>Shouldn't this be accurate enough for the people so many centuries ago? >Indeed the people could read the sundial if they needed the time more >precize, but I think they didn't care about minutes or seconds as we do. > >Fer de Vries >Netherlands.
Hi! Thanks for replying. You're probably right about the vast majority of people at the time, however I was thinking more about the early clocks and time-keepers. I was under the impression that early clockwork which rapidly became fast or slow were synchronized with a sundial (the standard measure of time). And I've also heard that temporal hours being the norm, medieval clocks were periodically (weekly?) adjusted through the foliot and verge mechanism to beat faster or slower to give twelve hours to the available daylight. Since this was a hassle, canonical hours became popular and the amount of hours in the day began to vary. Now, if the sundial was used to determine the length of the hour, how were they marked? If the sundial was used as the midday marker only (a noon dial) as you suggest, then perhaps they used some form of computed tables? Curious, AV -------------------------------------------------- scribere qui nescit nullam putat esse laborem whoso knows not how to write thinks it to be no trouble -------------------------------------------------- A r t h u r V a l a i s [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone 02 9360 1729 PO BOX 729 Kensington NSW 2033 Sydney Australia --------------------------------------------------
