Re: bad sundials
Included in the bad sundials list should be sundials, which were properly constructed for the location but improperly installed or improperly re-installed after cleaning or refurbishment. I happened to notice one I think falls in the latter category on the way to the terminal at Heathrow Airport last week. When the Hoppa bus stopped at the Renaissance Hotel off Bath Road (on the airport or south side), looking out the bus window, I noticed their sundial in the small garden in front of the main entrance. This is an equatorial dial. The gnomon does not point to the NCP. It points to the south and looks like the whole sundial needs to be rotated 180 degrees about the vertical. I didn't have time to get out and look at it more closely but I suspect there are four symmetrical mounting bolts and the sundial installer just plunked it down in the first orientation that fitted the bolts. Or some such mounting problem. The picture on their website seems to have the correct orientation judging by the direction of the shadow of the whole sundial. http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/photo-tours.mi?marshaCode=lhrbrpageID=HWHOMimageID=2 Has anyone else noticed this bad sundial? Or reported it to the hotel? Pictures taken from inside the bus available on request. -- Richard - | Richard B. LangleyE-mail: l...@unb.ca | | Geodetic Research Laboratory Web: http://www.unb.ca/GGE/ | | Dept. of Geodesy and Geomatics EngineeringPhone:+1 506 453-5142 | | University of New Brunswick Fax: +1 506 453-4943 | | Fredericton, N.B., Canada E3B 5A3| |Fredericton? Where's that? See: http:// www.fredericton.ca/ | - --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: bad sundials
John Carmichael wrote: I think Mike Shaw has a posting somewhere of horribly wrong sundials. Mike are you there? == Hi John and everyone. Yes, I'm still alive and watching the list with interest. You're right (as usual), but I think you are remembering a short presentation that I did at a sundial society conference (NASS I think) some time ago. I give quite a lot of talks about sundials, and I often finish with a short section illustrating what to look for when buying an 'off-the-shelf' sundial. Bear in mind that these talks are for the uninitiated. Things to look for are: a) Is the gnomon perpendicular to the dial face and pointing in the right direction? b) Are both shadow casting edges straight? c) Is the angle of the gnomon equal to your latitude? d) Is there a noon gap? e) Is the dial origin on a line joining the 6am to 6pm marks? f) Do the numbers go round the right way for your location? These points are illustrated, using one of Tony Moss' excellent horizontal dials, on my web page (see below), which, I'm afraid, is sadly in need of some maintenance - follow the link to Buyer's Guide. That all said, I do have a collection of photos of about 15 or so horribly wrong dials which display all these errors which I will happily post, off-list, to anyone interested. I see that I have them in a folder entitled Crap. These were all on sale to the public in garden centres, ebay etc.. BTW, do we still need the maximum attachment size restriction on the list? Mike Shaw 53'22N 03'02W www.wiz.to/sundials --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: bad sundials
On 12/03/2011 19:39, Brent wrote: Hello again; I hope I am not trying your patience with my endless questions. Today I am thinking about all of the mistakes that I have made in my thinking about sundial designs. The motions between the sun and earth are more complicated than I first thought. I wonder if lots of people make sundial mistakes? I wonder if there are lots of sundials around that contain mistakes? I wonder if there are any famous sundial blunders? thanks again; brent --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial Hi Brent, I have before me a picture of a gorgeous London made dial from the 1700s which must have taken weeks to engrave with WSW in place of ESE in the compass rose. I'd have liked to be a 'fly on the wall' when he/she discovered the mistake. Some years ago I made a dial for an American friend with roman numerals running VIII, IX, X, IX, XII. He had an enlarged version of the artwork on his office wall for several weeks without spotting the error but did so *just after I had etched the plate!*. I offered to do a 'palimpsest' on the reverse side but the original was retained as a novelty. The same plate was displayed at a NASS conference where we had secretly agreed a special prize for anyone who noticed the error but nobody did so. The person who 'never made a mistake probably never made anything! Tony Moss --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: bad sundials
For most errors on sundials there is an explanation. Sometimes the cause is a mystery. As for the special sundial in Company's Garden in Cape Town (South Africa) see http://www.wijzerweb.be/kaapstad.html (note that in the southern hemisphere the sequence of hour numbers on a horizontal dial is counter clockwise) Willy Leenders Hasselt in Flanders (Belgium) Op 12-mrt-2011, om 20:39 heeft Brent het volgende geschreven: Hello again; I hope I am not trying your patience with my endless questions. Today I am thinking about all of the mistakes that I have made in my thinking about sundial designs. The motions between the sun and earth are more complicated than I first thought. I wonder if lots of people make sundial mistakes? I wonder if there are lots of sundials around that contain mistakes? I wonder if there are any famous sundial blunders? thanks again; brent --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
bad sundials
Hello again; I hope I am not trying your patience with my endless questions. Today I am thinking about all of the mistakes that I have made in my thinking about sundial designs. The motions between the sun and earth are more complicated than I first thought. I wonder if lots of people make sundial mistakes? I wonder if there are lots of sundials around that contain mistakes? I wonder if there are any famous sundial blunders? thanks again; brent --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: bad sundials
Hi Brent, The BSS Register has many ‘non-dials’ on its books. Some (though few) have other dialling interest. We used to record all except the most flagrantly erroneous one so that we could use the data for research but now are moving away from that because there are so many ‘garden-centre dials’ that do not work. Plenty of dial designers make mistakes and it isn’t hard for the so called experts to do so either! I’d always recommend that designers make a model out of paper or card before committing. Not only that but if you are designing the dial commercially and have no professional indemnity insurance the submission of the working model can be used to secure acceptance of the design (and hence limit the risk for the designer) without the expense of professional insurance. Patrick From: Brent Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2011 7:39 PM To: Sundial List Subject: bad sundials Hello again; I hope I am not trying your patience with my endless questions. Today I am thinking about all of the mistakes that I have made in my thinking about sundial designs. The motions between the sun and earth are more complicated than I first thought. I wonder if lots of people make sundial mistakes? I wonder if there are lots of sundials around that contain mistakes? I wonder if there are any famous sundial blunders? thanks again; brent --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: bad sundials
Brent, In my province, where I know about all sundials the biggest blunder in terms of time difference between the indicated time and the actual time, is an equatorial sundial with the hour digits in reverse order. He may be right in the southern hemisphere. See http://www.wijzerweb.be/neerpelt001A.html Willy Leenders Hasselt in Flanders (Belgium) Visit my website about the sundials in the province of Limburg (Flanders) with a section 'worth knowing about sundials' (mostly in Dutch): http://www.wijzerweb.be Op 12-mrt-2011, om 20:39 heeft Brent het volgende geschreven: Hello again; I hope I am not trying your patience with my endless questions. Today I am thinking about all of the mistakes that I have made in my thinking about sundial designs. The motions between the sun and earth are more complicated than I first thought. I wonder if lots of people make sundial mistakes? I wonder if there are lots of sundials around that contain mistakes? I wonder if there are any famous sundial blunders? thanks again; brent --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
RE: bad sundials
I think Mike Shaw has a posting somewhere of horribly wrong sundials. Mike are you there? It would make a great webpage. -Original Message- From: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] On Behalf Of Brent Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2011 12:39 PM To: Sundial List Subject: bad sundials Hello again; I hope I am not trying your patience with my endless questions. Today I am thinking about all of the mistakes that I have made in my thinking about sundial designs. The motions between the sun and earth are more complicated than I first thought. I wonder if lots of people make sundial mistakes? I wonder if there are lots of sundials around that contain mistakes? I wonder if there are any famous sundial blunders? thanks again; brent --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
