Elias Allen dial
Today I revisited the Guildhall clock Museum and can confirm that the Elias Allen dial has no facility to take a vertical post to cast a shadow which could indicate the sun's azimuth. There are no fixing holes, and anyway the compass rose is centered within the base of the gnomon. The reason the rose shows reciprocal compass points (i.e out by 180 degrees ) remains a mystery. Geologists talk of magnetic reversal of the Poles though I suspect this was a bit before the time of Elias Allen! John Moir
RE Compass Dial
Dear Frank and others I recently visited the refurbished Clock Museum at the Guildhall Library in London where Lo and behold is an Elias Allen horizontal with reversed compass markings. I did not spot any facilities for positioning a vertical rod as an azimuth marker for the sun but will visit again shortly and report my findings. The desciption card merely says there is a mistake in the compass markings! John Moir
Largest dial
A future candidate for the largest dial could well be the Chesterfield dial, www.solarpyramid.co.uk, subject of recent discussion herein. In spite of David Young's concerns as to the project's scientific credentials, which entirely echo my own, we must hope that all goes well- if they do seek help I can think of many out there who'd oblige, but they'd have to beat me to the front of the queue! John Moir London
Chesterfield dial
I'm a newcomer to the group (and computers-Hope I press the right buttons! A recent Radio 3 prog gave details of a proposed 40 metre high, £350,000 "Solar driven Timepiece" to be erected near Chesterfield, U.K. A project spokesman said it would open at the "Summer Equinox", midsummer day, 2003. Weird!Even the Website www.solarpyramid.co.uk confuses the summer solstice with midsummer day, 24th June. The project designers are Richard Swain and Adam Walkden. Does anyone know about the project? . It's possible that the above errors were slips of pen and tongue, otherwise there might be some very red faces.Perhaps more enquiries should be made -we don't want another Dome on our hands. John John Moir 24 Woodcote Road Wanstead London E11 2QA Tel 020 8989 2584
