calendar as well. Maybe there is an equation of time mechanism as part of the calendar, but I can not tell. How these would function, I have no idea, but I can't imagine that they were mechanically linked to the sundial. -Bill On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 8:37 AM, Robert Terwilliger b...@twigsdigs.comwrote: I find it curious that nobody chose to respond to, or comment on, the instruments illustrated in the book *Kunstuhrmacher in Alt Augsburg* ** ** I put images online at: ** ** http://www.twigsdigs.com/sundials/kunstuhrmacher/kunstuhrmacher.htm ** ** These instruments had to be expensive, and since there seem to be a few surviving, somebody must have purchased and used them. ** ** I have a l lot of questions. ** ** How were these instruments used? Were they to be used in sunlight? If not, what was the gnomon for? How and why did the single hand indicate the hours from VI to VI? What happened at night? Two of them have the sundial-style line and curves to indicate declination/astrological sign. How did this work? ** ** Is it possible that these instruments were so early that the makers gave them the appearance of sundials to give the impression of accuracy to users who previously knew only sundials as time keepers? ** ** The first instrument illustrated is the only horizontal one and it appears to have been photographed from the north. It also has a dial (the left one) divided into eight segments with engraved illustrations and Latin text I wonder what that’s about Until seeing these photographs I didn’t know such things existed. ** ** Bob ** ** ** ** --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
RE: Alt Augsburg revisited
These astronomical clocks are part of a tradition of elaborate and complex clocks that showed all sorts of astronomical information. They are largely found in courtly collections put together in the 16th and 17th centuries. The inclusion of sundials on them was common in order to set the time of the clock. A fine collection of clocks by Jost Burgi and others is found in Kassel: http://www.museum-kassel.de/index_navi.php?parent=1412 http://www.museum-kassel.de/sic2011/?parent=5108 And in Dresden: Mathematisch Physikalischer Salon http://www.skd.museum/de/museum-erleben/skd-mediathek/skd-videos/tuermchenuhr-mit-automatenwerk/index.html http://www.skd.museum/de/museen-institutionen/zwinger-mit-semperbau/mathematisch-physikalischer-salon/die-neue-dauerausstellung/index.html (not much is online but there are some great books) Sara Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D. David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Department of the History of Science, Harvard University Science Center 251c, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617-496-9542 | Fax: 617-496-5932 | sche...@fas.harvard.edu http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html From: sundial [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Bill Gottesman Sent: Friday, April 26, 2013 9:19 AM To: Robert Terwilliger Cc: Sundials List Subject: Re: Alt Augsburg revisited I will start a guess. I think the Hour hand below the gnomon was to be set manually by the user to align with the shadow line from the gnomon. This hand was mechanically linked to the central clock dial minute hand, to show minutes past the hour. In this manner, a user would use the sundial to get a close estimate of the exact time, told by an hour hand and a minute hand. There exist other less complicated examples of German dials using a minute hand mechanically linked to some kind of moveable shadow indicator. The other clock dials seem to show day-of-week and day of month, and maybe a lunar calendar as well. Maybe there is an equation of time mechanism as part of the calendar, but I can not tell. How these would function, I have no idea, but I can't imagine that they were mechanically linked to the sundial. -Bill On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 8:37 AM, Robert Terwilliger b...@twigsdigs.commailto:b...@twigsdigs.com wrote: I find it curious that nobody chose to respond to, or comment on, the instruments illustrated in the book Kunstuhrmacher in Alt Augsburg I put images online at: http://www.twigsdigs.com/sundials/kunstuhrmacher/kunstuhrmacher.htm These instruments had to be expensive, and since there seem to be a few surviving, somebody must have purchased and used them. I have a l lot of questions. How were these instruments used? Were they to be used in sunlight? If not, what was the gnomon for? How and why did the single hand indicate the hours from VI to VI? What happened at night? Two of them have the sundial-style line and curves to indicate declination/astrological sign. How did this work? Is it possible that these instruments were so early that the makers gave them the appearance of sundials to give the impression of accuracy to users who previously knew only sundials as time keepers? The first instrument illustrated is the only horizontal one and it appears to have been photographed from the north. It also has a dial (the left one) divided into eight segments with engraved illustrations and Latin text I wonder what that's about Until seeing these photographs I didn't know such things existed. Bob --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Alt Augsburg revisited
On 26/04/2013 17:07, Schechner, Sara wrote: These astronomical clocks are part of a tradition of elaborate and complex clocks that showed all sorts of astronomical information. They are largely found in courtly collections put together in the 16th and 17th centuries. The inclusion of sundials on them was common in order to set the time of the clock. A fine collection of clocks by Jost Burgi and others is found in Kassel: http://www.museum-kassel.de/index_navi.php?parent=1412 http://www.museum-kassel.de/sic2011/?parent=5108 And in Dresden: Mathematisch Physikalischer Salon http://www.skd.museum/de/museum-erleben/skd-mediathek/skd-videos/tuermchenuhr-mit-automatenwerk/index.html http://www.skd.museum/de/museen-institutionen/zwinger-mit-semperbau/mathematisch-physikalischer-salon/die-neue-dauerausstellung/index.html (not much is online but there are some great books) Sara Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D. David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Department of the History of Science, Harvard University Science Center 251c, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Tel: 617-496-9542 | Fax: 617-496-5932 | sche...@fas.harvard.edu http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html Both cities were very heavily bombed during the war, so we are very lucky that these have survived. -- -- Richard Mallett Eaton Bray, Dunstable South Beds. UK --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
